Quicksilver Triggers and Changing iTunes Tracks Across All Applications

Most know quicksilver as a glorified application launcher, but for many it’s so much more. Writing up some examples of all the functionality that’s available in the app could take me weeks, so I thought it would be a good idea to shed some light on “triggers”. Have you ever wanted to have a keyboard shortcut that works across all your applications? Say change a track in iTunes without have to actually jump into iTunes to make the change? I was toying with writing some Apple script today to do it, but then I was quickly reminded over AIM that triggers exist in Quicksilver that let you do exactly that. Upside is Quicksilver is free and you don’t have to pay for some third part application. The downside? None, really.

  1. Launch Quicksilver
  2. Open the Preferences
  3. Click on the Plugins Tab
  4. Make sure the iTunes plugin is listed and checked. If not you need to install the plugins in this window
  5. Click on the Triggers tab at the top.
  6. This is where you can add your own new triggers, or use some of the ones listed. We’ll use the iTunes triggers. Click on iTunes
  7. Put Check Marks next to the global keyboard shortcuts (triggers) you want to activate.
  8. I made sure the Next Song trigger had a check beside it because I wanted to activate that one.
  9. Click the Trigger column in the row of the short cut you want to add.
  10. Click the edit button from the slider window then push the keys you want to associate with the shortcut.
  11. Done. Now you can change your iTunes track from any application.
Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive.