Your most used workflows

[Stephen_C]

I thought it might be of general interest to start a thread about our favourite/most used Alfred workflows. I’ve restricted this to workflows that I use daily. It is most definitely not intended as an advertisement for any of my workflows. 😀

I have been using Alfred since June 2016. For many months I used it as an app launcher and for some search fallbacks—plus with a few workflows created by others. It was only in 2021 I cautiously dipped a toe into writing some of my own (fairly basic) workflows: call me a slow developer!

Aside from multiple launch workflows used many times each day the workflows I use every day include:

1. Firefox search Google from DuckDuckGo: to carry out a Google search in a Firefox window via DuckDuckGo.

2. A Firefox launcher that opens Firefox and then immediately opens a private window. (I don’t want to work exclusively in private window mode so don’t use the inbuilt Firefox option always to use a private window.)

3. A couple of GitHub related workflows: one automatically to assemble and copy to the clipboard a link to the latest release of any of my workflows on GitHub and the other to run a Terminal script to check the number of downloads of any of my workflows on GitHub.

4. A basic “Go to folder” workflow that lists all my favourite folders and enables me to browse them in Alfred or open them in Finder.

5. A “quit all apps and shutdown” workflow I run at the end of each day.

6. My Open MacOS system settings panes workflow.

I’d be interested to learn what workflows you use daily.

Stephen

[nikivi]

Recently it's been Searchio, GitHub Jump, Web Searches and My Mind.

[TomBenz]

Two most used workflows:

 

https://github.com/BenziAhamed/Menu-Bar-Search

 

https://github.com/deanishe/alfred-appscripts/releases

 

 

 

[Vero]

Can't wait to see what everyone's favourites are...

 

TinyPNG by @vitor : I use this one many times a day via a Universal Action to compress images.

 

I have a bunch of File Filters set up for various folders on my Mac, whether it's art/personal projects, Alfred stuff, etc... They're a great time saver once you set a scope and a few file types.

 

Yak Saver: I like using a pomodoro-like workflow to get me to focus on one project for 20 minutes, then take a break and so on.

 

Paste as plain text from hotkey is the simplest of tasks, but invaluable.

 

It's not the size of the workflow, it's what you do with it that matters!  

[zeitlings]

At the very top of my list are Menu bar search, Dict.cc, this dark/ light mode switcher, which apparently is not available anymore, a text processing workflow I wrote for transforms, stats, fixing, extracting etc., and my devonthink workflow, as I practically live in that application.

These I use quite frequently, but perhaps not daily:

• The ancient Unicode Symbols Search
• A trivial workflow I wrote to append something to my Logseq inbox.
• Another workflow I wrote for getting merged citation references from various sources or to look up what else an author has published
• The classic Word Search, although there have to be improved versions of this
• My What Unicode Character is this? workflow whenever I’m doing NLP stuff
• OCR
• And recently Window Switcher (either vitor’s or wooshy to catch dialog-like windows, such as the emoji pane, which only the latter registers; with wooshy, unfortunately, there’s some noise sometimes that is not filtered)
• Alfred History Search (I would like to use it more, but some limitation causes many queries not to be picked up)
   

Then I have several File Filters for searching specific file types either by name or through their contents, several hotkeys to quickly launch applications and two hotkeys that streamline two Alfred base functions:

• define the highlighted word
• spell the highlighted word
  • this one I basically use for ad hoc autocorrects of typos. Select the word, hit shift+alt+s, hit enter, hit command+v and in 99% of all cases the matter is closed 😄

Edited February 22, 2023 by zeitlings

[sepulchra]

Some of my favorites

 

Paste as plain texts gets used every day. And has since was introduced in Alfred. Thanks @Vero

 

I also launch and hide a apps with hotkeys with Launch/Apps and Files. I have a moom script tied to a few to help me setup specific workspaces for different projects and arrange windows.

 

I also built universal actions for text transformations using Copy to Clipboard Output. I used some specific ones almost every day and i’ve found the dynamic placeholders and some automation tasks work just as well as the some of the more built out workflows for my needs.

 

I also have a bunch of file filters setup for specific searches that help keep me nimble.

 

I also try to use alfred’s file navigation over the finder as much as possible, so I have a number of regular file paths setup in a list filter (thanks @Stephen_C) and some assigned to hotkeys.

 

I have a few custom scripts that I trigger with alfred for very specific needs (adding tasks to taskpaper projects, pulling mix notes from pro tools sessions to text files, and logging some of my daily tasks with toggl and brett terpstra’s doing.

 

And Some off the shelf workflows from the gallery I love (so much  @vitor 
 

 

Window Switcher

Yak Saver (i modified mine to cycle like a pomodoro timer — added a timer for the breaks. I also have mine yell profanities at me when my timers are up)

Soulver (so many powerful conversions)

Right Click

Pin Plus

Open Conference URL

Moom

 

**EDIT**

adding Coffee Coffee which is not yet in the gallery, but i use whenever i am printing long mixes or running long chronosync backups and don't want my machine to sleep. It gets used almost everyday.

 

 

One thing i’ve found helpful is using a hyper key (remapping capslok to trigger (shift, control, option and command). I use Karabiner Elements to do this but there are other pieces of software that will do it. I’ve found using a hyperkey has helped me avoid hot-key conflicts.

 

Edited February 23, 2023 by sepulchra

[MM00]

On 2/21/2023 at 8:04 AM, nikivi said:

Recently it's been Searchio, GitHub Jump, Web Searches and My Mind.

hi @nikivi do you have any problem with the Searchio settings? it doesn't seem to work anymore

[vitor]

@MM00 Use the fork by @giovanni.

[MM00]

On 1/30/2024 at 2:13 AM, vitor said:

@MM00 Use the fork by @giovanni.

Thank you, will check it out later

[MM00]

On 1/30/2024 at 2:13 AM, vitor said:

@MM00 Use the fork by @giovanni.

@vitor thanks buddy, I've installed the latest version and the setting works now, but somehow amazon search still doesn't work:

do you know what is happening? thanks

[ionstorm]

On a daily basis

 

Browser Tabs by Emmanuel Pilande
Calculate Anything by Biati Digital
Menu Bar Search by Benzi Ahamed
Search Notes by Sean Ballinger
System Settings by Vítor Galvão

 

and a workflow I put together to use as an app switcher (used to use Karabiner)

Edited February 8 by ionstorm
Add Names

[vitor]

17 hours ago, MM00 said:

I've installed the latest version and the setting works now, but somehow amazon search still doesn't work

 

That’s more of a question for the workflow’s author. There’s also Amazon Suggest in the meantime (which may or may not be of help to @giovanni too to figure out the issue).

[MM00]

7 minutes ago, vitor said:

 

That’s more of a question for the workflow’s author. There’s also Amazon Suggest in the meantime (which may or may not be of help to @giovanni too to figure out the issue).

@vitor, thanks. but Amazon Suggest from giovanni does not have the previrew feature which is something I use very often. let me to go their github page and ask that question, thanks 

[Paliz]

Sorry to bump an older thread but yeah, that Searchio workflow (and its fork) sadly seem to be broken nowadays, both of them. Cool idea. Maybe someone knows of an alternative?

[spongeblink]

Seems like I'm a bit late to the party but here they are, my daily used Alfred Workflows:

 

1. For opening panes in System Settings, I use @vitor's System Settings and @Stephen_C's Open macOS Settings Panes, both great workflows.

2. Shortcuts by @vitor. I don't like to talk to Siri to turn the lamp on or change the mode of my air purifier since Siri is… dumb, so I created individual Shortcuts for them. No more opening the Home app and clicking on controls. 

3. A workflow I wrote for myself to reveal the most recently added file in my 'Desktop' or 'Downloads' folder in Finder with a hotkey. Really handy. 

4. AirPods Connector by @Acidham to connect to my AirPods. I don't like them being automatically switched between my devices so I turned that setting off. 

5. Fastest Emoji Search by Mr. Pennyworth. Search for emojis in this new view is awesome: 

6. Search for open Safari tabs with a hotkey. Quit confirmation for Safari. Another one I made for myself. Although the script for the latter I believe is from John Gruber.

7. A workflow that saves all Safari tabs into a .md file. And the workflow that search in all those files (by link or URL). 

8. A workflow that mutes and unmutes the mic for Discord with a hotkey. Normally in order to do that you have to give the Discord app input monitoring permissions in System Settings. It even requires input monitoring permission (but does not ask you for it!) to even record your custom hotkey. And worse, the default hotkeys become global ones once the permission is granted and can not be disabled. I don't feel comfortable giving the app that permission so I created this:

 

 

9. Create new file in the top-most Finder window. You type the name of the new file, Alfred creates that file in the Finder window you're looking at. If Finder is not activated, create file on my desktop. Finally, reveal the file in Finder / open the file your default text editing app. 

 

10. Search for files on a removable drive. Another one I wrote for myself. First, I generate text files that contain paths of every file on a removable drive using something like `find /Volumes/DRIVENAME -type f > ~/Desktop/DRIVENAME_$(date +%Y_%m_%d).txt`. And the workflow will search for the file by it's path or name. 

 

I wouldn't really search for an image like this but you get the idea.

11. Set wallpaper from File Action, for both the primary screen and the secondary screen.

 

 

Alfred's Automation Tasks does not support setting wallpaper on a secondary screen so I'm using this:

 

tell application "System Events" to set picture of second desktop to "{query}"

 

12. Lunar-fred. Yet another workflow for myself to control my displays using the CLI command-line from Lunar. 

 

It lists all my connected displays first. 

 

Perform actions on one of them

 

There are more workflows about A.I. but I think I'll leave them for another day 😅

[Paliz]

15 hours ago, spongeblink said:

 

5. Fastest Emoji Search by Mr. Pennyworth. Search for emojis in this new view is awesome: 

 

 

 

This Emoji workflow is probably the best workflow I have seen for Alfred so far. Excellent. Thanks for the tip.

It's so sad that it is so hard to find new and good workflows. People say it's best to look on Github nowadays, but I find it hard to find through its search function.

[Stephen_C]

6 hours ago, Paliz said:

It's so sad that it is so hard to find new and good workflows. People say it's best to look on Github nowadays, but I find it hard to find through its search function.

Have you looked at the Alfred Gallery?

 

Stephen

[Paliz]

10 hours ago, Stephen_C said:

Have you looked at the Alfred Gallery?

 

Stephen

Thank you, I have. It was my first stop. But many scripts there are outdated and it doesn't really offer that much. I've had better luck on Github, but it's so disorganised there. Alfred really needs the workflow library overworked.

[Stephen_C]

34 minutes ago, Paliz said:

But many scripts there are outdated

It would be helpful if you would provide some examples of the "many [outdated] scripts” because I'm sure the maintainer of the Gallery would wish to know.

 

35 minutes ago, Paliz said:

it doesn't really offer that much

Perhaps that's a matter of opinion. What sort of things are you looking for that you're unable to find on the Gallery?

 

(Just in passing, you did click on the link I provided and checked the Alfred Gallery, did you? It doesn't sound as if you're describing the same thing!)

 

Stephen

[notyouringenue]

On 6/8/2024 at 12:05 AM, spongeblink said:

 

12. Lunar-fred. Yet another workflow for myself to control my displays using the CLI command-line from Lunar. 

 

 

Is this one available anywhere?  I just found Lunar after using SwitchResX and having lots of problems… 

[TomBenz]

On 6/8/2024 at 12:35 PM, spongeblink said:

Seems like I'm a bit late to the party but here they are, my daily used Alfred Workflows:

 

1. For opening panes in System Settings, I use @vitor's System Settings and @Stephen_C's Open macOS Settings Panes, both great workflows.

2. Shortcuts by @vitor. I don't like to talk to Siri to turn the lamp on or change the mode of my air purifier since Siri is… dumb, so I created individual Shortcuts for them. No more opening the Home app and clicking on controls. 

3. A workflow I wrote for myself to reveal the most recently added file in my 'Desktop' or 'Downloads' folder in Finder with a hotkey. Really handy. 

4. AirPods Connector by @Acidham to connect to my AirPods. I don't like them being automatically switched between my devices so I turned that setting off. 

5. Fastest Emoji Search by Mr. Pennyworth. Search for emojis in this new view is awesome: 

6. Search for open Safari tabs with a hotkey. Quit confirmation for Safari. Another one I made for myself. Although the script for the latter I believe is from John Gruber.

7. A workflow that saves all Safari tabs into a .md file. And the workflow that search in all those files (by link or URL). 

8. A workflow that mutes and unmutes the mic for Discord with a hotkey. Normally in order to do that you have to give the Discord app input monitoring permissions in System Settings. It even requires input monitoring permission (but does not ask you for it!) to even record your custom hotkey. And worse, the default hotkeys become global ones once the permission is granted and can not be disabled. I don't feel comfortable giving the app that permission so I created this:

 

 

9. Create new file in the top-most Finder window. You type the name of the new file, Alfred creates that file in the Finder window you're looking at. If Finder is not activated, create file on my desktop. Finally, reveal the file in Finder / open the file your default text editing app. 

 

10. Search for files on a removable drive. Another one I wrote for myself. First, I generate text files that contain paths of every file on a removable drive using something like `find /Volumes/DRIVENAME -type f > ~/Desktop/DRIVENAME_$(date +%Y_%m_%d).txt`. And the workflow will search for the file by it's path or name. 

 

I wouldn't really search for an image like this but you get the idea.

11. Set wallpaper from File Action, for both the primary screen and the secondary screen.

 

 

Alfred's Automation Tasks does not support setting wallpaper on a secondary screen so I'm using this:

 

tell application "System Events" to set picture of second desktop to "{query}"

 

12. Lunar-fred. Yet another workflow for myself to control my displays using the CLI command-line from Lunar. 

 

It lists all my connected displays first. 

 

Perform actions on one of them

 

There are more workflows about A.I. but I think I'll leave them for another day 😅

 

Great post. Pls share this lunar workflow and info on more other useful workflows.

[spongeblink]

Thank you for being interested in my Lunar workflow, @TomBenz @notyouringenue

9 hours ago, notyouringenue said:

Is this one available anywhere?

No, I haven't shared this workflow with anyone, because I have just integrated a handful of commands that the CLI supports, and I had the display inputs to switch from be my most used ones. I'll post it here but be sure to edit the object I marked yellow to contain the display input you use. You can find all input codes somewhere on Lunar's website.

 

 

And be sure to install the CLI by right-clicking the Lunar menu bar icon!

 

The workflow:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1b0nEhpqgKAt0Q4F8LU_T5OS5xISoqsx5/view?usp=sharing

[spongeblink]

On 6/8/2024 at 3:05 PM, spongeblink said:

8. A workflow that mutes and unmutes the mic for Discord with a hotkey.

I uploaded the Mute Discord workflow here.

 

9 hours ago, TomBenz said:

Pls share this lunar workflow and info on more other useful workflows.

Will do!