Speed up with Liquid
Rapidly search online, find reference material and perform conversions
Liquid is an app that’s all about workflow efficiency. It’s designed to rapidly get you to important information based around a particular text string, be it search engine results (web pages, images or maps), Amazon listings, YouTube videos, local information found via Spotlight, online reference (Wikipedia, IMDB, Wolfram Alpha and so on) and conversions. It also enables you to perform complex copy actions on selected text (such as extracting sentences that include specific terms) and, in the paid version, translations between different languages.
As of OS X Yosemite, Spotlight can do some of these things ably, but it has its drawbacks. It’s relatively slow and tries to make a best guess about what you want in the results list.
By contrast, Liquid puts you in control. Once you’ve loaded text, you type letters relating to specific services or options, which then get you the results you want – every time. Initially, the system feels alien, but before long you’ll be blazing through menus, in a manner that makes Spotlight appear comparatively slothful.
Liquid is available from the Mac App Store, for free – this is the version we use for the walkthrough opposite. A ‘pro’ version, with additional features, is £3.99 and we explore this more in two of the quick tips. Craig Grannell
You’ll soon be blazing through menus in a manner that makes Spotlight seem slothful