How has the use of command palettes increased my productivity by +50%?
I have spent the last five years working in a Linux/Unix environment, therefore I am very familiar with command line interpreters and how they in-depth work. I instantly fell in love with this fantastic tool, which, I reasoned, could do all of the things we were doing with our screen’s GUI. It is, however, faster and more dependable because the user’s interfaces of our operating systems have been upgraded throughout time to make them purer and better control the user experience; this necessitates the user to relearn how things operate. However, the terminal’s user experience is so quick and simple that it is, in my opinion, unrivalled in any aspect, and this is because its simplicity has almost never changed from the old time. Nonetheless, this was my thoughts 5 years ago.
During a typical work-day, I could use at least one time the following softwares:
- Environments for integrated development (IDE).
- A web browser.
- A mailbox software
- A piece of design software.
- A calendar software.
- My everyday task management software.
A typical person would generally open them with at least six mouse clicks every day — taking the list above into account. Because of single command palette, I am enhancing my productivity in my present use of my laptop by reducing the number of mouse clicks to zero and reducing search time by 50% in the majority of the applications mentioned above.
🧐 What is the command palette ?
The command palette is nothing more than a handy utility that may be accessed by pressing a key combination on your keyboard. This helpful tool has access to everything in its entity, which may include for a computer, your documents, softwares, and everything else you can think of within your computer. The way it works makes it quite simple because the search algorithm behind is powerful enough to allow you to obtain anything quickly without having to spend minutes or hours looking for a specific document, for example. The ability of a command palette to search for what you are thinking about is its strength and presents the same simplicity as the command line I mentioned before, but in a GUI environment. As a result, it tends to be the tool that will revolutionise most of the software you presently have on your laptop, or even on the websites you are using everyday.
🙏 How I became a fervent backer of command palettes ?
#Jetbrains: I became a fervent supporter of command palettes two years ago after becoming an in-depth user of any Jetbrains products. After I began using the command palette released by Jetbrains inc., it demonstrated his efficiency immediately because I rarely use the left-panel file explorer because the command palette search tool is sufficient for finding a file, creating a new file, or performing some other action, which is why I became so intrigued: they did not merely build a command palette that allowed users to search for files; they included several extra options that simplify our lives as software engineers.
#Apple: Following my experience with Jetbrains’ intelligent command palette, I became interested in this sort of utility tools, for example with, Apple’s “Spotlight search” which surprised me because the search is powerful enough to let us avoid using the trackpad to open a new software or find a document by its name or lost in no-where within tonnes of folder in my computers. The use of the spotlight search made my life much easier and I would love having a count integer of how many times I averagely use it on a week of work.
GitHub: Additionally, I recently checked out Github’s “Feature previews” area, as I am usually interested in them. When I first saw a command palette tool, my initial reaction was, “Bloody hell, this is going to be crazy”. I began using it and noticed that I could move between repositories in two slight actions, whereas manually going through them would generally take me more than 3/4 actions + search time. Such a minor feature increases my efficiency while surfing within Github, and it is quite convenient from a user perspective.
On the other hand, the command palettes that are out-there are not limited to the ones listed above; here is a brief list of others that I have seen in: Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Sublime Text, and Windows 11, Marker, etc.
⚙️ A quick review of how I use those command palettes nowadays
Jetbrains with Jetbrains command palette:
A command palette is available in every Jetbrains solution, for example, in Pycharm/Webstorm/Datagrip by pressing “shift” twice. Note that if nothing is written in the first time you open it, it will use the tab all, which includes both files/action and everything else in Jetbrains’ command palette. However, it will almost always display the latest files opened, such as:
Two usage of which I cannot separate myself with:
(1) I will use it to go over a certain file that I know the name, for example, because Flake8 reported me an error while committing and I need to get through it quickly.
(2) Another amazing trick I use a lot is Git version control, which allows me to switch from branch to branch (i.e, checkout) without using the command line or the GUI with a mouse click.
I use it more than this, but I could not list everything because it would take too long, so I will let you tell me what is yours in the comments.
Github with Github command palette
You have access to the Github command palette from every page of Github, which is a bit like your clever assistant who is always there to help you go there or take you to a specific file/thread. Nonetheless, the command palette can be accessed by pressing command + K. Furthermore, the first time you open it, if nothing is written, it will use the specific location of where you are and display options in consequences. At home, it will show you the option to go to your dashboard, see your issues/notifications globally, as well as a slew of other quick actions; however, within a Github repository, it will show you a slew of other options such as going to you Github Kanban (i.e, Github project). See Github’s starter command palette:
Two usage of which I cannot separate myself with:
(1) I intend to utilise it to go through repositories. I am using the shortcut, and all I have to do is type the repository’s name + enter, and Github’s magical search algorithm will navigate me through the repository in an instant.
(2) Additional cool tricks I have been using it extensively since its pre-release, and while I am sure Github would be less than pleased if they saw this, I have begun to abandon the search bar in the upper left corner in favour of this command palette. If the thing I have written is completely different from what I have on my profile repository, it will search globally in Github, as I enjoy doing to check what people are working on at the moment (i.e, state-of-the-art).
I use it more than this, but I could not list everything because it would take too long, so I will let you tell me what is yours in the comments.
Apple with Spotlight Search
You may access the #Apple Spotlight Search from anywhere and at any time on your OSX, which is similar to Jarvis in Iron Man for the die-hard fan. It will enable you to read any of your papers, run any of your applications, and even conduct a web search directly from it, which might save you a significant amount of time if you consider it properly. The shortcut command + spacecan be used to initiate a Spotlight search. When you execute it for the first time, it is quite simple and pure, and nothing appears. You must conduct a search, and the results will appear instantly. See the Apple Spotlight search starter command palette:
Two usage of which I cannot separate myself with:
(1) As previously indicated, I will utilise it to launch any software I wish to open; I will no longer use the bottom bar with my softwares or “Applications” that contains everything; this saves me time searching for the app and eliminates a single mouse click.
(2) When I am looking for a specific document, such as a PDF file, I use another clever approach. I know the name, or nearly so, and I will use Apple’s Spotlight Search to find it again, and I will press enter to move through it as I like. Note: They also recommend a variety of other things, such as a Siri suggestion based on what you typed, which is fairly fascinating in terms of how accurate you wrote your search.
I use it more than this, but I could not list everything because it would take too long, so I will let you tell me what is yours in the comments.
✅ Discussion / Conclusion
The command palettes save me time on a variety of daily tasks, and as they are new, we can expect that they are still in development and that additional functionality will be added in the future. However, I have encountered a few limits. As you may have observed, the shortcuts for the three command palettes above are distinct from one another, which makes learning and saving them a bit of a pain for the brain. At times, you may find yourself utilising one and wishing to fast switch, which might be perplexing. Finally, I see the command palette as my new tool for traversing my computer and using development tools without the need for a mouse click, much as I did five years ago with the command-line interpreter.
Additionally, after using the Github command palette for a while, I sent out a tweet, not expecting to receive a response from a prominent individual from Github, but I did. “Stay tuned” said @madebygak — Garrett Knoll Director of Product Management at GitHub. I am excited to see more features coming out and increase my productivity at work or at university, thanks to Garrett Knoll.
Finally, it was a quick introduction to command palette and how I see them as the future of search in all of our laptop usage today, whether it is for research, study, or work. Thank you for reading, and if you enjoyed it, please share your opinions and experiences with command palettes by leaving a comment.
Simon.
Sources:
Thanks to Julie Mancis for peer reviewing the article.
