They say we that live in the age of information, and whatever you want to know is just a search away. But that’s not true, is it? Imagine that you are writing a report, and suddenly you need more information about a topic. What would you do? You have to switch from your current application to the browser, open a new tab, go to the search engine and type in the search string or open Wikipedia and start searching. It’s not really a burden, but the process could be more straightforward.
Meet Liquid, your free personal search bar for Mac that could help simplify the process of getting more information.
Just a Few Shortcuts Away
After downloading and installing the application from the Mac App Store, Liquid will stay quietly in the menubar until you summon it using the shortcut.
Using the application is simple enough. Select the word or phrase that you want to know more about, hit the shortcut key combination (the default combination is “Command + Shift + 2”), and Liquid will pop out with your selected word or phrase.
Then follow up with a combination of two letters to finalize the search. The first ones are “S” (Search), “R” (Reference), “C” (Convert), “2” (Copy), and “E” (Share). There are many second-tier keys grouped under five first-tier keys mentioned before. For example, there is “G” for Google under “S” for Search.
If you want to do a Google search on the word “Fibonacci” from text, select the word, press the shortcut key combination to summon Liquid, and press S then G. A Google search page about Fibonacci will open in your default browser.
You can also search YouTube, Amazon, do an Image Search, and more. Under Reference, you can find more resources such as Wikipedia, IMDB, Wolfram Alpha, and Oxford English Dictionary.
You can use the escape key (ESC) to go back to the main search window and the arrow keys to navigate among the options.
Convert, Copy, and Share
But searching is not the only thing that Liquid offers. You can also use it to convert units such as Currency, Temperature, Area, Speed, Distance, Volume, Weight, Data, and Power.
It will display the result directly under the search box.
You can also use the app to copy text from one source to another. You can even opt to strip down HTML text into plain text.
Using the Share option, you can send your selected text to Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, email, Google Mail, and even WordPress. One example for using the share feature is to quickly post a quote that you find on the net via Twitter.
You need to log in to these accounts beforehand.
Customizing the Shortcut
The ability to call up Liquid with a shortcut key combination is very convenient. But in my case, the combination is already used by another app, and I’m not willing to change that. If your situation is similar to mine, you’ll be delighted to know that there’s a way to change the combination.
Open “System Preferences,” and go to “Keyboard.”
Choose “Shortcuts -> Services” and scroll down to find “Liquid.” Double click on the combination to change it. I select “Command + Option + Control + Space”, but you can choose whatever combination that you want, as long as it’s still available.
Liquid takes some time to get used to, but it will be time well spent. Play around with it to familiarize yourself with how the app works. After you make it part of your daily life, you’ll wonder how you survived prior to using the app.
Image Credit: Thomas
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Jeffry Thurana
Jeffry Thurana is a creative writer living in Indonesia. He helps other writers and freelancers to earn more from their crafts. He’s on a quest of learning the art of storytelling, believing that how you tell a story is as important as the story itself. He is also an architect and a designer, and loves traveling and playing classical guitar.
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