Software developer Running With Crayons has announced the release of Alfred 5, the newest version of its popular app launcher.
The new version, which is available now, offers the following extensive list of fixes, changes, and new features:
New WorkFlow Editor: The Workflow Editor has been rewritten from the ground up to be higher performance, more efficient, user-friendly and accessible. We’ve added keyboard shortcuts, new mouse interactions, a customisable and searchable palette, and VoiceOver accessibility of Workflow contents and editing.
Workflows can now be created using keyboard shortcuts, including searching for and inserting workflow objects into the canvas. We’ve also added a new ⌥click paradigm which allows you to quickly connect, multi-connect or chain-connect workflow objects.
Workflow Palette and Search: The new Workflow Palette gives you an easy way to navigate, discover and use the broad range of workflow objects available. Simply drag an object from the Palette into the canvas, or hold ⌥ and drag to automatically connect to the currently selected objects.
Add your most-used objects to the Palette Favourites list for quick access, or search and filter the Palette instantly with the / shortcut. Use ↩︎ to add the searched item to the canvas, or ⌥↩︎ to insert and automatically connect.
Configure the Palette to be full, compact, or hidden to suit your workspace. Even when hidden, the Palette Search will be dynamically available when needed.
Workflow Prefabs: Prefabs enable you to save pre-configured objects, or groups of connected objects, into the Palette. You can then reuse these throughout your workflows just like any other workflow object, saving you time and effort.
In the future, we will add the ability to export and share your Prefabs!
Workflow User Configuration: Workflow creators can now add simple user-facing preferences to workflows, making them easier for users to install and set up. The Workflow readme supports a subset of Markdown, so you can style your workflow introduction and help.
Use easy text fields, checkboxes, selection lists, file pickers and more to allow users to configure a workflow without having to navigate into individual objects or scripts!
Configuration items can have default values, or can be marked as required, ensuring the user has configured the workflow before it can be used. User values are automatically migrated on updating a workflow.
Automation Tasks: Alfred’s Automation Task object adds an ever-growing collection of configurable actions you can add to your workflows as building blocks, without having to think about the code behind it; From resizing images and moving files to getting the current Safari tab or switching to Dark Mode.
The Automation Task collection is aimed at both non-developers, and advanced workflow creators alike. We develop, maintain and enhance the repository of underlying actions, you simply add them to your workflow.
In the future, we will release our task development tool enabling our community to create task actions too!
Run macOS Shortcuts: It’s now possible run macOS Shortcuts as part of your Workflows.
Requires macOS 12+
Accessibility & Keyboard-based Workflow Editing: This is part of our ongoing commitment to make Alfred more accessible and better suited for use with the VoiceOver and Accessibility macOS features.
In addition to the Palette Search and Workflow User Configuration, both of which were conceived with Accessibility in mind, Workflows can now be edited and navigated using the keyboard.
Use ⌘arrows to move between objects on the canvas, or ⌘⌥left or ⌘⌥right to navigate forward and back through connected objects. Navigate to sibling objects using ⌘⌥up or ⌘⌥down.
With VoiceOver enabled, Alfred will be reading the object and connection details as you navigate.
Improved Ubiquitous Search: Alfred’s Ubiquitous search has received more improvements, making it easy to get to a specific preference keyword or snippet directly, and even create a new workflow directly from Alfred’s main bar.
Alfred is available for free, but users can also register it for £34 for a single Powerpack license or for £59 for a Mega Supporter license, which offers a lifetime of free upgrades, and requires Mac OS X 10.9.0 or later to install and run.
If you’ve tried Alfred 5, please let us know about your experience in the comments.