Alfred 1.2

Running with Crayons has updated its free keyboard-driven launcher Alfred to version 1.2 with a number of new features. Available from the Alfred Web site as well as the Mac App Store, this release adds two new themes, large type support for displaying text and calculations, and the capability to drag files out of Alfred search results into the Finder, Apple Mail, and other apps. Its search matching algorithm has also been overhauled with a noncontinuous word-based matching scheme to improve results.

However, to take advantage of all the improvements in this release, you’ll need to download the app from the Alfred Web site (the Mac App Store version is limited due to Apple’s sandboxing rules). Plus, to unlock all the features, you would need to purchase the Alfred Powerpack for £15. With the Powerpack-enhanced Alfred 1.2, you’ll get 1Password 1Click bookmark integration, which enables you to access a list of passwords quickly and then open a selected bookmark in your default Web browser. You can also merge currently selected text with the previous item in the clipboard’s history. Finally, global hotkeys have been enhanced with the option to paste the most recent clipboard
item as plain text without having to first show Alfred, as well as the capability to assign snippets for instant pasting. (Free, £15 for Powerpack, 2.5 MB, release notes)