Tim Riley

Activating the screensaver with Quicksilver in OS X

April 12th 2008

There are a few posts around the net that describe some ways to launch the OS X screensaver using a keyboard shortcut with Quicksilver. However, common to all of these approaches is using a code snippet that is launched by a trigger.

Quicksilver triggers can only be launched by global keybindings or mouse gestures. That is, you can’t access them through the main quicksilver interface. A simple way around this is to use Automator to create a custom screensaver launch application:

Automator workflow for screensaver launch app

Save the workflow as an app called, let’s say, “Screensaver”, put it in your Applications folder, and you can then use Quicksilver to activate your screensaver like you would launch any ordinary app.

Tim Riley

Hi, I'm Tim Riley. I'm a web developer based in Canberra, Australia, where I work at a small design studio called Icelab. This is my blog, where I can share with you the things I learn as I go about building products for the web.

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Recent Presentations

  1. Facebook Authentication with OAuth
  2. JavaScript Testing with Capybara and Cucumber
  3. Using Titanium to Build Mobile Apps with JavaScript (audio)
  4. An Introduction to Sinatra
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