Mastering Sliprail: Boost Your Desktop Efficiency in Simple Steps

You've learned about Sliprail, a tool designed to enhance your efficiency on Windows and macOS through "desktop quick actions." It consolidates your frequently used operations, app launches, system functions, and various shortcuts into a unified interface, letting you say goodbye to tedious mouse clicks.

So, how do you actually use Sliprail to streamline your daily workflow? It's incredibly simple. Sliprail's core interaction follows an extremely intuitive, natural logic.

Step 1: Summon Sliprail

No matter what you're working on, just press the global hotkey (there's a default set upon installation, which you can customize in settings) to instantly bring up the Sliprail main window. This window is your gateway to efficient operations.

Step 2: Core Interaction - Input and Selection

The summoned Sliprail main window is very clean, primarily consisting of an input field and a results list. Here’s the core flow:

As you start typing in the input field, the list below updates instantly, filtering based on your input (supports keyword matching, potentially fuzzy search) and prioritizing the best matches. These items typically include:

  • Applications installed on your computer.
  • Sliprail's available shortcuts (like system actions "Sleep", "Shutdown", etc.).
  • Currently open application windows (for quick switching).

Sliprail cleverly uses two operational modes, automatically switching between them based on whether you type a space.

Mode 1: Direct Search & Execute (Default Mode)

This is Sliprail's most common mode, designed for speed.

  • Action: Type the keyword for the item you want to find or execute directly into the input field.
  • Important Rule: The keyword itself should not contain spaces. For an application named "Google Chrome", type GoogleChrome or, more simply, chrome. Sliprail's smart matching will handle it. For shortcuts like sleep or shutdown, enter their standard shortcut keyword (e.g., Sleep, Shutdown).
  • Selection: Use the up/down arrow keys if needed to highlight the correct item in the filtered list. Often, the top item is the one you want.
  • Execution: Press Enter.
  • Result: Sliprail immediately performs the action: launching the app, executing the shortcut, or switching to the chosen window.

Mode 2: Parameter Mode (Activates Automatically After Typing a Space)

This mode is used when you need to provide additional information to a shortcut or application.

  • Activation: It triggers automatically as soon as you type the first word (the shortcut or item keyword, without spaces) and then press the Spacebar.
  • Action Sequence:
  1. Type the standard, space-free keyword for the shortcut or app.
  2. Press the Spacebar. This acts as a separator.
  3. After the space, type the parameter(s) you want to pass (the parameter itself can contain spaces).
  4. Press Enter.
  • Result: Sliprail executes the shortcut or launches the app, passing everything you typed after the space as parameters. This is useful for shortcuts requiring input or for launching apps with specific arguments (if they support it).

!!! CRITICAL TIP !!!

Understand the spacebar's role: It's the crucial separator that distinguishes between the "shortcut/item" and its "parameters".

  • No Space Typed: You're in Direct Execution Mode. The entire input (without spaces) is treated as the target keyword.
  • Space Typed: You switch to Parameter Mode. Everything before the first space is the shortcut/target; everything after is the parameter.

Therefore, to launch "Visual Studio Code", type vscode or visualstudiocode then Enter. Do NOT type Visual Studio<space>Code. Sliprail would incorrectly try to run a shortcut named Visual with Studio Code as parameters.

Sliprail's Design Philosophy: Intuitive and Easy to Use

As you can see, the core usage pattern is straightforward:

Hotkey Summon -> Type Keyword (No Spaces) -> (Enter to Execute / OR Space + Parameters + Enter)

Sliprail aims for a "think it, do it" experience. The combination of real-time search and the automatic mode switching based on the spacebar allows for both power and simplicity.

Summary

You've now grasped the fundamental usage of Sliprail. The key takeaway is the special role of the spacebar: it switches from Direct Execution Mode to Parameter Mode, and the keyword in Direct Execution Mode must be space-free.

Why not start now?

  1. Press the global hotkey to summon Sliprail.
  2. Try typing the space-free name or abbreviation of your common apps (e.g., chrome, slack, vscode) and press Enter to launch them.
  3. Explore available shortcuts; try typing shortcut keywords like Sleep, Shutdown, Restart, and press Enter.
  4. Practice switching windows – type a space-free keyword for an app to quickly find its open windows.

Start enjoying the fluidity and efficiency Sliprail brings! Remember this simple input rule, and it will become your indispensable desktop assistant.