Welcome to Trickster
The purpose of Trickster is to save you time spent on searching your files. It keeps track of the files, folders and applications you recently created, edited and downloaded on your Mac and lets you access them from a list in your menu bar.
- The main window pane displays the recent files list, showing your recent files, folders and applications. You can perform multiple actions on each item in the list.
- Icons on the left represent filters that can help you view only relevant items, like images, folders, downloaded files and so on.
- The bar on the right of the recent files list is the Favorites Sidebar. It lets you save your most frequently used files, locations and apps.
Tip: Drag Trickster’s window by the top or the bottom bar to detach and reattach it from its menu bar icon. To reattach, bring the window’s top center close to Trickster’s icon in the menu bar until the top arrow appears and the red close button disappears.
When you first launch Trickster, it will ask you to select which folders you want it to monitor.
Trickster will also monitor all the subfolders in these folders. Read the details on configuring tracking here.
WARNING: Do not select the root folder of your main volume or your home folder since these generate a lot of activity and will cause Trickster to use excessive CPU resources and fill your file list with system files that are of no practical use.
Some useful things you can do with Trickster:
- Drag files outside of Trickster from recent files list or from the Favorites Sidebar. This works just like in the Finder—you can paste to other apps, drop on app in Dock, drop in Finder to move (or copy if the Option key is pressed), or drop onto a file selection dialog in another app.
- Open files and applications from Trickster recent files list by double-clicking on them or pressing Enter.
- Preview a file from the list by pressing Space.
- Reveal a file in Finder by pressing ‘Command+Enter’.
- Save your favorite folders and applications in the Favorites Sidebar, then drop a file on a folder to move it there or drop it on a application to open it with that app.
- Install an app you have just downloaded by dropping it onto the Applications folder.
- Quickly send an email attachment by dropping a file you want to send onto Mail.app.
- Drop a file or files on the Trickster icon in the menu bar or inside the Trickster file list to add them to the list. Usethis to mark a file to get back to it later.
- Use preset filters for easy finding a recent file. For example, if you want to find a photo you took a couple of weeks ago, select the Images filter and just scan the thumbnails until you locate it.
- Use custom filters to pinpoint files related to a specific project. For example, you can create a filter for files in a Documents/Finances folder, enabling quick access to your recent tax documents.
Recommended reading order for the manual:
- This “Start Here” page
- Configure File Tracking
- Filters in Trickster
- Favorites sidebar
- Flagging files and folders
- Active Application Filter
- Selecting multiple files or folders in Trickster
- File pop-up menu
- Opening Trickster window at mouse cursor
- Trickster keyboard shortcuts
Advanced topics
- Pausing and resuming monitoring in Trickster
- AppleScript and URL schemes for Trickster automation
- Adjusting folder name font size
Integrations with other applications
- Support for the application Hook
- DEVONthink and Trickster integration
- Alfred workflows for Trickster
- Using Trickster with LaunchBar
Thank you for choosing Trickster!
Next → 2 - Configure File Tracking