Quix - one bookmarklet to run them all

I've been using a web app recently that has completely changed my habits of sharing and accessing content on the web. It is a bookmarklet called Quix. Quix replaced several of my existing bookmarklets in Safari and I wanted to write this post to not only tell others about it but to learn how to better use it myself.

I used to have bookmarklets for doing everything. One for Readability, one for Facebook sharing, one to add a link to ShoveBox and so on. Quix does all of this and more all by itself. Quix is driven by a command line interface which is simple to use and easy to remember. Once it is invoked you are presented with a simple dialog box. You begin typing and when you've finished typing your command hit Enter and your done. In Safari, your first 9 bookmarks on the bookmark bar are mapped to Cmd + [1 - 9] so Quix is a single keystroke away.

For example, to share something on Facebook I just hit Cmd + 1 (or click the Quix bookmarklet), type fb, hit Enter and I'm done. If I want to read something in Readability I just type read instead. shove for ShoveBox. Those are the commands I use the most. I'm learning though, through researching this post, that there is a bunch of functionality I've been ignoring. By invoking Quix and typing help you can get the full list of commands that are supported (or you can click here). I've just started using php for searching the PHP manual, img for google image searches, and evernote to clip to Evernote.

One of the most interesting things about Quix is that you can write your own commands and extend Quix to implement additional functionality. I haven't messed around with that yet but I plan on it. I'm sure there's all sorts of stuff I could do with it.

I've found Quix to be an essential element to improving my web workflow and I find myself a little lost when I'm using a machine that doesn't have it. Now I'm going to study that command list and learn even more ways to use Quix.