Quicksilver usually runs in the background and is invisible (or nearly, depending on your Dock and Status Item preferences). To use Quicksilver's search functionality, you can bring Quicksilver to the front using one hotkey of your choice and, optionally, one modkey.

Hotkeys are the 'normal' keys optionally combined with any of the modifier keys. An example is Command+Q, which is usually bound to the active application's Quit menu item. The default hotkey for Quicksilver is Control+Space. Since the space bar is very large and easy to hit, this makes activating Quicksilver easy. It is recommended you avoid choosing a hotkey that is used in any of your frequently used applications, such as Command+S or Command+M.

Modkeys are the modifier keys (shift, command, control, option, and function) plus the caps lock key. In activating Quicksilver using a modkey, you may choose whether to use a single or double tap. Don't worry about choosing a single Command for your modkey, you might be surprised at how rarely it is accidentally activated. Mostly this is because it requires a brisk tap, so if you hold down Command and are about to press O to open a document, but change your mind, Quicksilver will not activate because you held it down.

Check this box to make the hotkey and modkey toggle Quicksilver, rather than always activating it.

Quicksilver's main job is to match items in the catalog or file system and present them for your inspection and action. This section configures how you interact with the interface.

Quicksilver's results are a list below the main interface. This setting controls the height of the rows in that list.

Checking this causes Quicksilver to display the contents of the selected item in a second column in the results list. Be careful to balance the usefulness of this feature against the extra time it takes to load and display the contents. Note that changing this preference requires a relaunch of Quicksilver.

Loading icons in the command window can help you to identify the correct item quickly, but it can slow down search performance. With this drop down menu, you can opt to load icons for the Selected Item Only, or for All Items. If you choose Selected Item Only the icon will only be shown for the selected item in the command window, and not for the items in the results list.

If you set this option to Never, Quicksilver will not show the list of other items matching your search automatically. You can, however, still pop this list up at any time by hitting the down arrow. Selecting Immediately makes the list appear right away, or with a delay if you select Delayed.

Choosing Normal, the default, includes spaces in the search. While some may find this useful, it is technically unnecesary because Quicksilver's matching algorithm is basically a glorified non-adjacent substring search that remembers. Choose Select next result to use the space bar to page through the results, Jump to argument field to choose the default extended action (e.g. 'Open with…') and select the argument field, or Switch to Text Mode to change the input mode to (text mode)?.

When this is checked and no matches are found, the input switches to text mode with the contents of what you've already entered inside it. Otherwise Quicksilver will beep at you to indicate that no matches are found for your query.

If the check box is checked, your search will be automatically reset after the number of seconds set by the slider below (any value between 0.5 to 3 seconds). This means that you will not have to type escape to reset the search if you make a mistake while entering it, and want to start again. However, if you have the slider set to a very short delay you might find that it resets before you have had a chance to type the full search. If you want to hone your Jedi skills, set the delay to the minimum value of 0.5 seconds, and try to type a long search term.

If you have a slow machine, you can improve performance by setting the a longer delay before searching occurs (the slider can be set between 0 and 0.5 seconds).

Changes the frequency at which Quicksilver rescans the catalog. Choose from Every 10 minutes, Every half hour, Every day, Every week, and Manually.