One of the oddities of my computer use style is that I don’t like to have my system go into screensaver or lock automatically very quickly. When I leave the keyboard, I like to be able to activate the screensaver/lock manually. Since I’m also not a fan of active screen corners, I want to be able to do so by keystroke.
Annoyingly, OS X doesn’t let me bind a key to activate the screensaver. There used to be a couple utilities that enabled this, but they haven’t been updated since 10.3. The screensaver engine itself is an application, but we still need a convenient way to activate it. Enter Quicksilver. Quicksilver’s Triggers let us bind Quicksilver actions (including, conveniently, opening Applications) to keypresses.
So, to create a key to activate your screensaver or lock your system with Quicksilver, follow these simple steps:
- Create a Quicksilver trigger to open the screensaver engine. The engine is
/System/Library/Frameworks/ScreenSaver.framework/
Versions/A/Resources/ScreenSaverEngine.app - Bring up the Trigger’s info pane.
- Set a key shortcut for the trigger. The combination of options I’ve got selected mean that the trigger only goes off if I hold the keys down for three seconds, and Quicksilver brings up a display window to let me know that I’m activating a trigger. Very handy! (Due to what I think is a Quicksilver/Leopard bug, the hotkey field is incomplete. Mine’s set to cmd-alt-ctrl-L)
- Enjoy!
