How it Works
Last updated
Last updated
The Command Bar is a keyboard-centric interface for controlling your computer and cloud apps; with an emphasis on agency, speed and usability. The name is a combination of command line and search bar.
Like a command-line shell (i.e. bash, zsh), you can type your way to perform any task. Similarly, it’s also customizable and programmable.
At the same time, it's as easy to use as a search bar. You don't need to learn anything: just type what you want in the Command Bar as you would in Google.
If you've ever used Mac's Spotlight feature, opening the Command Bar will be very familiar. It can be open from any application with one keyboard shortcut (⌘ J is the default for Slapdash). The Command Bar will appear on top of the application you are in. Clicking anywhere outside of it or hitting Esc will hide the Command Bar. To bring it back, just press the shortcut again.
When the Command Bar is open, you interact with it by typing. As you type, the Command Bar will show you interactive options, narrowing them down as you type.
Hit Enter or click on an option to do something. Hitting Enter on a search result will open it. Hitting Enter on a command will run it.
More precisely, hitting Enter runs the Action associated with the selected option. Every option will always have an Action.
If you can open the Command Bar, type something and hit Enter, that's all you really need to know.
However, there is one more important dimension to the Command Bar: location.
Like a web page, the Command Bar has an address it's open to. And you can move to a different location by hitting Tab. It allows you to continue the experience in the Command Bar: like clicking a link to a different part of the app.
Hitting Tab on a search result will give you new options like Copy URL or Add to Space, for example.
The Location is visualized with pill-like tokens in the input of the Command Bar. If this was a URL, the path equivalent to the screenshot below would be: /search?filter=github
In the below demonstration, the Command Bar is opened and "show" is typed into the input.
The Command Bar view displays Show Calendar Schedule as one of the available options and selects it as the best match.
Hitting Enter moves the Command Bar to the Show Calendar Schedule command's location. Here, Tab would have gotten you to same place.
With the movement, the Command Bar now shows a "Show Calendar Schedule" token, which means you are running the "Show Calendar Schedule" command. The command shows your upcoming meetings as options.
Hitting Tab on an event (one of the options) moves to a new location in the Command Bar that shows event details.
Shift+Tab reverses the movement and brings you back to the list of events.
Hitting Enter on the event option runs the Action, which in this case is to open the Zoom app directly to the meeting video chat.
