In Lion, Quick Look’s been redesigned a little bit, and I love the changes. You can now choose a program to open your file right from that window, and you can even add pictures to iPhoto from it. Plus, Mail now has a way to Quick Look web pages without opening your browser. Here’s how you can use these spankin’ new features.
In Finder, select the file you’d like to preview, and as you’ve probably been doing for forever now, tap the spacebar to activate Quick Look. The familiar window appears, but with a new option—in the upper-right corner, you’ll note that “Open with [default program]” appears. Neat!
And if you click and hold on that button, you can select from other programs to open the file with. Super neat!
You even get a tooltip with the application’s location if you hover over it.
Finally, if you Quick Look some types of files, you’ll be presented with other options. For example, when you preview an image file, included in that list is “Add to iPhoto.” I think my head just exploded! Nope, still typing.*
Another great new Quick Look feature is included in Mail. If you hover over a web address in a message, a disclosure triangle will appear. Click that, and you’ll get a preview of the page, all without leaving the comfort of Mail.
If you’d prefer, you can then click the same “Open with” button in the upper-right of your preview window, which shows your default browser. You can also click any link on the page you’re previewing to be taken directly to that link in your browser. OK, now my head really did explode.
Here’s the preview of a web page from within Mail. Good job, Apple.
*It’s possible chickens may be able to type without heads, but I can’t.