ChatGPT is an amazing AI tool, but using it frequently involves a lot of repetitive actions, such as retyping prompts or starting new chats.
A few months ago, I found an app called Alfred that streamlines this. It lets me quickly reuse prompts, start a new chat, save responses, and more. While Alfred is a paid app for macOS, in this article, I’ll also share free alternatives for both Mac and Windows.
Here are three features that I use often when working with ChatGPT.
For more articles like this, subscribe to my newsletter 👇
#1 Custom Search: Quick chats and zero clutter (free feature)
Lately, I’ve been replacing Google search with ChatGPT. Every time I have a question, I go to ChatGPT, start a new chat, and type my query. However, I don’t like the process of opening the website and starting a new chat for one-off questions.
Alfred has a custom web search feature that allows me to speed up this process.
I just open Alfred (⌥+space), type the keyword “gpt", and then my query. After hitting enter, Alfred launches ChatGPT in the browser with that question ready to go.
Here’s a demo.
Alfred offers many built-in web searches for Google Translate, Amazon, X, etc. The one I used in the demo above, I created myself.
It’s easy to create a custom web search.
Just launch Alfred, open Alfred Preferences (⌘+;), click on Features → Web Search → Add Custom Search.
A window will pop up, just paste the link below and give it a name and a keyword (mine is “gpt”)
https://chatgpt.com/?q={query}
The only downside of this custom search is that it’ll eventually clog up our chat history with conversations we never use again. That’s why I customized the web search so that each query starts on a temporary chat.
Here’s the custom search that starts a new temporary chat.
https://chatgpt.com/?temporary-chat=true&q={query}
I use this feature every time I need a new chat for one-off questions. I love it because I can take quick action on questions that pop into my head. Just keep in mind that once you end a temporary chat, it’s gone forever. If you’d like to save a response from a temporary chat, use feature #3 in this list.
Windows users can use Microsoft’s PowerToys Run to replicate Alfred’s quick app launching and web search capabilities.
#2 Text Expanders: Quickly save and reuse prompts
Do you type the same prompts into ChatGPT over and over?
Instead of retyping lengthy prompts every time, you can save them as snippets and expand them with a short abbreviation using Alfred.
Here’s a prompt and abbreviation example
Prompt: Summarize the following text in 3 bullet points
Abbreviation: !sum
Whenever you type !sum, Alfred instantly expands it into the full prompt
This feature is especially useful for long prompts that you use frequently.
To use this feature, open Alfred Preferences, go to Features → Snippets, and check the box "Automatically expand snippets by keyword" to enable text expanders (you’ll need to grant permissions), and then click on the + icon in the bottom right corner to create a new snippet.
You’ll have to fill in the following window.
Note that in Collection, you’ll see “Default Collection.“ In my case, I have a collection called “ChatGPT Prompts“ with my list of prompts. As you use this feature, you’ll build your own library of prompts.
Alfred also lets you include dynamic placeholders like the current date, time, or clipboard content in your snippets. For example, you can add:
{date:long} to get the data in long format
{clipboard:0} to get the latest item in your clipboard
Text expander is a paid Alfred feature. That said, Mac users have a similar, but basic Text Replacement feature. To work with it, just go to Apple menu → System Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacement (in text input).
The window below will pop up. Click the + button to add a new prompt shortcut.
I love this built-in Mac feature because it works across all Apple devices. I use it a lot on my iPhone, but one of the downsides is that there’s no way to organize your snippets into collections, so your snippet list can get messy as you create more.
Windows users can also benefit from a similar feature using Beeftext or Text Blaze. The first is an open-source text substitution tool, while the second is a Chrome extension that works in the browser to expand text snippets.
#3 Clipboard History: Never lose a great ChatGPT response
Whether you keep numerous chats or, like me, frequently start temporary chats, there are many moments when you want to save a response. Unfortunately, ChatGPT doesn’t let you easily search for responses or save them. Here’s when Alfred’s clipboard history comes in handy.
Alfred’s clipboard history keeps a running list of everything you copy (text, images, links, etc), even if you don’t paste it immediately, and lets you search and repaste them anytime.
This means any snippet of wisdom you copied from ChatGPT won’t be lost.
Here’s how to use it. Say, yesterday you asked ChatGPT for a list of book recommendations and copied the answer. The next day, you remember that one of the recommendations had a specific phrase, but you can’t find the chat. Instead of prompting ChatGPT again, you can pop open the Alfred clipboard viewer (⌥+⌘+C) and type a keyword from that answer.
Alfred will filter your clipboard history and show the items containing that phrase.
To turn on this Feature, open Alfred Preferences and go to Features → Clipboard History → History. Then check the box that says “Keep Plain Text.“ Alfred saves your clipboard history for 7 days by default, but you can switch it to 1 or 3 months.
You can also convert a clipboard entry into a snippet to save it forever. In the Alfred clipboard viewer, hitting ⌘+S on an item will convert that clipboard entry into a snippet.
PasteBar is a free clipboard manager alternative for Mac and Windows users.
If you found this article useful, consider becoming a paid subscriber and sharing it with others!