I’ve spent a lot of time lately creating slide decks for my MontageJS presentations. When I include source code in a slide, I like to have syntax highlighting to help make it easier for the audience to read. Unfortunately, syntax highlighting isn’t a built-in feature in Powerpoint or Keynote. There are some great browser-based presentation frameworks like reveal.js that offer native syntax highlighting, but I currently need to use a standard tool so that other people can easily edit and consume my decks.

The marvelous Alfred.app is one of my favorite tools for Mac OS X. At its core, Alfred is a simple and effective app launcher. When used to its full potential, it does much more. Among many other things, Alfred lets you find and manage files, control music playback, manage and search clipboard history, and search the web. It exposes that incredibly rich set of features through a fantastic, keyboard-friendly user interface.