Spotlight: integration in the Finder

We are now going to present another strong point of Mac OS X or spotlight. This tool allows you to search for files and content inside the computer. If I try to be clear in spotlight Download the string we will find both the Downloads folder that every file that contains this string.

It 'can be accessed directly from the spotlight finder by typing your text into the search field in the toolbar, or by clicking on the magnifying glass at the top right of the status bar of Mac OS X.

So, let's open a new finder window and try to perform a search: the search for the word of discussion assume MrWebMaster and show screenshots related to this research on my computer.

After typing the search term you will see that the contents of the main window of the finder will be updated with the results of research and how research is done you will notice every time a new character is entered in the search field. The final result for the word MrWebMaster is as follows:

As we can see from the counter at the bottom were found more than 100 files containing the search string. Among these are html files, Java projects, folders and images.

Another thing you probably notice is a new gray bar appeared in the toolbar of the finder. Through this toolbar you can search the restrictions on obtaining a data filtering. By default the search is performed on all the computers and what can be seen from the fact that the label This machine has a darker background and as it is enabled. Next to find another label (in the screenshot you see the full name of the folder because the length is greater than the viewable content in the space of the label) that indicates the current folder in which we stand. In my case the folder is the folder and clicking Articles MrWebMaster restrict your search only to the contents of the files within this folder.

By continuing to analyze the new search bar that you can find further data filtering, it is possible to change the default search is also performed on the contents of each file only shrinking it to the file name by simply clicking on the label Document Name .

Even with these two instruments can significantly reduce the search results, but you can make filtering more targeted and in-depth simply clicking on the icon of the far right of the search bar. Clicking on that icon comprarirà further search bar like this:

From here you can narrow your search by specifying certain characteristics of the file you want to try: default esmepio can restrict your search to select a file type extension.

By clicking on the label type you'll see a menu where you can choose the characteristic of the file for which we want to reduce the search.

Depending on the menu item that you will select the same time change the value to insert. For example, if we select the last entry date opening the search bar will change as in the screenshot below:

In turn, you can edit the fields as soon as the search appeared to be changing "the past" to "exactly".

It 'can also customize your search criteria by clicking on the "other" menu presented in the penultimate screenshots. Clicking this item will open a new window where you can check the various search criteria that you want to use. As you can see yourself looking at the new window, you can search virtually any attribute of the file.

It is also possible to search across multiple attributes linked simply by setting the first search criterion, then clicking on the icon of the longer and finally enter another search criteria. An example of this is visible in the screenshot below:

Out this chapter an overview on the use of spotlights integrated into the finder. In the next chapter will show instead spotlight as a tool in the status bar.

• <<Previous Lesson
• Help Index
• Next Lesson>>