OK, you’ve seen Spotlight mentioned a few times on this site already, so what is it? Spotlight is a tool built in to Apple’s Mac OS X that debuted with 10.4 “Tiger” in 2005. Basically, it was like Google for your home computer, indexing every file – even the text within the file – on your computer. It allowed almost instantaneous location of any file on your system. So say that you typed a document two years ago. You suddenly have a use for it again, but you can’t remember what you named it or where exactly you placed it, and sifting through 1,000 other files in your Documents Folder doesn’t sound too enticing. BUT, you remember that it said something about Richard Simmons wearing a tutu. So you invoke spotlight and type in “Richard Simmons tutu,” and a mere second or two later, all of the files you have which contain those words are displayed (hopefully no more than two or three, you sicko!). Just that fast, Spotlight has found your file.
Sounds Cool; How Do I Invoke a Spotlight Search?
Spotlight is built into the core of the system, so it’s prevalent throughout. However, the easiest way is to click on the blue Magnifying Glass icon in the upper right corner of the Menu Bar (top of the screen). Start typing, and Spotlight starts searching just that fast. If you have any Finder windows open, you’ll also notice by default that there’s a Search Field in the upper-left corner of each. Start typing, and – you guessed it – it will perform a Spotlight-powered search. The ones started here, however, are a little more flexible. Once you start a search, you will see a small bar pop up just above your files that allows you to restrict your search to just the folder you’re in, or other folders, or the entire computer if you choose (just like searching from the Menu Bar Icon).
Essentially, anywhere within your computer system you see a search box, it will invoke a spotlight search of some sorts. But again, the quickest, easiest way to do so, across your entire computer, is from the Menu Bar Icon at the top right corner.
Cool! Are there other great ways to put it to use for me?
Well I’m glad you asked. On just about any file in your system, from the Finder, you can go to File>Get Info (or as a shortcut, hit the Apple Key + “I”, or right-click on the file and select Get Info), and a window will pop open showing you all kinds of specifics about the file. You can see the name, properties, location, and all kinds of good things.
One of particular interest is near the top, in blue
Example 1
Say you’re doing a project that requires lots of different files. You’re putting together a flyer that you typed up in Pages, you’re putting together a pile of pictures to insert later, and maybe a video file you’re making in iMovie. All of this for Aunt Patty. Well, chances are Aunt Patty’s name isn’t written somewhere. Wouldn’t it be nice if later, when you’d forgotten the name of the files you were using for her and just thinking “The things I did for Aunt Patty Last year, where are they?” Well, you could do that here. Type in something like “Aunt Patty’s Church Flyer” into that field. Even though that shows up nowhere inside the file, Spotlight will search those “Keywords” you entered and pull them up. Snazzy.
Example 2
Here’s a trick I used to use at my old job. I managed a lot of web content, including pictures of many different items and item combinations. I used to tag each file with information about what the picture contained. So if it was two red teddy bears & a black T-Rex doll, I’d type that stuff into the keywords box (I actually used “Automator” to make the task easier. More on that in a different Article). Some time later, if I came across the need for a picture of a teddy bear or two, maybe a red one, or a black T-Rex doll, I could find those pictures containing those things rather quickly using Spotlight & the Spotlight Comments I had filled out!
You’re catching on. Remember earlier when I mentioned starting a search from within a finder window? Well, there’s a really cool thing you can do by combining Spotlight & Folders: Saved Searches. You can create what’s called Smart Folders, which are folders that automatically update to show you files that fit a certain criteria you define. Say for instance you wanted to create a folder that shows you each of your files that has the text “random bob” in it. Start a search, save the criteria, and tell the Finder where to put this new Smart Folder you just created. Now, every time you create a new document that has “random bob” in it somewhere, it will show up in this folder you created.
So how do you go about creating these things? When Finder is the active application, you can do it directly by going to File>New Smart Folder. The alternative way – like we discussed earlier – is simply to start a new search from within Finder. Once you start typing, you’ll see something like this:
From here, you can hit the “+” symbol near the top right corner, and further refine the search, and thereby the contents of the folder, such as this:
And once you’ve done that, hit the “Save” command also near the top right corner, filling out the name and telling the system where to place this special folder, like on the Desktop, for instance.
End
Spotlight is a very powerful search tool that can make your life that much easier. I don’t view it as an alternative to proper file management practices, but rather as a compliment or even a supplement. I use keywording on my files to help track things, such as who helped on the file, so that if I need a reference or to give one later, I can quickly view someone’s contributions. I can also create smart folders for different purposes, like to keep some images for certain clients on hand easily.
There’s the obvious benefit of being able to pull back from the distant past documents that you’ve long forgotten what you named, but that you know what they were about and what they said. Spotlight will only get better in future OS versions, but even with this initial release, I think it’s a very powerful tool, and one that can definitely help to streamline your work and play, and help you get the most out of your time at the computer. Go on, you know you want to; play with Spotlight!