Questions about Spotlight, a system-wide desktop search feature of Apple's Mac OS X operating system.
7
votes
1answer
938 views
How to ensure that spotlight indexes my entire drive?
Spotlight, is a fantastic tool. Took some years, but now I use the command line tools and it's awesome. However today, I found that spotlight does not index /System (!) I'd like spotlight to index ...
3
votes
1answer
207 views
How to add Spotlight comments to the bundled OS X apps?
I'd like to add a Spotlight comment to TextEdit.app. Is that possible?
What I've done:
Open Finder
Browse to /Applications/
Select TextEdit
Press ⌘ + I (Get Info)
Click the lock icon to unlock the ...
1
vote
2answers
220 views
Mac not searching my files
Today I started my Mac (iMac) and when I tried to search in finder or spotlight it produce no results. I think its related to the search cache. I guess it gets corrupted. If this is the case How can I ...
2
votes
1answer
803 views
Spotlight sometimes can't find a file. (that actually exists)
I don't really understand how Spotlight works, I sometimes search for a file that I know it exists, and Spotlight doesn't find it.
Then I browse to it and it's there.
The volume or folders where it is ...
0
votes
2answers
977 views
How can I make spotlight ignore certain file types and directories?
Since spotlight continuously updates the index, sometime the file precedence gets changed around and I might type in "saf" and press return expecting to get Safari, but instead spotlight attempts to ...
1
vote
1answer
190 views
Make Spotlight show files on unmounted volumes
Is there a way to make Spotlight show files that reside in different unmounted Volumes?
I think there is no official way of doing this, and that Apple does not provide a plugin API that allows this ...
3
votes
2answers
162 views
Removed Spotlight, now there's a gap I can't get rid of
I disabled and removed spotlight from my menubar to save performance and space. Now except for saving some space, I have a gap in my menu-bar I'd like to get rid of:
Anyone an idea how to get it ...
3
votes
4answers
1k views
Is it possible to run commands from spotlight?
I run commands in terminal a lot and i'm wondering if it is possible to run the commands from spotlight. For example in spotlight would like to run the command(because i have a lot of network ...
2
votes
2answers
383 views
Help: spotlight can't see Firefox in Applications folder?
(FYI, I'm using Snow Leopard.) I used to launch Firefox using spotlight by just typing "Firefox" to locate it. Since I didn't launch Firefox often, I didn't want it in my dock, so I just got in that ...
1
vote
3answers
239 views
Alternative to Quicksilver Triggers
Well after using QS for quite some time, it no longer works...Even when loading it on a clean SL build with latest Apple updates. When I set up a trigger they will only work until I reboot. At that ...
0
votes
1answer
102 views
Base computation via Spotlight?
Is there a combination of math functions I could use in spotlight to accomplish change of base ? I know I can do it on a case by case basis with normal algebra.
0
votes
2answers
1k views
Change Spotlight's Top Hit?
Say I have two apps that match a search in spotlight (e.g. utility), it seems that Spotlight chooses the first application (sorted alphabetically) as the Top Hit. Is there any way to change this so ...
2
votes
3answers
391 views
Mac Dictionary improvements
I tend to use the dictionary a lot on the mac. Its annoying to launch the app everytime i need to lookup a word. Are there any other apps/hacks to avoid this annoyance? Spotlight lookup is awesome, ...
2
votes
3answers
520 views
Launch default browser spotlight shortcut?
I often switch my default browser between Safari and Chrome. I would like to create a shortcut that will launch the default browser, whatever that may be. This way I don't have to remember what my ...
0
votes
1answer
434 views
How do I temporarily exclude a folder from a search?
I often use spotlight to locate documents quickly. The one annoying thing is that I often email documents to share them and spotlight will find the version of the document indexed in my mailbox ...
1
vote
3answers
346 views
Using Spotlight to play iTunes songs causes another song to play after resuming from pause
Spotlight allows you to play songs from iTunes. Unfortunately, when I pause the song and resume, iTunes goes back to playing what it was playing before I used Spotlight.
Is there any way to fix this ...
1
vote
1answer
801 views
How to find a telephone number strored in contacts by searching for a substring on iPhone
I'd like to search my iPhone contacts using a part of a telephone number as a key (search by substring). The integrated spotlight search, however, doesn't return any entries when searching for a full ...
2
votes
2answers
226 views
How can I get Time Machine to ignore the data created by Spotlight?
I would like Time Machine to ignore the indexes and other metadata created by Spotlight, where are those kept on 10.6?
2
votes
1answer
174 views
Why is Spotlight listing some people from address book twice?
When searching Spotlight, certain Address Book contacts are listed twice. I have confirmed that I do not have two entries in Address Book for those individuals.
The problem is that one of the ...
2
votes
1answer
2k views
How to use Regex with spotlight [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How Can I Search A Specific Type of File in Mac?
How could I use spotlight to search for example for files that end with jar or files that end with doc and at the same ...
1
vote
3answers
377 views
3
votes
3answers
291 views
Spotlight loses index of Applications
When I get warnings that my HD is nearly full (Macbook Air, 64GB SSD), spotlight always loses its index of applications. That means that I can't launch Safari or Mail or other apps, which is the only ...
2
votes
2answers
665 views
LaunchBar/Quicksilver as a replacement of Spotlight?
I asked about the usefulness of spotlight here, as I don't like the drag that spotlight causes all the time.
What I found useful in Spotlight is those two.
word lookup : spotlight opens ...
0
votes
1answer
154 views
Is there a QuickLook app that will highlight search terms within MS Word documents?
I have a client with a large number of Word documents that he needs to be able to search. He's been using Spotlight and Quick Look, which has worked pretty well.
He asked me if there was a way to ...
6
votes
1answer
866 views
Why does my Spotlight index get corrupted?
Recently I have been having an issue where at least once a month my Spotlight index gets corrupted, and I can no longer search the content of mail in Mail.app. I can fix the problem by taking my HD ...
3
votes
5answers
275 views
How useful is spotlight?
Personally, I am happy with Spotlight in the sense I just use it for finding something. But, I'm also not happy with Spotlight, as I sometimes feel it slows down my Mac pretty much. Even, I can find ...
3
votes
1answer
108 views
Search a phrase using Spotlight
I find Spotlight very very useful, however I would like to be able to search for documents that contain a given phrase, i.e. words appearing together, instead of anywhere in a document. Do you know of ...
