11

The finder jumps to file starting which the letter I typed. I typed Z, now I want to see files start with Y. If I type Y it will search for ZY but I want to start from the beginning.

How does the system reset search?

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3
  • 1
    I only just discovered this is a feature a few days ago. I'm pretty sure it wasn't there a few OS versions ago. Does anyone know when it was added?
    – Alexander O'Mara
    May 20, 2020 at 23:33
  • 14
    It has been there since time immemorial (i.e. it pre-dates OS X). You can try it out in this online emulator of a Mac running System 7: jamesfriend.com.au/pce-js
    – Michael MacAskill
    May 21, 2020 at 1:14
  • 1
    @AlexanderO'Mara I've been using this feature on Macs in 1993
    – slebetman
    May 22, 2020 at 5:17

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
31

As nohillside said, you can just wait a couple seconds for the buffer to reset, but you can also hit escape to clear it.

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15

I usually just wait a second or two, and then type the character(s) I wanted to initially.

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2
  • You're a magician
    – Aminadav Glickshtein
    May 20, 2020 at 11:30
  • 1
    Simple, but effective always works best ;)
    – Tetsujin
    May 20, 2020 at 11:31
7

Press the arrow up or arrow down key to change the currently high-lighted file. Then you can start typing from the beginning again!

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