HOW TO...
Photos Movies Music Office System HOW TO / Find exactly what you’re looking for
01 Start from scratch
Press å+ç+[Space] to open a Spotlight window, so you can find files using more than keywords. Options in the search bar let you choose to look everywhere or just in the Home folder. To look in a specific folder, browse there, press ç+F and select it in the bar.
02 Build your criteria
Click + at the right of the search options bar to add criteria for files to meet. The leftmost item in a row is the attribute to be inspected. Click it for a list of common attributes. Choose Other to see more. Type in the adjacent search bar to look in descriptions as well as names.
03 Quick attribute access
Some extended attributes are regularly useful. File label, for example, matches files by the assigned colour label. Tick the adjacent box in the In Menu column to save browsing the long list. Obscure attributes are separately grouped, so often-used ones are quick to access.
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04 Matching values
Items to the right in a row specify the conditions that files must meet. For dates, you can look within a specific period or relative to today. Many others accept freeform text. The options differ depending on the attribute, but they’re easy to construct, just like sentences.
06 Trim results
If you discern a pattern to superfluous results, they can be excluded. Hold å and the + buttons change to ellipses that add a group of conditions. Setting the group’s first row to None can filter out, say, PDF files when you’re looking for other documents used to create them.
05 Specific file types
Searching by kind works by category, or when you choose Other. So, ‘Microsoft’ shows Word and Excel files since both descriptions contain the word. If you’re unsure what to type, locate an example, choose File > Get Info and copy and paste its kind from the General group.
07 Uncertain terms
Conversely, setting that option to Any can reveal files that you’re not sure contain all of your keywords. For example, files that contain tips or ‘keyboard shortcuts,’ but not necessarily both. Be careful to enclose phrases in double-quotes to match them exactly.
To revise a smart folder, open it, click the Action (cog) button in the toolbar, and pick Show Search Criteria. A right-click on the sidebar searches for this option. To keep the old and modified versions, duplicate the smart folder. Sidebar searches are in ~/Library/Saved Searches.
08 Be precise and quick
In Lion, the Finder’s search bar tries to interpret the meaning of keywords. Choosing a suggestion turns it into a token. Click the left bit to change scope. Double-click the right bit to change keyword. This reduces the amount of clicking needed to specify search terms. ●
September 2011
MacFormat.co.uk
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