Copyright 2007, 2008 Claire J Rottenberg

You're probably familiar with Spotlight, the Mac OS X (Leopard and Tiger) superfast search technology, and you may already use it extensively. Spotlight is accessible, of course, in the Mac OS X Finder, but it also is available in Mac OS X applications, such as Mail and Safari. But Apple doesn't limit Mac OS X searches to only Spotlight. Standard Find & Replace options are included in most applications. In addition, many Mac OS X applications include Google and Dictionary search options. In this article, I briefly explain the different search options available in Mac OS X (Leopard and Tiger) and in the free programs packaged with the operating system.

Spotlight & Finder

With Spotlight, you can search for files on all hard drives that have been indexed. There are three ways to search for files from the Finder:

  1. Use the Spotlight option in the top right corner of the Mac OS X menu bar. 
  2. Use the search text box on the Finder Toolbar.
  3. Press Command-F to open a Finder search window.

When you type a search term in the Spotlight or Finder text box, search results will immediately appear below the search box. If you see the file you want, you can open it by double-clicking on the file name in the search results pane in the Finder or single-clicking on the file name in the Spotlight pane.

There are two major differences in how the results are displayed and how you can use the results:

  1. When you select a file in the Finder results window, the folder path for the file is displayed on the bottom of the window. You can then open the folder that contains the file instead of opening the file. The Spotlight pane, on the other hand, displays only the file name.
  2. Searches from the Finder window can be saved and used again at a later date, but searches from the Spotlight pane cannot be saved.

Because of the differences in display and use options, the Spotlight pane and Finder window search functions can be used for different purposes. For example, if you want to quickly find a TextEdit file that you want to open and edit, the Spotlight pane option might be quicker and more efficient. However, if you want to find a file that you would like to delete from your computer, the Finder option would be the better choice.

Spotlight & Mac OS X Applications

Spotlight is also used for superfast searching of email messages in the Apple Mail program, songs in iTunes, bookmarks in Safari, addresses in Address Book, and for similar functions in other Mac OS X programs. When you search in a Spotlight enabled application, results appear immediately, just as they do in the Spotlight pane or Finder window. Some programs even expand Spotlight's features or use Spotlight for more than one function. For example, Safari uses Spotlight technology for searching RSS feeds and for searching your bookmarks and browsing history.

Some Mac OS X applications don't use Spotlight within the program itself but they provide ways to mark documents so that the files can be easily found with global Spotlight searches. For example, TextEdit lets you record document properties, such as author, title or subject, that you can search for in the Spotlight pane or Finder window. Other programs like Preview, let you assign keywords that can later be used for Spotlight searches.

Find & Replace

Spotlight is great for finding files and data but it doesn't let you replace information, so many Mac OS X applications also provide a more standard Find & Replace feature. Since Apple knows that users need consistency, the Mac OS X Find & Replace function is similar in all programs that use it. The feature is usually accessed from a program's Edit menu and several options appear on most of the menus. These include Find..., Find Next and Find Previous. The Find & Replace pane is also usually the same across programs, with common options, such as Replace, Replace All, Replace & Find, Previous, and Next.

Google Search

A special search feature in some Mac OS X programs is the ability to start an Internet search from within the program. The option is usually accessed with a contextual menu that offers an option to "Search in Google" for a highlighted word in a document. For example, you can highlight a word in a TextEdit document, right-click with your mouse on the word and select Search in Google from the contextual menu. The Safari web browser will open to a search results page for the highlighted word.

Dictionary Search

Another special search option in some Mac OS X programs is an option to search for a highlighted word in the Mac OS X Dictionary application. Like the "Search in Google" feature, the "Look Up in Dictionary" option is accessed with a contextual menu. When you highlight a word and then access the option, a small pane opens with a definition, pronunciation and part of speech for the word. If you want more information on the word, you can launch the Dictionary program from this small pane.

As you can see, Mac OS X provides many options for searching for information on your computer. When you combine good file organization with the search functions, you can make your computing life easier and quicker.