Spotlight is a feature that needs its own article. It’s one of the many but very important feature on your MAC. Spotlight is a system-wide desktop search feature of the MAC.
Spotlight is a selection-based search system, which creates an index of all items and files on your system. It is designed to allow the user to quickly locate a wide variety of items on on your MAC.
With Spotlight, you can find apps, documents, and other files on your MAC. And with Spotlight Suggestions, you can also get news, sports, movies, weather, Currency Conversion, Calculator, and much more.
How to access Spotlight Search?
There are multiple ways to access Spotlight search.
Method 1
Press Command (⌘) + Spacebar to launch the Spotlight Search.
Press Command (⌘) + Spacebar to launch the Spotlight Search.
Method 2
Launch Spotlight search by clicking on the Magnifying glass in the Top Menu Bar
Magnifying glass in Top Menu Bar
Let’s Search with Spotlight
Launch the Spotlight using one of the 2 methods mentioned above and search for anything you’d like to find.
Spotlight does the regular search of your files on the MAC. However, that is not what I wanted to show, Spotlight is much more powerful a tool than to just be used for searching the file. Checkout what I searched –
So, I decided to search for a Gas station near me, and voilà. It not only gave the map but also the address and the website.
Spotlight Search Results
To open the searched item, Double click it or press Enter from your Keyboard.
You can also search by Kind or Location of the file times
For specifically searching for a file type you can use the filters while using the Spotlight. Use “Kind” for searching a specific type of file type. For e.g., Kind:audio followed by the title of the song
Spotlight search by kind
To locate the file on your MAC simple press Command (⌘) key. The Physical location of the file will be shown on the bottom right corner.
If you intend to open the location where the selected file is located, Press Command (⌘) + R. It shall open the File location in a Finder Window.
Spotlight can show you the weather too
I just types Weather and the location was auto picked from my Laptop and I have the Current Weather details on screen with a 10 Day forecast.
Spotlight weather results
Let me now show you the Magic of Spotlight
I typed the word “Oblivion” in the Spotlight Search bar and variety of results that I got was mind blowing. I got search results that there is a Video Game called Oblivion, There is a Tom Cruise movie Oblivion(2013) plus the definition of the word Oblivion. Check out the images for yourself.
Spotlight Search results Definition Spotlight Search results Movie Spotlight search Video Games
Spotlight can do calculations, convert Currency, convert Weights and lot more.
Spotlight Currency Convertor Spotlight Follows BODMAS Spotlight lbs to Kg convertor Spotlight search results for establishments Spotlight results for upcoming Movies
In a nutshell, Spotlight is a tool that can provide help to you in ways that you can not thank enough. Explore and utilize the power of Spotlight.
The Mac ways series blogs
- The Mac Ways
- MAC Address Book
- Uninstalling Applications on MAC
- Installing Applications on MAC
- What is my MAC OS Version
- CTRL + ALT + DEL on MAC
- Where is my Library Folder on MAC?
- MAC Trackpad – Cheatsheet
- MAC OS – Tips and Tricks
- Reset MAC password using the MAC OS Recovery Tool
- Enable Three Finger Drag
- Lesser Known Facts about MAC
- Lesser Known Facts about MAC Part 2
- How do I Right Click on a MAC?
Follow us on our Official Social Media Platforms.
8 thoughts on “Spotlight Search”