Mac’s Spotlight desktop search tool

With the launch of Mac OS X Tiger last week yet another desktop search tool is available. Since most of the other desktop search tools on the market are for PC only, Spotlight is good news for Mac users. But what does it do and how good is it?

According to Apple, it searches not only files, folders and documents but also messages in Mail, contacts in Address Book, iCal calendars, System Preferences and applications.

The security issues that surfaced in the early days of Google Desktop Search have led Apple to include a feature that lets you keep certain data safe from prying eyes. This is done by adding folders and files to a Privacy list in the Systems Preferences.

How does it work?

The Spotlight search field is located in the top right hand corner of the screen, in Tiger’s menu bar. In this way, it is always available. To start a search, all you have to do is click the icon and start typing. You see results as soon as you type the first letter.

Spotlight maintains a comprehensive, constantly updated index of both files and metadata: the kind of content, the author, edit history, format, size and other details. The content of your files is indexed too, so search results include the contents of a file or document, not just its title.

Nifty Features

Spotlight has several original and nifty features that makes desktop searching even easier. And like everything Apple does, the user interface is practically self explanatory and easy to use.

You may use operators to limit your search. For example, you can type in relative time periods like “Date:Yesterday” if you know approximately when you last modified the file. If you do not know the format of the file you are looking for, use “kind” to find types of files including “Kind:Movie,” “Kind:Image” or “Kind:Document.” This feature can prove to be very helpful for those of us who are a bit forgetful or just can’t be bothered to keep a tidy hard drive.

Spotlight also lets you use descriptive words to get targeted results, even when searching large amounts of data. For example, to find everything from your sister, type her name. Spotlight returns documents she has written or edited, images she emailed, messages she wrote (and messages you sent to her) and her contact information. The results are sorted into categories, so it is easy to find your lost information -- that picture from the family dinner last Christmas or the recipe for the cake she brought that she sent you sometime in January.

Smart Folders

Smart Folders is a feature that deserves special attention. The files in a Smart Folder are grouped together based on search criteria instead of physical location. In this way the same file can appear in multiple Smart Folders without moving from its original saved location on your system.

Trying to create a Smart Folder can be a little confusing at first – it is not done in Spotlight at all... Since Spotlight is an integrated part of the operating system, a Smart Folder is created in the Finder choosing File and then New Smart Folder.

Once you know how, it works like a dream. You get to refine your search using several pull-down menus. If you choose to save your search, the Smart Folder automatically updates as you add or remove documents from your Mac. You can also use this feature to set up Smart Mailboxes according to Spotlight queries or create Smart Groups in Address Book using Spotlight searches on card content including birthdays, anniversaries and location.

How good is it?

So how good is Spotlight really? There seems to be no limit to the hype. Newsfactor Technology News writes:

“This isn't just a fast find command. It's an enhancement that's so deep, convenient and powerful that it threatens to reduce the 20-year-old Mac/Windows system of nested folders to irrelevance. Why burrow around in folders when you can open any file or program with a couple of keystrokes?”

This is what Gmail did for mailboxes, but will Spotlight do it for your Mac hard drive? Not just yet. Despite the hype there are still files that can’t be found by Spotlight. At Pandia HQ we were disappointed to see that our Eudora mailboxes are off limits. Spotlight manages to find which folders contain mails with your search term, but the mails themselves never show up in the search results. Similar problems have been reported with Entourage.

So if you use your Mac just with nothing but Apple software, Spotlight might indeed be the all you need in the way of desktop search. For the rest of us, it just isn’t spot on.

See also Pandia's special section on desktop search tools.

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