Switching to the Mac[c] The Missing Manual

2.14. Finding Files 2: The Find Command

Mac OS X's File Find command ( -F) opens the Search window shown in Figure 2-27. It's a lot more powerful (and complex) than the basic Spotlight menu, because it can hunt down icons using extremely specific criteria. If you spent enough time setting up the search, you could use this feature to find a document whose name begins with the letters Cro , is over one megabyte in size , was created after August 24 but before the end of the year, was changed within the last week, has the file name suffix .doc , and contains the phrase "attitude adjustment." (Of course, if you knew that much about a file, you'd probably know where it is, too, without having to use the Search window. But you get the picture.)

Figure 2-27. The first time you use it, the new Search dialog box opens up ready to search your entire hard drive (except other people's Home folders), regardless of file type. But don't settleSpotlight has many more tricks up its software sleeve.

UP TO SPEED

The Search Bar

See the ovalish text box at the top of every Finder window? This, too, is a piece of the Spotlight empire. The beauty of this bar, though, is that it can search only the open window (including any folders in it, and folders within folders, and so on).

To use it, just type a few letters of whatever you're looking for. The window instantly changes into the Search dialog box described on the previous pages, with one key difference: Among the search places listed along the top (Home, Computer, and so on), you'll see the name of the window you're searching. It will say, for example, "Folder 'Music.'"

What's so convenient about this feature is that you can narrow the scope of your search to just the current window by clicking that button. Spotlight doesn't even make you retype the search request.

Even better, once you've clicked the current-folder button in one Search window, Mac OS X will remember to narrow your results for each subsequent search you do. In other words, you've just told Mac OS X that you always want it to search only inside the current windowat least until you click a different button at the top of the window.

In any case, once you've rounded up a list of matches, you can work with them just as described on Section 2.14.3.

2.14.1. Where to Look

The words at the top of the windowServers, Computer, Home, and Othersare buttons . You click one to specify where you want Spotlight to do its searching. Here's what they mean:

Figure 2-28. To limit a search by restricting it to a certain disk or folder, click Others. This list box appears. Now you can drag a disk, a folder, or a set of folders directly off the desktop and into the list. Or click + and then navigate to the item you want to add. (To ditch something, click it and then click the button.)

2.14.2. What to Look For

If all you want to do is search your entire computer for files containing certain text, you may as well use the Spotlight menu described at the beginning of this chapter.

The power of the Search window , though, is that it lets you design much more specific searches, using over 125 different search criteria: date modified, file size, the "last opened" date, color label, copyright holder's name, shutter speed (of a digital photo), tempo (of a music file), and so on. Figure 2-29 illustrates how detailed this kind of search can be.

Figure 2-29. By repeatedly clicking the + button at the right end of the search-criteria rows, you can limit your search to files that were created before or after a certain date, that are larger or smaller than a certain size, and so forth.

To add a criterion to the list, click one of the + buttons at the right end of the dialog box. A new row appears in the window, whose pop-up menus you can use to specify what date, what file size, and so on. Figure 2-29 shows how you might build, for example, a search for all photo files that you've opened within the last week that contain a Photoshop layer named Freckle Removal .

To delete a row from the Find window, click the button at its right end.

Here's a rundown of the ways you can restrict your search, according to the options you'll find in the first pop-up menu of a row. Note that after you choose from that first pop-up menu (Last Opened, for example), you're supposed to use the second pop-up menu to narrow the choice (Within the Last 2 weeks), as you'll read below.

You never know. Someday, you may remember nothing about a photo you're looking for except that you used the flash and an F-stop of 1.8.

Figure 2-31. Each option comes with an appropriate set of "find what?" controls. For example, if you choose a criterion that requires a number, like "Pixel height" (how tall a photo is), you'll get a "Greater than"/ "Less than" pop-up menu and a box where you can type in a number. Type in the parameter you want, and let Spotlight do the rest.

2.14.3. What to Do with Search Results

You can manipulate the list of search results much the way you'd approach a list of files in a standard Finder list view window. You can move up or down the list by pressing the arrow keys, scroll a "page" at a time with the Page Up and Page Down keys, and so on. You can also highlight multiple icons simultaneously , the same way you would in a Finder list view: Highlight all of them by choosing Edit Select All, highlight individual items by -clicking them, drag diagonally to enclose a cluster of found items, and so on.

Or you can proceed in any one of these ways:

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