...this week, my menubar items, including the Spotlight menubar icon, went missing as a result of the FrontRow update on my hacked FrontRow installation (see separate thread in Troubleshooting).
...anyway... I didn't realize how much I would miss using Spotlight until it wasn't there! It turns out I'm a fan... and can't live without it.
Nope... it still works in the Finder windows, but that's it... anyway - I'm now back to full functionality after doing a comple reinstall (trying to patch the affected Bezel Services files didn't work for me, although some claim it to have worked for them).
I don't use Spotlight all that often because I keep my files in a pretty organized structure, but when I do use it, it inevitably saves me a lot of time. To my mind, Spotlight is the single best thing about Tiger.
__________________
MBP C2D 2.2/120GB/2GB (10.5.0)
G4 1.42 mini 80GB/1024/Combo/AP/BT (10.4.10); 20" ACD; miniStack+300GB; iSight; AirPort Express
G3 600 iBook 30GB/640/DVD-ROM/AP (10.4.10)
4G iPod (40GB) | 2G iPod nano (4 GB-red) | My Mac blog: Singing the Apple
I developed a Spotlight plugin that indexes a certain type of application log file. At any time I have about 20,000 log files fully searchable, which is about 6 months of data. Each log file is anywhere from 2MB to 10MB gzipped. All this on a 533 PowerMac G4.
So you can say I'm a big Spotlight fan.
**However**
I notice that Spotlight does loose some index information from time to time and I've had to develop some cron jobs (scripts on a timer for those not unix geeks) to check the index and reindex missing files. There is not a lot of documentation on the inner workings of the md suite of commands (mdfind, mdutil, mdls).
My biggest beef with spotlight is that it is force fed to us. I would love the option to disable it totally and jsut use a regular find file again. That and the fact that's it's interface is HORRID. Why oh why does it start searching before you've actualyl finished entering your terms? That is the worst move I think Apple has made in a long while for their interface. The same holds true for iTunes, Mail, and everything else that uses the technology. Talk about chewing up cycles for nothing.
Yeah, maybe it would have been nice for Apple to give people the option of using the "old way" of searching. But like a lot of new things, once you get to know them its amazing how one can become dependent on them.
Did you have a look at the Spotlight Tips link I posted?
Possible workarounds.
1) you can disable spotlight from System Preferences
2) if you cut and paste a string the searching-before-finished-typing is avoided
3) Have you had a look at the "kind" and "date" keyword modifiers?
Example, you just want to find folders that match the pattern "foobar"
So in Finder search window type:
kind:folder foobar
(works also from the Tool Bar spotlight icon too)
Spotlight “kind” Keyword List
====================
Applications kind:application, kind:applications, kind:app
Contacts kind:contact, kind:contacts
Folders kind:folder, kind:folders
Email kind:email, kind:emails, kind:mail message, kind:mail messages
iCal Events kind:event, kind:events
iCal To Dos kind:todo, kind:todos, kind:to do, kind:to dos
Images kind:image, kind:images
Movies kind:movie, kind:movies
Music kind:music
Audio kind:audio
PDF kind:pdf, kind:pdfs
Preferences kind:system preferences, kind:preferences
Bookmarks kind:bookmark, kind:bookmarks
Fonts kind:font, kind:fonts
Presentations kind:presentations, kind:presentation
Then there's the date keywords
======================
Here’s the complete list of date ranges that you can specify:
date:this month
date:this week
date:this year
date:today
date:yesterday
date:tomorrow
date:next month
date:next week
date:next year
EasyFind is excellent and fast for files and folders and excellent intuitive interface.
Leave SpotLight for email searches.
Best balance I've found.
The Spotlight interface just sucks - garbage - unfinished, interfering piece of junk.
__________________ Spring Cleaning Sale email for flyer..sweet prices across the board • Many Retina's, Airs, new iMacs all on sale - great • OWC at par Trades welcome
i'm not particularly a big fan of relying on metadata or the current trend to "flatten the file system." After all it's not like there's still an 8.3 naming convention, or unless you happen to name every document essay.pages. Spotlight in the menubar itself serves more as a convenient alternative to a Run command.
__________________
MacBook Revision D : 2.0 GHz Intel Merom Core 2 Duo : 4 GB RAM 80 GB SMS HDD : Combo Drive
PowerBook G4 12" Revision E : 1.5 GHz PowerPC G4 : 768 MB RAM : 80 GB SMS HDD : 8x SuperDrive
Mac mini Revision B : 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 : 512 MB RAM : 5400 RPM 40 GB HDD : Combo Drive
Mac OS X Tiger 10.5.2 : iLife : iWork : Apple Remote Desktop : .mac : Wireless Mighty Mouse
Don't need or want it. Which is probably why ALL my Apple menu items are missing. I have a blank space there now.
I have used EasyFind, ewhich is good. locate in Terminal is blindingly fast.
Matt Neuberg just posted a Spotlight replacement call 'Notlight'. Find it at http://www.tidbits.com/matt/ under cocoa things. I've downloaded it, but have been far too busy to see what it's all about.
Spring Cleaning Sale email for flyer..sweet prices across the board • Many Retina's, Airs, new iMacs all on sale - great • OWC at par Trades welcome
Linear Mode
