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How to Use Spotlight on macOS

by Ayushi Chauhan
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For an Apple Mac, Spotlight is effectively Google. You can use the Spotlight search shortcut to look up anything. You may search for documents, images, audio files, iPhone app, and even system preferences using Spotlight, which compiles an index of all the things and files on your computer. It goes a step further by enabling you to do keyword searches across documents and online pages that are saved in your web browser’s history.

The built-in utility for finding and opening documents, folders, programmes, music, images, and videos as well as System Preferences’ choices, definitions, and fast looks is called Spotlight Search on Mac. It is quite simple to summon and produces results quickly. We mentioned below are the ways to Use Spotlight on macOS.

Ways to Use Spotlight on macOS

Open and use Spotlight Search on Mac

  • Click on Spotlight icon in the upper right corner of your Mac screen to open the Spotlight search bar. Alternatively, you can press the Mac Spotlight keyboard shortcut – Command + Spacebar.
  • Type your search query in the search box. The search results will appear as you type.
  • Click on the search results to preview them.
  • Double-click your target object in the search results to open it directly.

    • Customize Spotlight search results

    Only the categories of information that you have permitted in Spotlight preferences can be searched for by Spotlight. If the Spotlight search results don’t yield what you’re looking for, you can adjust the Spotlight options to suit your needs.

  • Choose the Apple menu > System Preferences > Spotlight.
  • Move the cursor to the Search Results tab.
  • Select the check box next to Categories to specify what Spotlight can show you. Only the selected categories will be displayed in the search results. It is recommended that you select all categories on the Search Results tab.
  • Click the Privacy tab.
  • Select the folder or disk you previously added to the list to prevent Spotlight from searching it. If the item you need or frequently use is in the folder or drive listed here, select the folder or drive and click the “-” icon at the bottom to remove it.

    • Final Words

    We hope you like our article on how to Use Spotlight on macOS. On your Mac, Spotlight makes it simple to find anything, including text included within any common file format. For direct searching, macOS provides Spotlight in two different places: in the menu bar as a Spotlight item or by pressing Command-space; and in the Finder as a Search box or by pressing Command-Option-space.

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