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How to Improve Spotlight Searches on Mac: Spotlight makes it easy to find anything on your Mac, including text inside all common file formats. Spotlight can be used to do direct searches in macOS in two different ways: by using the Spotlight item in the menu bar or pressing Command+Spacebar, or by using a Search field in the Finder or pressing Command+Option+Spacebar.
Both kinds of searches will give you a set of results that are similar, but not the same. Both types of searches show you matching file and folder names, email messages and documents that include the search text, and other metadata matches. The Spotlight search in the menu bar includes any other categories you have left on by default or turned on later. You might see the times of movies, a description of a book, suggested websites, sports scores, the weather, and other things that make sense in the context.
How to Improve Spotlight Searches on Mac
Look for Unit Conversions
Depending on where you live, you may not use the same units as people in other places. For example, the United States measures temperatures in Fahrenheit, while most other countries use Celsius. One of the best things about Spotlight is that it can convert between different units.
Spotlight works well for simple weight and measurement conversions, like “10 kg to pounds,” “6 km to miles,” or “29 C to F.” You can also use it to look up currency conversion rates, like “85 USD to GBP”. Note, though, that not all currencies can be used with this feature.
Use Keyboard Shortcuts
- Command + Space: open Spotlight (can be changed under Spotlight preferences).
- Command + Down/Up arrow – move to the first result in the next/previous category.
- Command + R – display the current search result in a Finder window.
Search for Images on the Web
One of the newer features of Spotlight on macOS is that you can search for images on the web in addition to the ones on your Mac. Once you type in your search term, Spotlight will find photos on the internet that are similar to what you’re looking for. You can see what a screenshot looks like in the picture below.
When you find a photo you like, you can double-click on it to make it bigger. And if you click on the Safari tab that says “Webpage Title” under it, you can go to the site where Spotlight got the picture.
Start Actions
One of the best things about using a Mac is how easy it is to do more than one thing at once. We’ve already talked about how to open and use Spotlight with keyboard shortcuts. But did you know that you can use this handy tool to start certain tasks on your Mac?
When you use Spotlight on your Mac, you can type in a command to start on your computer. If you do this, you won’t have to open that app; you can do everything you need to from Spotlight. If you have an iPhone, the Spotlight section lets you do similar things.
Open Siri via Spotlight
Siri is one of the most-used features on Apple devices, and it can make things a lot easier to do. In the same way, Siri is a great way to find search results online if you don’t want to type your question. You can turn on Siri by clicking on the icon in the macOS menu bar, but using Spotlight is even easier. You can open Siri with Spotlight by typing “Siri” into the search bar. When you click on the icon, Siri will turn on and you can start talking. Siri will then do everything it can to help you.
FAQs
The built-in Spotlight tool allows you to search for any apps, files, and folders on your Mac. But since it scans all the files in your external hard drives, Time Machine backups, and more, Spotlight can slow your Mac down.
One of the basic yet essential Spotlight tricks is to use a keyboard shortcut to invoke Spotlight Search from anywhere on the system. While the default way to do this, preferred by most users, is to click on the magnifier icon in the menu bar, using a keyboard shortcut — Command+Space — makes the process a lot quicker.
If your Spotlight search on iPhone become slow, it might have something to do with it. Step 1: Go to Settings>Siri & Search>Suggestions From Apple. Step 2: Toggle off the button next to Allow Notifications, Show in App Library, Show When Sharing, Show When Listening.