Getting the most out of the revamped OS X Spotlight search in Yosemite

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  • Reply 21 of 69
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    ibeam wrote: »
    Even if I unchecked everything except documents, it still would not be usable in my workflow, as I mentioned, because it does not show the path to the document and in most instances if I am looking for a LARGE .psd I don't want to wait 30 seconds to see a preview, I just want to go to the parent directory. The traditional search suits my needs exactly.

    To be fair you can simply select the item, scroll down and double click "Show in Finder" and it shows in the finder immediately by opening the enclosing folder ... even faster than reading a path only to have to then use the Finder manually. I think that Show In Finder isn't well placed and should be a fixed button on top or at right. I suspect many haven't realized it's there yet.

    BTW what type of Mac takes 30 seconds to show a preview? Mine are instant. Maybe hard drive or Finder damaged? It doesn't matter how large your .psd is it already contains a preview. I regularly work with HDR and three 22 MB RAW images combined as a 16 bit Tiff, they are massive. Spotlight shows the preview instantly as it is already there.

    1000
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  • Reply 22 of 69
    cornchipcornchip Posts: 1,954member
    Two stars lol
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  • Reply 23 of 69
    ibeamibeam Posts: 322member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post





    BTW what type of Mac takes 30 seconds to show a preview Mine are instant. Maybe hard drive or Finder damaged?

    Maybe 30 seconds is a slight exaggeration however my psd files are routinely 200+ MB. Spreadsheets take even longer to preview. I'm not on Yosemite yet but I don't see how to get to the containing folder. If I hold the ? key I can see it but I can't click on it. Anyway it doesn't matter because I'm fine with the other search.

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  • Reply 24 of 69
    splifsplif Posts: 603member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ibeam View Post

     

    Even if I unchecked everything except documents, it still would not be usable in my workflow, as I mentioned, because it does not show the path to the document and in most instances if I am looking for a LARGE .psd I don't want to wait 30 seconds to see a preview, I just want to go to the parent directory. The traditional search suits my needs exactly.




    Highlight the file in Spotlight (on the left side) scroll down to the bottom of spotlight & double click show in Finder. Change the order of what is searched in the Spotlight system preferences by dragging them into the order that is relevant to you. By the way the Finder search seems to be based on the same order as your system preferences.

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  • Reply 25 of 69
    ibeamibeam Posts: 322member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Splif View Post

     



    Highlight the file in Spotlight (on the left side) scroll down to the bottom of spotlight & double click show in Finder. Change the order of what is searched in the Spotlight system preferences by dragging them into the order that is relevant to you.


    Thanks for the tip. I still like the other search better for my needs.

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  • Reply 26 of 69
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    ibeam wrote: »
    Maybe 30 seconds is a slight exaggeration however my psd files are routinely 200+ MB. Spreadsheets take even longer to preview. I'm not on Yosemite yet but I don't see how to get to the containing folder. If I hold the ? key I can see it but I can't click on it. Anyway it doesn't matter because I'm fine with the other search.



    If you are not on Yosemite the discussion about the new Spotlight is moot! Although I can reboot to Mavericks later and probably find what you are missing there too, I have been on 10.10 so long I can't remember now!

    Spreadsheets I can't speak to but 200 MB .psd already has a preview built in. The size is irrelevant to showing the preview. As I said above I work with large files too.
    I have seen this slow down many times on other people's Macs and most times running Disk Warrior on the data drive can work wonders. It's generally damage to the drive's directories causing the slow down. Or they are using a crappy 5400 RPM hard drive over USB 2.
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  • Reply 27 of 69
    ibeamibeam Posts: 322member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post



    To be fair you can simply select the item, scroll down and double click "Show in Finder" and it shows in the finder immediately by opening the enclosing folder ... even faster than reading a path only to have to then use the Finder manually. I think that Show In Finder isn't well placed and should be a fixed button on top or at right. I suspect many haven't realized it's there yet.

     

    I'm planning to upgrade to Yosemite later today. I will try it out. I have a feeling that the other search will still suit my needs better. In my case I have multiple copies of the same files and I want to see the entire path before opening the folder. For example a pdf may be copied in several folders because I have multiple web back ups, but I want the original working files folder so it is helpful to know the path before opening the folder.  As I mentioned I have never used Spotlight so I am not all that familiar with it. I just use the other search and it works fine for me.

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  • Reply 28 of 69
    splifsplif Posts: 603member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by ibeam View Post

     

    Thanks for the tip. I still like the other search better for my needs.




    Your welcome. Whatever works for you. The top hit function is based on the stacking order of Spotlight in system preferences. So is the order of searches in the Finder. 

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  • Reply 29 of 69
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by webmaestro View Post

     

    So, how do you open the FOLDER for a 'found' local item? There used to be a mechanism (I think it was 'Open containing folder').

     

    If you hold down the CMD (Open "apple" key), you can see the path below the description field on the right pane, which helps, but isn't nearly as convenient, especially since you can't always see the entire path for 'deep' items.




    Command double-click the item

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  • Reply 30 of 69
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    ibeam wrote: »
    I'm planning to upgrade to Yosemite later today. I will try it out. I have a feeling that the other search will still suit my needs better. In my case I have multiple copies of the same files and I want to see the entire path before opening the folder. For example a pdf may be copied in several folders because I have multiple web back ups, but I want the original working files folder so it is helpful to know the path before opening the folder.  As I mentioned I have never used Spotlight so I am not all that familiar with it. I just use the other search and it works fine for me.

    In my day of working around the clock on Macs I used Boomerang as it let me set up a bunch of read from and write to folders from within the open and save dialog boxes. This was in Mac OS. Later a product called Direct Folder was around. They have an OS X version called Default Folder X I believe that maybe worth your while checking out. It saves hours in a week in work flow time being able to have that kind of speed up to your current working files and data.
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  • Reply 31 of 69
    ibeamibeam Posts: 322member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post



    I have seen this slow down many times on other people's Macs and most times running Disk Warrior on the data drive can work wonders. It's generally damage to the drive's directories causing the slow down. 

    I haven't repaired the disks in awhile but the Mac is not slow although the disks are rather full. I think the delay I was experiencing, now that I look at it, is that Spotlight was building previews from the top down, as I could see the standard icons changing to preview icons and since it was working on a lot of eps files at the top, which apparently don't have built in previews, when I selected a psd file lower on the list the spotlight preview was not ready yet.

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  • Reply 32 of 69
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    splif wrote: »

    Your welcome. Whatever works for you. The top hit function is based on the stacking order of Spotlight in system preferences. So is the order of searches in the Finder. 

    Right and most people haven't even looked at the settings yet before critiquing Spotlight. I reordered mine and removed many. My only quibble is it not floating, I hate non floating modal dialog boxes with a passion. Always have.
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  • Reply 33 of 69
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    ibeam wrote: »
    I haven't repaired the disks in awhile but the Mac is not slow although the disks are rather full. I think the delay I was experiencing, now that I look at it, is that Spotlight was building previews from the top down, as I could see the standard icons changing to preview icons and since it was working on a lot of eps files at the top, which apparently don't have built in previews, when I selected a psd file lower on the list the spotlight preview was not ready yet.

    Never take your drive over 85% full. Spotlight as i understand it, doesn't build previews it reads what is there. Maybe it does if they are damaged ... I'll have to check on that. However, if you are seeing a slow progression that is related to the speed of reading them I suspect, which is obviously very slow given how small a preview is. Is this reading from a USB 2 external by any chance? Maybe you see a different speed when reading images from the boot drive? That would be a clue.
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  • Reply 34 of 69
    shsfshsf Posts: 302member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post





    To be fair you can simply select the item, scroll down and double click "Show in Finder" and it shows in the finder immediately by opening the enclosing folder ... even faster than reading a path only to have to then use the Finder manually. I think that Show In Finder isn't well placed and should be a fixed button on top or at right. I suspect many haven't realized it's there yet.



    BTW what type of Mac takes 30 seconds to show a preview? Mine are instant. Maybe hard drive or Finder damaged? It doesn't matter how large your .psd is it already contains a preview. I regularly work with HDR and three 22 MB RAW images combined as a 16 bit Tiff, they are massive. Spotlight shows the preview instantly as it is already there.




     

    Initially I thought so too, about the placement of Show All in Finder, and I agree that many haven't figured out yet where it is, but after second thoughts it's dead simple what with inertia scrolling to get way down the list with one flick and click on it. 

     

     

    What I think should be fixed though is that one gets a preview icon on the top right for any app, but you can't click on it, and you should be able to. I am sure a "." will fix this. In addition they 've reverted to a double click to open so one can use the preview on the right, but I am really used to a one click app open. At least you should be able to click the right hand side icon both on the search field and on the spotlight preview window, no reason to double click there. Having said that there is always the return key.

     

     

    But really if they fix this, that is one click on preview icon and make the right side icon clickable again with one click, the new spotlight will be perfect. I 'll feedback about this. 

     

     

    I am loving Yosemite more and more each day btw, I was looking over the icons, in large size, from the get info dialog pane, and I 've noticed in detail what a great Job Ive has done in terms of a fresh colour palette and a design that is quintessential OS X in nature. After having turned the headache inducing (to me) transparency off I am loving the fresher shade of grey too, maybe one minor quibble is that I 'd rather have a dark dock because there's too much silver/grey as is. Although not my preferred font for reading, helvetica is also a great choice for menus. I was, as I am sure others were too, taken aback with the new folder colour on first glance, but they 've grown so much on me these last few days, that I thoroughly enjoy them.

     

    It's really hard to change something that works so well and not to mess it up, as we saw in Lion, which to be honest, was a debacle.  Luckily one that was swiftly corrected. And spotlight looks and works great in Yosemite, these couple of quibbles aside.

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  • Reply 35 of 69
    splifsplif Posts: 603member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post





    Right and most people haven't even looked at the settings yet before critiquing Spotlight. I reordered mine and removed many. My only quibble is it not floating, I hate non floating modal dialog boxes with a passion. Always have.

    Yup, it's pretty much the same as searching in the finder. The command double-click the item tip by Mystigo works great also. The path to the file can easily be found at the top or bottom of the Finder after the Spotlight search. I use both methods. It all depends on the situation & what works at that moment.

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  • Reply 36 of 69
    ibeamibeam Posts: 322member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post





    Is this reading from a USB 2 external by any chance?

    No, two internal 500 GB standard Mac Pro drives but they are around 85% full with probably several million files.

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  • Reply 37 of 69
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    shsf wrote: »
    Initially I thought so too, about the placement of Show All in Finder, and I agree that many haven't figured out yet where it is, but after second thoughts it's dead simple what with inertia scrolling to get way down the list with one flick and click on it. 


    What I think should be fixed though is that one gets a preview icon on the top right for any app, but you can't click on it, and you should be able to. I am sure a "." will fix this. In addition they 've reverted to a double click to open so one can use the preview on the right, but I am really used to a one click app open. At least you should be able to click the right hand side icon both on the search field and on the spotlight preview window, no reason to double click there. Having said that there is always the return key.


    But really if they fix this, that is one click on preview icon and make the right side icon clickable again with one click, the new spotlight will be perfect. I 'll feedback about this. 


    I am loving Yosemite more and more each day btw, I was looking over the icons, in large size, from the get info dialog pane, and I 've noticed in detail what a great Job Ive has done in terms of a fresh colour palette and a design that is quintessential OS X in nature. After having turned the headache inducing (to me) transparency off I am loving the fresher shade of grey too, maybe one minor quibble is that I 'd rather have a dark dock because there's too much silver/grey as is. Although not my preferred font for reading, helvetica is also a great choice for menus. I was, as I am sure others were too, taken aback with the new folder colour on first glance, but they 've grown so much on me these last few days, that I thoroughly enjoy them.

    <span style="line-height:1.4em;">It's really hard to change something that works so well and not to mess it up, as we saw in Lion, which to be honest, was a debacle.</span>
     Luckily one that was swiftly corrected. <span style="line-height:1.4em;">And spotlight looks and works great in Yosemite, these couple of quibbles aside.</span>

    If you double click the preview image it opens the image using the application shown at top (Photoshop CS6 in my screen shot). But why not allow double clicking the file name to open in Finder? You have to select and scroll down ... seems redundant to me ... :)

    Yes i agree 10.10 is the best OS X yet by a long way. Hats off to the team.

    BTW I like dark mode and translucent option on ... each to his own :)

    p.s. Please! It's translucent not transparent ... :D
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  • Reply 38 of 69
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    ibeam wrote: »
    No, two internal 500 GB standard Mac Pro drives but they are around 85% full with probably several million files.

    Gotchya ... Oh I remember having internal drives on my Aluminum Mac Pro :) Yes you are pushing your luck at 85%. I'd DW them asap. I run it weekly.

    No such luxury now of course with the nMac Pro ... but external TB drives are growing on me. I build my own using dual TB docks and bare Barracudas. RAID 0 works a treat using built in soft raid in disk utils.
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  • Reply 39 of 69
    splifsplif Posts: 603member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post





    If you double click the preview image it opens the image using the application shown at top (Photoshop CS6 in my screen shot). But why not allow double clicking the file name to open in Finder? You have to select and scroll down ... seems redundant to me ... image



    Yes i agree 10.10 is the best OS X yet by a long way. Hats off to the team.

    See Mystigo's tip. Command-Doubleclick the file in Spotlight opens it in the Finder.

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  • Reply 40 of 69
    MacPromacpro Posts: 19,873member
    splif wrote: »
    See Mystigo's tip. Command-Doubleclick the file in Spotlight opens it in the Finder.

    Awesome :) I love AI. As opposed to the Apple Support blog ... where if you find a problem instead of an answer you see 200 posts of people saying I have that too ... I swear, if you wrote in saying your Mac kept hovering above the desk and whistling Dixie you'd still get 200 posts saying their mac did too.:rolleyes:

    I missed that strangely. My MO is to try option and command and shift ... and every combination .. with both click and double click on everything just to see what I can break. Then I read that manual. :smokey:
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