What is Spotlight?

Spotlight is a new feature of Mac OS 10.4 and later which allows users to search for files based on name, size, type, etc... as well as the contents of the file. Mac OS 10.4 builds a database of all this information so that when the user does a file search the results can be found fairly quickly-usually in just a few seconds. Users can make the search as broad or narrow as they choose depending on where the search is to take place and what criteria are specifed for the search.

In order to do a Spotlight search a user needs to click on the spyglass icon in the upper right-hand part of the screen when in the Finder or select Find from the File menu in the Finder. This window should appear.

For a simple search for a file with a particular filename, enter the filename in the field in the upper right-hand part of the search window. (The field with the spyglass at the left end of the name. The search can be narrowed by doing one of the following things.

• Choose the disk or part of the disk to be searched by selecting one of the options from the bar below the file name search field. By default Server, Computer, Home and Others will appear on the bar. If a folder was open when the search was started then that folder-and it's subfolders-will also appear as an option for the search. In this case the folder Documents was open when the search was initiated so if it's selected then only the files in that folder and it's subfolders will be searched.
• Select one of the search modfiers. By default they're set to Kind : Any and Last Opened : Any Date.