Big List of Spotlight Annoyances

[TheSpaz]

Here's a list of the things that have been completely annoying me about Spotlight in Leopard. For me, Spotlight has been severely downgraded in Leopard.

1. No more Spotlight Window (big clean window with search results organized with RSS-like interface)

2. Spotlight Searches open in very small Finder windows (need to resize and stretch column headers to get the results to display with any type of readability)

3. Icon view in Spotlight searches are almost completely useless cause you can hardly read the names under the icons unless you make the icons huge.

4. Any manual view settings you apply to a search window will not stick for next time you search. Icons go back to small in icon view and lists do not retain the same column header sizes.

5. When you use the search field in a Finder window, it always automatically searches your entire system even though 99% of the time, I'm just trying to search within that folder. (I use the Spotlight menu to search my drive)

6. There is no more date column in Spotlight's Finder window. Instead, there's a "Last Opened" column which really isn't what I'd be mostly concerned about. I don't need to know when I last OPENED a file... I wanna know when I last saved a file... and of course, there are no view options for Spotligh search windows. However, I know I can add a search criteria to my Spotlight search to sort it by date or whatnot but, that's one extra step that I didn't used to have to take. It was nice just being able to glance over at the modified date of a file.

7. Visual annoyances: Can't seem to get rid of the horizontal scroll bar when viewing Spotlight Searches in the Finder.... Spotlight always opens in a tiny window with a horizontal scroll bar and half the names are cut off by the small list headers columns.

8. What happened to the very simple category separations? I used to love that all of my Fonts were grouped, all of my PDFs were grouped, all of my Images were grouped and that sort of thing. That was VERY nice because you could visually and quickly find what you are looking for. If it was a PDF I was looking for, I could just quickly glance to the PDF section and completely skip over the image and text documents sections because those weren't needed. It was just another way to refine the search better.

Overall, I think Spotlight got a lot worse in Leopard... it feels very unfinished and poorly thought out. They changed what was once good into something that is just so ugly that it's not even funny. I almost hate searching in Leopard now... it just isn't the same and not for the better.

ONE plug about Spotlight in Leopard: Yes, it's faster but, I'd rather have slower but, more organized results.

Any thoughts?

List your thoughts on the new Spotlight. If you think it's better, explain your reasons, if you think it's worse, explain your reasons as well.

[TheSpaz]

Nobody agrees?

[notsofatjames]

I like the new spotlight. It auto selects the top item, which means it can be used as a bit of a launcher. I like the fact it no longer opens its own completely random interface. It now fits in the finder, and seems more integrated with the whole file system. Before youd get different results from the finder based search than spotlight search.

[HLdan]

Nobody agrees?

Nope, don't agree.:rolleyes:

[TheSpaz]

Wow, that sucks... I thought I made some good points. I guess everyone is calming down about Leopard and its no longer big news... I feel the same way... Nobody wants to talk about it anymore I suppose. *sigh*

[HLdan]

No, firstly you did ask if anyone agrees, I as some of the others said we don't. Also it's not that we don't want to talk about Leopard like it's old news but you just want to point out things you don't like. That's not really "talking" about it that ranting. Sorry but prepare to not get disappointed if your thread doesn't catch on with everyone.
Most people are accepting what Apple has done with Leopard and mostly everyone else likes what Leopard is all about so we are on with the next phase getting work done on it.

[Zwhaler]

Nobody agrees?

I 100% agree. I hate the new finder spotlight window... the old one was 10 times better! I don't even know how to tweak it to make it like the old one. I just try to not use it period.

[richard.mac]

@ HDLan hey chill man. not everyone agrees with you and not everyone agrees with TheSpaz so face it.

i dont 100% agree because i love how spotlight is faster and applications default first and i too hate how a spotlight window wasnt a finder window and you couldnt use finder keyboard shortcuts like command-delete etc.

but i strongly agree with 2 & 8. i hate how the spotlight window is a default sized finder window. all my finder windows are quite large to account for using cover flow which needs to be pretty big to be of any benefit. i guess apple didnt notice this and i think its a big design flaw.

i guess quicklook and cover flow have compensated for the lack of catergory seperations but i agree it was very useful.

[koobcamuk]

Wow, that sucks... I thought I made some good points. I guess everyone is calming down about Leopard and its no longer big news... I feel the same way... Nobody wants to talk about it anymore I suppose. *sigh*

Well, I agree.

[Cooknn]

The biggest annoyance for me is that when I am in a folder in Finder and I type in a search term in spotlight (within Finder) it always searches my entire system instead of starting where I am. Is there somewhere I can configure that to behave differently?

That is still considered Spotlight (when within Finder), correct?

[TheSpaz]

The biggest annoyance for me is that when I am in a folder in Finder and I type in a search term in spotlight (within Finder) it always searches my entire system instead of starting where I am. Is there somewhere I can configure that to behave differently?

That is still considered Spotlight (when within Finder), correct?

Yes, it is still called Spotlight but, I too hate that bug you noted. I wish there was a defaults command to fix that.

[Masquerade]

Here's a list of the things that have been completely annoying me about Spotlight in Leopard. For me, Spotlight has been severely downgraded in Leopard.

1. No more Spotlight Window (big clean window with search results organized with RSS-like interface)

2. Spotlight Searches open in very small Finder windows (need to resize and stretch column headers to get the results to display with any type of readability)

3. Icon view in Spotlight searches are almost completely useless cause you can hardly read the names under the icons unless you make the icons huge.

4. Any manual view settings you apply to a search window will not stick for next time you search. Icons go back to small in icon view and lists do not retain the same column header sizes.

5. When you use the search field in a Finder window, it always automatically searches your entire system even though 99% of the time, I'm just trying to search within that folder. (I use the Spotlight menu to search my drive)

6. There is no more date column in Spotlight's Finder window. Instead, there's a "Last Opened" column which really isn't what I'd be mostly concerned about. I don't need to know when I last OPENED a file... I wanna know when I last saved a file... and of course, there are no view options for Spotligh search windows. However, I know I can add a search criteria to my Spotlight search to sort it by date or whatnot but, that's one extra step that I didn't used to have to take. It was nice just being able to glance over at the modified date of a file.

7. Visual annoyances: Can't seem to get rid of the horizontal scroll bar when viewing Spotlight Searches in the Finder.... Spotlight always opens in a tiny window with a horizontal scroll bar and half the names are cut off by the small list headers columns.

8. What happened to the very simple category separations? I used to love that all of my Fonts were grouped, all of my PDFs were grouped, all of my Images were grouped and that sort of thing. That was VERY nice because you could visually and quickly find what you are looking for. If it was a PDF I was looking for, I could just quickly glance to the PDF section and completely skip over the image and text documents sections because those weren't needed. It was just another way to refine the search better.

Overall, I think Spotlight got a lot worse in Leopard... it feels very unfinished and poorly thought out. They changed what was once good into something that is just so ugly that it's not even funny. I almost hate searching in Leopard now... it just isn't the same and not for the better.

ONE plug about Spotlight in Leopard: Yes, it's faster but, I'd rather have slower but, more organized results.

Any thoughts?

List your thoughts on the new Spotlight. If you think it's better, explain your reasons, if you think it's worse, explain your reasons as well.

since the nature of this post is good stuff, i agree

[flopticalcube]

No optional System folder searches. :mad:

[QuarterSwede]

Personally, I hated the old non standard Spotlight Windows (pretty useless for me). I much prefer the Finder window version. The only thing I do agree with is that it doesn't remember what your last settings were.

[richard.mac]

The biggest annoyance for me is that when I am in a folder in Finder and I type in a search term in spotlight (within Finder) it always searches my entire system instead of starting where I am. Is there somewhere I can configure that to behave differently?

That is still considered Spotlight (when within Finder), correct?

anything that uses a search field in OS X uses spotlight except Safari which uses Google. yes when you type into the search field in a finder window it searches your entire computer. you can click the folder name next to "This Mac" to only search in that folder.

No optional System folder searches. :mad:

Tiger's spotlight never searched the system folder but allowed you to search for files inside the main and user libraries. Leopard's spotlight does not search either the system folder or the libraries but you can add a search attribute to the finder search field to allow this.

to do this press command-F while in the finder. change the search attribute from "kind" to "other...", search for system in the new window, add it to the menu if you want and then click OK. you will then be able to search for system files.

[Cooknn]

anything that uses a search field in OS X uses spotlight except Safari which uses Google. yes when you type into the search field in a finder window it searches your entire computer. you can click the folder name next to "This Mac" to only search in that folder.Unfortunately You can only do that *after* you complete your initial search. I might as well press Cmd-F. In fact, I just removed Search from my Finder Toolbar :rolleyes:

[Big-TDI-Guy]

Spaz - I agree COMPLETELY. It must be a NH thing...

Spotlight was "the straw that broke the camels back" for me.

The only reason the "red" icon is on top - I'm in the middle of moving settings and shortcuts over... Otherwise the "green" icon is now on top. :)

Edit: FYI - if you don't have Bootcamp installed - create a new partition on your primary drive (10GB or so). Install Tiger on that new partition - and open file sharing. It is so transparent (between the OS's) it's almost scary. I can run almost everything from either OS, with the exception of "Spaces" or "quick view" (the "new" Leopard features). I was warned that Bootcamp might get tanked when I re-size my LEOPARD partition (WTF windows?!?) - and it did, but that is easily fixed.

[TheSpaz]

Spaz - I agree COMPLETELY. It must be a NH thing...

Spotlight was "the straw that broke the camels back" for me.

The only reason the "red" icon is on top - I'm in the middle of moving settings and shortcuts over... Otherwise the "green" icon is now on top. :)

Edit: FYI - if you don't have Bootcamp installed - create a new partition on your primary drive (10GB or so). Install Tiger on that new partition - and open file sharing. It is so transparent (between the OS's) it's almost scary. I can run almost everything from either OS, with the exception of "Spaces" or "quick view" (the "new" Leopard features). I was warned that Bootcamp might get tanked when I re-size my LEOPARD partition (WTF windows?!?) - and it did, but that is easily fixed.

I'm really starting to like Leopard but, Spotlight still sucks. I much much much prefer the old Spotlight and what's up with having to ALWAYS search the entire drive by default? How stupid is that? Of course I can easily switch it back but, I'm used to navigating to the general area a file could be and then refining my search by using the search box because maybe I don't want a billion results, I just want results. What about searching network drives? Every time I have a network drive mounted and I try to do a search it will search MY computer? No, I want to search the NETWORK drive because I have THAT WINDOW currently open... stupid Apple... what a piece of crap Spotlight has become. I thought the whole point of an upgrade was to improve features from a previous version, not delete features and bring us gimped down versions of the software.

[richard.mac]

i could be wrong but didnt tiger's spotlight search the entire drive when using spotlight's search window and finder's search window? i think i remember panther used to only search the folder you had open in a finder window. pathfinder does this if you wanna look into it.

[nsbio]

I agree that the annoyances posted above are indeed annoying. But overall, Spotlight actually works now. Spotlight simply did not work in Tiger (a couple of iMac G5s professionally maintained): type in an application name - it appears - it disappears - it appears - it disappears - ooops - you pushed a wrong one..... Annoying.

In addition, Tiger's spotlight took ages to find anything and do not even dare try to search a phrase....

Bottom line: Leo's spotlight still could be improved, but it is a huge step forward from what it used to be.

[TheSpaz]

I definitely agree that it is much faster at finding results but, it is less pretty. It looks aweful and I wish there was a way to customize what your results look like and then have it SAVE those settings for the next time you search. Tiger remembered whether you last had it search the current folder or your entire drive.

[MrMoore]

1. No more Spotlight Window (big clean window with search results organized with RSS-like interface)

2. Spotlight Searches open in very small Finder windows (need to resize and stretch column headers to get the results to display with any type of readability)

3. Icon view in Spotlight searches are almost completely useless cause you can hardly read the names under the icons unless you make the icons huge.

5. When you use the search field in a Finder window, it always automatically searches your entire system even though 99% of the time, I'm just trying to search within that folder. (I use the Spotlight menu to search my drive)


I agree on your list especially 1, 2, 3, 5.

I miss the spotlight Finder window. I like the file type breakdown that was in Tiger. The icon view it now gives makes it hard to read. Also, I haven't been able to determine how to remove them, but the Finder result window for Spotlight also displays Safari History icons. I can turn it off on the Spotlight list, but the Finder view still displays them.

Also the default to look through the whole hard drive even when in a particular folder drives me mad. If I am in a specific folder I just want to search that folder. If I want to seach the whole hard drive I'll use Spotlight on the menu. :mad:

[dr_lha]

6. There is no more date column in Spotlight's Finder window. Instead, there's a "Last Opened" column which really isn't what I'd be mostly concerned about. I don't need to know when I last OPENED a file... I wanna know when I last saved a file... and of course, there are no view options for Spotligh search windows. However, I know I can add a search criteria to my Spotlight search to sort it by date or whatnot but, that's one extra step that I didn't used to have to take. It was nice just being able to glance over at the modified date of a file.
The Spotlight window worked the same way in Tiger, i.e. the date column was actually the "last opened" date, and not the creation/last save date. If you don't believe me try the following in Tiger, do a spotlight search in the window, order by date and then open a file near the bottom. Spotlight will now move the item up to the top because it was recently opened.

Therefore, the main change therefore between Tiger and Leopard here is that they correctly labelled the column. While I agree that it is annoying not to be able to pick a more sensible date ordering, its not really an argument for Tiger's Spotlight being better.

[TheSpaz]

I agree on your list especially 1, 2, 3, 5.

I miss the spotlight Finder window. I like the file type breakdown that was in Tiger. The icon view it now gives makes it hard to read. Also, I haven't been able to determine how to remove them, but the Finder result window for Spotlight also displays Safari History icons. I can turn it off on the Spotlight list, but the Finder view still displays them.

Also the default to look through the whole hard drive even when in a particular folder drives me mad. If I am in a specific folder I just want to search that folder. If I want to seach the whole hard drive I'll use Spotlight on the menu. :mad:

That's exactly how I feel. You said 100% what I was thinking. NICE! I think most people don't really search their computer a lot but, sometimes I just want instant access to a file... of course I can navigate to it the slow and painful way but, I'd rather just search for it and if I happen to be in a window and I'm almost there, I'd like my search to just be in that window to narrow down the results a bit.

We haven't upgraded to Leopard at work yet but, we're always searching for job #'s on a networked drive, so I open the Finder, click the drive that has the jobs on it and start typing in a search and it automatically finds files that are on the network drive. In Leopard however, if I mount the drive I want to find a file on, I have to start searching, then take my mind off of what I'm doing and go and click on the network drive name so that spotlight can turn around and search the network drive... that's really annoying and if I have to do that EVERY time, it can get annoyingly repetitive very quickly. I just want to start my search and have it search the window I am currently in.

[TheSpaz]

All the Apple fan-boys love the new spotlight cause they love anything Apple does.

[jamesarm97]

My little big grief is when you click the little magnifying glass and spotlight starts, then start typing something and move the mouse. If the mouse moves to much towards the time on the menu bar spotlight goes away. I have come across a few menus like the Services menu that you have to be pretty exact on or they go away.

[dr_lha]

All the Apple fan-boys love the new spotlight cause they love anything Apple does.
Jeez, we're sorry we don't share your hatred of the new Spotlight. Sure you raised some valid points (e.g. the icon view text), but just because this isn't a 30 page thread about how **** Spotlight is, doesn't mean there is "fanboyism" at work ("fanboy" being a lazy way to dismiss anyone who doesn't agree with your criticism of a product).

[TheSpaz]

Jeez, we're sorry we don't share your hatred of the new Spotlight. Sure you raised some valid points (e.g. the icon view text), but just because this isn't a 30 page thread about how **** Spotlight is, doesn't mean there is "fanboyism" at work ("fanboy" being a lazy way to dismiss anyone who doesn't agree with your criticism of a product).

I don't hate the new Spotlight, I just wish they didn't take away the features I used. It seems like a stripped down version of Spotlight only to make it faster but, it has less function now than before. I STILL can't figure out why I can't customize how my results are organized like I could in Tiger. Why is this ability taken away from us? Why am I forced to look at "Last Opened" dates rather than real-life last-saved dates? Even if I add a search criteria, it still won't show me which files are the newest it just sorts them by name, kind, or last opened which is mostly useless for me. I'm hoping that Apple will secretly add customization to Leopard's Spotlight with the small updates but, that probably won't happen.

It's just sad that now I HAVE to make 2 or 3 steps to do something that I could have done with one step in Tiger and possibly a glance.

[TheSpaz]

Look how nice this looks. It's clean, it's simple and I can see the last modified date right there in plain view so I know which folder is newer. I also get to see previews of my Illustrator files as well. What a nice way Spotlight USED to work. Now, I either get ALL image previews and cannot read the names, or I get a list of files, not knowing the real dates of them.

Also, if you look at the screenshot. Notice how I am searching the volume "YODA"? All I did was open the volume "YODA" and start typing in my search... done.... easy as that. In Leopard, I would start typing in a search, then I see that there are no results and I'm like "What the hell?" and then I realize that I can no longer search the current folder by default and I was accidentally searching my internal drive rather than the intended network drive and then after realizing it, I'd have to move my mouse and revert my attention to "fix the glitch" and let Spotlight find my results AGAIN... so how is that faster than just waiting an extra second for the slower Spotlight with less distractions.

Also, notice from the screenshot... no ugly horizontal scroll bar! and all the names are perfectly readable without getting cut off in any way.

By the way... for those people who say that the Spotlight Window in Tiger is a window which does not belong to anything and it's almost impossible to get to when it's behind another window... just press cmd-option-space again and it comes to the front. What's so hard about that? Also, it shows up in Exposé view too.

[TheSpaz]

This is what I want Spotlight to look like:

[le sacre]

fully agreed on all points. the one thing i do like about the new spotlight implementation is that it's easier to constrain your search to only the file names (sometimes i even wish this could be the default). my two biggest annoyances are that they got rid of that wonderful categorical grouping in the results window, and that it's difficult and unintuitive to get it to search just the location i want it to.

[yudilks]

Great idea Spaz... I think we should make our opinion heard... Direct every suggestion to http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

:P

[manu chao]

5. When you use the search field in a Finder window, it always automatically searches your entire system even though 99% of the time, I'm just trying to search within that folder. (I use the Spotlight menu to search my drive)

I rarely used Spotlight, but I constantly used the Finder search and this is one of the most stupid changes they made. Most people roughly know where their stuff is. Navigating to a folder and then narrowing down the view with Search is the far more common action than to search for something was has no idea where it is. Hopefully, there is a plist setting to change this.

[kunikuni]

Most of the complaints you raised about spotlight can be tweaked by yourself. Google some of the things you wish to change.

[TheSpaz]

Most of the complaints you raised about spotlight can be tweaked by yourself. Google some of the things you wish to change.

Believe me, they're not changeable... I've tried. Do some research next time before posting like this.

[nsbio]

There is one small detail about Leopard's Spotlight - it actually finds stuff.

Spotlight in Tiger worked only when it wanted to and even when did it did so very slowly. In Tiger, it was more like SpotBlight. (Hint: try searching for a multiple word combination - have fun).

That said, Leopard's implementation could still be improved but it is a big step in the right direction.

[ZiggyPastorius]

I certainly don't think Spotlight is perfect, and I can't really compare, but..If it can find any file on your computer (minus like system folders and such) within about 3 seconds by pressing cmd+space and typing a name, why does it matter that much? I've never even used the spotlight inside Finder, and even if I'm already in the folder I need, I still use cmd+space to find a file. That's not saying your complaints aren't legitimate, but I think spotlight is fast enough that it's really not that big of a deal.

[heatmiser]

Add to the list:

You can no longer directly locate plist and other configuration files through Spotlight. Instead, you've got to go through a series of convoluted steps in the finder window just to get the search to recognize such files. Of course, once you close the window, your hard work is erased, and you'll re-run the gauntlet when next you need a similar search. Apparently, this is because Spotlight no longer searches the Library folders.

I have no idea why Apple chose to make things harder to find in Leopard compared to in Tiger. There's also the issue of how Tiger (in the finder window) sorted search results into categories (applications, documents, folders, etc). No more in Leopard! The first issue is a bigger deal to me than the second, but in general, Spotlight's been handicapped. I do like how it's faster, but taking away options and leaving PUs without means to reinstate them isn't progress; it's a step backwards.