Advice on Searching for Text in Numerous Files on my Mac

[Ambrosia7177]

Hi. I have thousands of news articles and videos that I need to use for research.

And because of the large numbr of files, I simply cannot remember everything I read/watch anymore.

So today, I am working on a TextEdit template that can be used to take notes about what I am reading/watching.

- Topic
- Summary
- Keywords
- Chapters
- Key Concepts
- Quotes
- Takeaways

The plan is to save a text file with the same name as the original article/video, but appending something like "_NOTES" on the end.

So for every article/video in my research fodler, I would have...

"Amazon Outage Forces Hundreds of Websites Offline for Hours.html"

"Amazon Outage Forces Hundreds of Websites Offline for Hours_NOTES.html"


Am trying to figure out the easiest way to search all of the "_NOTES" files on my MacBook Pro.

For example, maybe I want to find all articles/videos which are about "Pam Bondi" or "Tariffs" or "Ukraine", and thus would be searching my notes in these new "_NOTES" files.

Is there any practical way to do that say using Finder's search?

Not looking for "Full-Text" searching, but rather searching on Keywords or Topics.

The only alternative that I can think of is to create a spreadsheet, and then for everything that I want to search on (e.g. topic, keyword, important concept), create a new row in the spreadsheet with the file name and then the keyword like this...

1 | Amazon Outage Forces Hundreds of Websites Offline for Hours | Amazon
2 | Amazon Outage Forces Hundreds of Websites Offline for Hours | AWS
3 | Amazon Outage Forces Hundreds of Websites Offline for Hours | Cloud
4 | Amazon Outage Forces Hundreds of Websites Offline for Hours | Outage
5 | Amazon Outage Forces Hundreds of Websites Offline for Hours | Virginia

Of course that would be a lot of work for a simple search!

Someday I will build a database for all of this, but that isn't an option right now.

Am hoping there is some slick way to use macOS and Finder to help me accomplish my goals.

Thoughts?

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

1. Cmd+F in Finder
2. Name > contains or is Amazon Outage Forces Hundreds of Websites Offline for Hours_NOTES.html
3. Click +
4. Contents > contains Tariffs or whatever

 

[Bigwaff]

Thoughts?

I've seen your recent posts... you need a document management system, my friend. The Finder aint' it. There are many to choose from. Some cloud based, some not. Here's one which runs on macOS -

DEVONtechnologies | DEVONthink

DEVONthink is an application for professional document and information management on Mac and iOS.

www.devontechnologies.com

 

[Ambrosia7177]

1. Cmd+F in Finder
2. Name > contains or is Amazon Outage Forces Hundreds of Websites Offline for Hours_NOTES.html
3. Click +
4. Contents > contains Tariffs or whatever

In Step 2, did you mean "Name > contains" or did you mean "Name > contains or is"?

If so, how would you get the latter?


What I hear you saying is that I can do complex searches just using Finder?

 

[Ambrosia7177]

I've seen your recent posts... you need a document management system, my friend. The Finder aint' it. There are many to choose from. Some cloud based, some not. Here's one which runs on macOS -

DEVONtechnologies | DEVONthink

DEVONthink is an application for professional document and information management on Mac and iOS.

www.devontechnologies.com

Can you explain why you say that?

And what would a "document management system" offer me?

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

In Step 2, did you mean "Name > contains" or did you mean "Name > contains or is"?

If so, how would you get the latter?


What I hear you saying is that I can do complex searches just using Finder?

Like so

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Name > is can be a little restrictive, you have to type the filename exactly, no extra spaces or anything.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Name > is can be a little restrictive, you have to type the filename exactly, no extra spaces or anything.

In a case like that, do you quote what you want an exact match on?

Name is "Exact article title here"

What is the difference between...

Name > matches

Name > contains

Name > is

 

[Ambrosia7177]

1. Cmd+F in Finder
2. Name > contains or is Amazon Outage Forces Hundreds of Websites Offline for Hours_NOTES.html
3. Click +
4. Contents > contains Tariffs or whatever

Is there any downside to putting my "_NOTES" into a word processing document (e.g. MS Word, LibreOffice Writer, etc.) instead of into TextEdit?


I use .TXT files all of the time, but in addition to adding notes, I would like to have a table where search attribute can be added, with the attribute in the left column, and a value in the right column, like...

Source:   NYT
Published on:  2025-10-20

Sure, I could just use tabs in TextEdit to get a similar experience, but a table would wrangle the data better.

Plus, if I have a .DOC or .ODT file, then I can take more nicely formatted notes for me to read later.

Thoughts on this?

 

[Bigwaff]

Can you explain why you say that?

And what would a "document management system" offer me?

Perhaps you might be better served with this -

EagleFiler: Document Organizer and Mail Archiver for Mac

EagleFiler helps you organize, search, and archive your mail, Web pages, files, and scraps of info. Import with a single keypress. Download our free trial here.

c-command.com

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Is there any downside to putting my "_NOTES" into a word processing document (e.g. MS Word, LibreOffice Writer, etc.) instead of into TextEdit?


I use .TXT files all of the time, but in addition to adding notes, I would like to have a table where search attribute can be added, with the attribute in the left column, and a value in the right column, like...

Source:   NYT
Published on:  2025-10-20

Sure, I could just use tabs in TextEdit to get a similar experience, but a table would wrangle the data better.

Plus, if I have a .DOC or .ODT file, then I can take more nicely formatted notes for me to read later.

Thoughts on this?

I don't have thoughts on this

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

In a case like that, do you quote what you want an exact match on?

Name is "Exact article title here"

What is the difference between...

Name > matches

Name > contains

Name > is

Name > is assumes you are certain of the filename. If you have a consistent scheme it could work, but contains is probably better.
I cannot find a good definition of what 'matches' does.
Name > is will find this if you type it in exactly:
Amazon Outage Forces Hundreds of Websites Offline for Hours_NOTES.html
If you type it like this, it won't
Amazon Outage Forces Hundreds of Websites Offline for Hours_NOTES .html
Name > contains searches just that, filenames that contain your search phrase
Searching Name > contains Amazon Outage will display all filenames that include that, so both your original HTML and notes would be delivered, for example.

 

[gilby101]

Not looking for "Full-Text" searching, but rather searching on Keywords or Topics.

Finder has TAGs which you can add to any file. For example you could use the tag "note" for all your notes. You can search for all files with the tag:note with additional full text search for content. I find that tags work best when I have a controlled list of tags.

Finders search (which uses the Spotlight index) is pretty powerful. You can also save searches for future use.

You might also consider HoudahSpot as an easy to use (better laid out) search - it also uses the Spotlight index.

I have given up on DEVONthink (too expensive and more complex than I need). Finder (or HoudahSpot) free text search along with tags does me very well.

 

[zqbobs]

Take a look at Find Any File - it is very flexible and fast. Includes searching name, content, path, Finder tags (aka keywords), etc.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Finder has TAGs which you can add to any file. For example you could use the tag "note" for all your notes. You can search for all files with the tag:note with additional full text search for content. I find that tags work best when I have a controlled list of tags.

I'll have to look into that.

Finders search (which uses the Spotlight index) is pretty powerful. You can also save searches for future use.

On macOS Sonoma, what do I have to do to have all of my files and folders indexed by Spotlight?

What about on external APFS (encrypted) drives?

You might also consider HoudahSpot as an easy to use (better laid out) search - it also uses the Spotlight index.

Other than being better laid out, is HoudahSpot more powerful than Finder when it comes to search?

I have given up on DEVONthink (too expensive and more complex than I need). Finder (or HoudahSpot) free text search along with tags does me very well.

Backing up... Do you understand what it is that I am trying to do?

And how well suited is Finder search for my needs?

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Take a look at Find Any File - it is very flexible and fast. Includes searching name, content, path, Finder tags (aka keywords), etc.

What does it offer that Finder search does not offer?

 

[Ambrosia7177]

I just created the following...

user1/Documents/TEST_search/TableTest.rtf

Inside the .rtf file is a simple table with Name-Value pairs. (Just made up the data for test purposes.)

When I search by Author last name (i.e. "Haberman"), the search results are nonsensical...

Changing the search to Contents contains Maggie Haberman does pull up "TableTest.rtf", but I don't think most of the other files listed in the search results actually contain here name...


Could these settings be a problem?

Am asking, because I want to get a better understanding of how search works on my Macbook Pro (Sonoma 14.8) so that I can come up with a solution to my OP.

If my Mac is not set up correctly, or this is an "operator error", then help fixing these things would be greatly appreciated!!

Please help me to get more out of my still fairly new - and VERY expensive - M3 Max!!

Thanks!

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

The results are not nonsensical, and Finder doesn’t know how to search the author name within the document. To it, “Author” and “Maggie” are simply FILE CONTENTS.
All the js files shown contain Haberman inside them. Finder is doing its job, you’re just ignoring my suggestion of adding the filename to help limit results. Finder can easily do what you’re describing in the OP if you let it.

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

Oh, and you have to include Documents in Spotlight search results. That’s adding to the problem.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

The results are not nonsensical, and Finder doesn’t know how to search the author name within the document. To it, “Author” and “Maggie” are simply FILE CONTENTS.
All the js files shown contain Haberman inside them.

"Haberman" is not inside those files.


(Upon reflection, I had a similar issue like 15 years ago where macOS would not find files that I knew existed, and yet it would present files which did not match the search criteria. As I recall, the only solution was to delete the Spotlight index and rebuild it.)

Finder is doing its job, you’re just ignoring my suggestion of adding the filename to help limit results. Finder can easily do what you’re describing in the OP if you let it.

I have been doing random searches to get comfortable how Finder searches work, and I'm telling you it is giving me repeated weird results.


For example, this search yields 543 items...

However, in my "CASH RECEIPTS" folder alone, I have almost 3,000 files starting with "R_"

So if one folder has over 3,000 files starting with "R_" then how can my entire Mac have only 543 such files?


I am wondering if my Spotlight index is broken??

Since applications like "Find Any File" rely - at least partially - on the Spotlight index, it doesn't make sense to try another 3rd-party application if my index is corrupt.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

Oh, and you have to include Documents in Spotlight search results. That’s adding to the problem.

The screenshot above searching for "Haberman" is searching inside the "Documents" directory, so that was included.

Same for the latest search with wrong results.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

What about my screenshot of my Siri & Spotlight settings?

Does that screenshot show that my MacBook Pro is NOT indexed? Or am I not understanding what it says?

Since all of the document type are unchecked, it appears to say that nothing is getting indexed?

 

[gilby101]

What about my screenshot of my Siri & Spotlight settings?

Background on Spotlight indexing and search tools:

"Spotlight" refers to two different (but related) things. Keep the distinction in mind, even if macOS System Settings conflates them.

1. Spotlight is an indexing engine and the associated indexes. You see which disks are indexed by using the Terminal command mdutil -sa (md is metadata, -sa is status & all). Further mdutil commands can turn indexing on and off for each disk. You can also control aspects of this in the "Search Privacy" in Siri and Spotlight settings.

2. Spotlight is a search tool. This is what you are doing with the Command-Space and other Spotlight/Siri actions. In the Siri & Spotlight settings the Search Results (Applications, Calculator, ...) are controlling Spotlight search results.

To further confuse matters there are two types of Spotlight index:

A. The main Spotlight index is for files and folders - that is your file based documents and photos. These are per-disk indexes. Results are included in Command-Space Spotlight results unless excluded by type (as in your screenshot). These are the indexes reached by Finder and HoudahSpot.

B. "Core Spotlight" has indexes for the content of Apple apps like Mail, Photos and Notes. These indexes can only be searched from within the associated apps or with Command-Space Spotlight search - Finder search does not include content from Core Spotlight.

Commonly used search tools:

• Spotlight via Command-Space or the magnifying glass in the menubar. This presents results from both the per disk files and folders indexes and Core Spotlight.
• Finder shows results from the Spotlight per-disk indexes - not from Core Spotlight.
• HoudahSpot (like Finder) searches the Spotlight per-disk indexes. In my view, HoudahSpot adds clarity and consistency over Finder. I use both. https://www.houdah.com/houdahSpot/
• Find Any File (FAF) searches by scanning the disks though can optionally include Spotlight results. I mostly use FAF to search for files not indexed by Spotlight. https://findanyfile.app/
• EasyFind also searches by scanning files. It is relatively slow when searching file content. I don't use EasyFind though many people like it as an alternative to Spotlight searching. https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/freeware

Does that screenshot show that my MacBook Pro is NOT indexed? Or am I not understanding what it says? Since all of the document type are unchecked, it appears to say that nothing is getting indexed?

No, yes and no!
Your screenshot shows that a lot of content is not to be presented in Spotlight (command-space) searches. Says nothing about what is indexed.

 

[Ambrosia7177]

@gilby101,

I am impressed by your knowledge!!

Background on Spotlight indexing and search tools:

"Spotlight" refers to two different (but related) things. Keep the distinction in mind, even if macOS System Settings conflates them.

1. Spotlight is an indexing engine and the associated indexes. You see which disks are indexed by using the Terminal command mdutil -sa (md is metadata, -sa is status & all). Further mdutil commands can turn indexing on and off for each disk. You can also control aspects of this in the "Search Privacy" in Siri and Spotlight settings.

When I run that command I get...

    Indexing enabled. 
/System/Volumes/Data:
    Indexing enabled. 
/System/Volumes/Preboot:
    Indexing enabled.

Did you see my last couple of posts?

It feels like Finder - using cmd + F - is not finding all of what I am searchingf or, OR is returning erroneous numbers.

Could my Spotlight indexing engine INDEX be corrupted?

2. Spotlight is a search tool. This is what you are doing with the Command-Space and other Spotlight/Siri actions. In the Siri & Spotlight settings the Search Results (Applications, Calculator, ...) are controlling Spotlight search results.

When I go into Finder and do cmd + F, which "index" am I accessing?

To further confuse matters there are two types of Spotlight index:

A. The main Spotlight index is for files and folders - that is your file based documents and photos. These are per-disk indexes. Results are included in Command-Space Spotlight results unless excluded by type (as in your screenshot). These are the indexes reached by Finder and HoudahSpot.

So that includes cmd + F searches?

B. "Core Spotlight" has indexes for the content of Apple apps like Mail, Photos and Notes. These indexes can only be searched from within the associated apps or with Command-Space Spotlight search - Finder search does not include content from Core Spotlight.

So is there any restriction isn getting results for files or content from .TXT or .RTF files when I use Finder and cmd + F?

Commonly used search tools:

• Spotlight via Command-Space or the magnifying glass in the menubar. This presents results from both the per disk files and folders indexes and Core Spotlight.
• Finder shows results from the Spotlight per-disk indexes - not from Core Spotlight.

Including cmd + F?

• HoudahSpot (like Finder) searches the Spotlight per-disk indexes. In my view, HoudahSpot adds clarity and consistency over Finder. I use both. https://www.houdah.com/houdahSpot/
• Find Any File (FAF) searches by scanning the disks though can optionally include Spotlight results. I mostly use FAF to search for files not indexed by Spotlight. https://findanyfile.app/

How does Finder (cmd + F) compare to HoudahSpot compare to Find Any File?


And how does HoudahSpot compare to Find Any File?


As mention in my last couple of posts, I am afraid that I am not getting accurate search results - whch is weird because I think what I am looking to do is fairly straight-forward.

https://findanyfile.app/

• No, yes and no!

Your screenshot shows that a lot of content is not to be presented in Spotlight (command-space) searches. Says nothing about what is indexed.

But for Finder (cmd + F) searches, how does it impact the results that I see?


Finally, can you make some recommendations to my OP and needs?

Needs:
1.) Be able to search .RTF files which is where I will be storing notes about news articles and videos - on a per item basis as discussed above.

"SomeNewsArticle.pdf"
"SomeNewsArticle_NOTES.rtf"

"SomeNewsVideo.mp4"
"SomeNewsVdieo_NOTES.rtf"

Also as show above, I have created a nifty table with Attribute-Value pairs to help me summarize the news, and to be able to search for certain things down the road.


2.) Ideally the ability to search for text in my PDF'ed news articles.

This could be single search terms like "Immigration".

It could be multiple search terms like "Immigration" AND "Chicago"

It could be multiple search terms like "Immigration" OR "Chicago"

And it could be phrases like "Chicago South Side" or "Chinese Tariffs" or "The White House announced today"

(Hint: The more I can successfully find files in Finder using #2, the less I have to worry about creating my _NOTES files.)


3.) To be clear, my primary searching is to find FILES in Finder, so I can then open them up and get what I need. (I am not concerned about searching INSIDE of files, because as far as I know that feature works okay in LibreOffice or TextEdit of Firefox or using Preview for any type of document.)


I really want to get these issues ironed out ASAP, but I need to know...

a.) Do I need to re-build my MacBook pro's Spotlight index?

b.) Which search application would be best for my needs?

c.) Am I using the search capability correctly to find what I need?


Thanks!!!

 

[Mr_Brightside_@]

That's what I'm saying, you have to check Documents in Spotlight settings, that's what is causing the issues. Searching the Documents folder won't help