Mac newbie: Does OS X not have Incremental Search?

I'm not new to Apple products after owning an iPad and five iPods, but I am new to Mac, and therefore to OS X.

The only niggling thing that Windows XP does that I cannot seem to activate in OS X is incremental search. Is this not a feature than can be used in Mac OSs?

For those who aren't sure what I am talking about, incremental search is what the OS does (at least in Windows) when you attempt to save a file (such as an image). As you begin typing the filename, Windows will suggest underneath a list of all other files in that same folder that begin with the same series of letters. So if you're saving a bunch of photos with a simple number designation at the end to differentiate them, if their filename is quite long, incremental search makes saving these files 10x quicker. Here is a picture showing what it looks like it Windows:


So, when I save a photo with the following filename:
"Sebastien Buemi (Scuderia Toro Rosso STR5) - Suzuka '10 (01)"
and then go to save the next file with the only difference being that the "(01)" at the end becomes "(02)," I can simply type "Seb" and tap the down arrow key to highlight the suggestion, hit delete twice, and enter "2)." and I'm done. Please tell me this is possible in OS X?? I save thousands of photos a month, most of which are sequentially named this way...I'd hate to not be able to save photos on my Macbook due to it being simply too time-consuming.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. Hopefully this discussion will prove a useful resource for other windows converts who are wondering the same.

Your first two suggestions don't apply to what I am trying to do. However, your third one led me to the same result Gnasher suggested below and is helpful, if not completely ideal. It is less efficient than what I'm used to, but it does help; Which is a shame because so far everything else I am getting used to in OS X seems to be much more user friendly than in XP with the exception of the fact that for whatever reason there is no 'cut' option for files and folders in OS X. Still trying to wrap my head around that one.

As for Name Mangler, I presume that works the same way as FileBoss does on PC, which is a program I use often. The problem is, it only works on files that are already saved to the computer; meaning, it doesn't solve this issue for me.

There's no need for searching in Windows at all. As soon as you start typing a filename in a "save as" dialog box, all of the files in that folder that start with the same sequence are already listed for you. Obviously, the more you type, the further this list is refined to more specific files.

However, your suggestion is helpful, as long as the folder the file is going into has a small number of files, I can just click on the filename I want to replicate, and then press CTRL+Right Arrow key to jump to the end of the filename and make the number sequence change. The reason this is far from ideal is that most of the folders the pictures go into have thousands of images in them, so clicking on the image you want to copy the naming from is not really possible without scrolling all the way to it...which eliminates any time savings from doing it this way. The other issue is that no matter how big you expand the "save image" window, the "save as" input line does not get any wider. So viewing the entire filename of a long file is not possible, even on a large display.

So... it appears as though every few weeks when I need to save 100-300 photos at a time, I will still need to do it from home, on my PC. I am glad I came across this problem now, because I was on the verge of replacing my PC with a 27" iMac...and I think I'll need to run bootcamp if I'm going to do that, which I had not originally intended. I think this is one of the things about which longtime Mac users were unaware of just how easy PC users had it. I hope this feature gets added to OS X soon...it is quite simple.

 

This is going to be long-winded for the sake of clarity, but here's just one example...
After each Grand Prix, this website, along with several others, posts a few hundred extremely hi-res photos from the race. I have a catalog of the past 30 years of videos and photos I have saved from each GP, that are all organized into a consistent naming format (example)
Driver Name (Team Name Chassis Name) - GP Venue '2-Digit Year (File Number).
Yes, I am probably OCD.

So, I right click the first photo I want to save > press "K," (the shortcut for "save link as") to save the full-res version of the photo without having to open and load it first > and then type in the filename for the first image. Here is the handicap when doing this on my Mac compared with XP: Each image of the same driver that I save after the first one, on PC I simply change the final part of the filename to the next number in the series. Such as:
Sebastien Buemi (Scuderia Toro Rosso STR5) - Abu Dhabi '10 (01)
Sebastien Buemi (Scuderia Toro Rosso STR5) - Abu Dhabi '10 (02)
etc.

On the PC, once the first file is saved, saving the second (and every subsequent image of the same driver or car) takes about 3 seconds (try it). The third file in the above series would be:
right click
press "K"
type "Seb"
click the up arrow
press "delete" twice
enter "3)"
press "Enter"

An ancillary benefit of this feature is that it eliminates any typos I might have made in the middle of the filename due to having to type the entire name out each time.

Using the suggestion above, where I click the filename I want to replicate and jump to the end to make the edit, will save me having to type all the names in full, but like I said, it's not as convenient. On the PC, the only mouse input I have to make is the initial right-click. Having to mouse over to the filename in OS X so that I can click on it will make the filesaving process here 2-3 times longer and more tiresome. 2-3 seconds sounds petty, but when you're saving 300 photos twenty times each season, 20 minutes for each race is much better than an hour. You're probably thinking "just save them from home." The problem is, I am out of town for work so often that much of the photo saving is done away from home. This also prevents me from making my desired switch to an iMac desktop at home too...I was hoping my 3 steps forward by switching to Mac would come without 2 steps backward.

 

Subfolders for what? The issue isn't the folder structure, it's the lack of an incremental filename suggestion feature that is present in OS I'm trying to migrate away from.

Are you saying create a new folder for each season? So when I want to see all pictures from one driver I have to look in anywhere from 1-20 different folders? Horrible idea.

How about a folder for each driver? Right, I'll just create 1500 subfolders.
Folder for each team? Again...multiple locations for the same driver.

Not to mention the hell this would be when I need to cross-reference my pictures to see if I already have a certain photo...I'd have to use the search function for every single picture. With all pictures in one folder I just go into that folder, start typing the name, and I'm taken right to the first picture...I don't have to do that in every folder a particular driver is placed in.

All my music is in one folder, All my F1 photos are staying in one folder. Besides, separating them into subfolders at this point would take weeks even if I wanted to do that.

 

Again, I don't want to have to use a search feature to find a photo. Having them all in one folder, I simply open the folder and start typing what I'm looking for. The additional benefit of the single-folder structure is that any time I want to I can go into that folder, press enter, and just start flipping through every F1 photo I have, rather than seeing only photos from the same subfolder.

We're straying off subject a little...changing my folder structure is not an option, for many reasons. I do appreciate the suggestions, but what I am really looking for is an app, hack, script, or anything else that will give OS X the filesave functionality that is present in XP. I realize that may be a crazy ask, since many people think it's crazy that Windows users want a cut/paste feature for their files on a Mac, but there it is. The suggestions above are more like "ways around" the lack of this feature in OS X.

 

Now we're getting somewhere!
Being new to Mac I am totally unfamiliar with all of those programs. But, I will now start looking into them.

Candidly, you are absolutely right. The big "BUT" is, that as long as I'd been working in Windows, using filenames as a database was not problematic. There are likely very similar databasing programs for Windows but I was never inclined to bother looking for them because the process was already so quick and easy. Now that it isn't I am searching for a fix. I don't want my Mac to be a handicap on my productivity in ANY area (I bought this machine for primarily my work use, which is heavy use of Excel, Word, and Email) so I will follow your iPhoto suggestion and do some research there.

Thanks

 

Eureka!
Sorry to Angelwatt, the first time I tested your suggestion for some reason it didn't work. I think once I started typing the filename it took too long for the suggestion to populate and I jumped back out. When I tried it again and waited a few seconds, it popped right up. The "brief pause" was the part I missed.

You are a lifesaver, and thanks Swift1337 for catching my mistake!