Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Spotlight v. Finder

A

auxplage

macrumors 6502
Original poster
I am a littlle confused now on how each of these is going to work. At first I thought Spotlight is a part of Finder, but it appears this is not the case. Can "y'all" please clear up how each of these will work and tie together?
 
Roughly Speaking:

Finder: Shows folders and has(had?) the ability to search for files,

Spotlight: Searches the contents of the files as well as filenames.

Finder is a folder/file utility and Spotlight is an information search utility.
 
You can use Spotlight in it's own window, or you can use Spotlight within a Finder window. It's both.
 
i experienced today just how valuable spotlight is going to be...i have hundreds of PDF articles from scientific journals (i'm a biologist) and was searching for one by a particular author. but, using the finder was useless because it only searched for file names. 8 more days and i'll find that paper!
 
Ok, this should clear it up for you:

Spotlight is the new metadata technology in Tiger (I'm sure you're aware of that). Spotlight is able to index everything, or just some things, as you wish. Spotlight technology can be utilized by developers in their apps too with plugins. The Spotlight icon in the menu bar searches through all of your file types: documents, folders, mail, chats, etc.

However, each app can utilize Spotlight too. So, the Finder search now utilizes Spotlight so it can find files and folders instantly. In Mail, you can find mail messages instantly. Same for any other app that takes advantage of Spotlight. I'm not an Adium user so I don't know what search is like in Adium, but the developer(s) behind Adium can take advantage of Spotlight in Adium and have Adium find text in chats instantly now.

Hope this clears things up.
-Chase
 
kugino said:
i experienced today just how valuable spotlight is going to be...i have hundreds of PDF articles from scientific journals (i'm a biologist) and was searching for one by a particular author. but, using the finder was useless because it only searched for file names. 8 more days and i'll find that paper!
Click to expand...

same here. I already love Preview for being able to scan through pdf data on the fly. Spotlight will definately take research to a whole new level as you can search through multiple sources (in various formats) on the fly.
 
i am looking forward to spotlight because having 1000+ poems makes it hard to remember exactly which one im looking for when i can only remember one line and not the title.....my life might actually become a bit easier
 
sorryiwasdreami said:
I'm hoping Spotlight also searches Mac help. I think help has the worst search on OS X right now, and it should be the best.
Click to expand...

you're right...mac help or help for any application is pretty terrible.
 
As it stands now...

Spotlight seems to be a godsend; we will see when we actually use it.

Remnember that most metadata is not very intelligent and we do not get to exactly control it. I'll be curious as to how MS Office 2004 files deal with Spotlight...
 
Balin64 said:
Spotlight seems to be a godsend; we will see when we actually use it.

Remnember that most metadata is not very intelligent and we do not get to exactly control it. I'll be curious as to how MS Office 2004 files deal with Spotlight...
Click to expand...

There is a Spotlight meta-data importer for Office documents built into Tiger. It should work very well.
 
Ok, thanks, that clears most everything up.

So, when one seaches in Finder now, Finder is using Spotlight?
 
Balin64 said:
Remnember that most metadata is not very intelligent and we do not get to exactly control it. I'll be curious as to how MS Office 2004 files deal with Spotlight...
Click to expand...

This is very true. For media files like photos and songs where the meta-data is well organized it will work very well.

But for documents it's probably going to take a bit of a mind shift. Indexing the contents is all well and good, but there is meta-data that most people do have control over, although we generally ignore it: author, title, subject, keywords, comments that exist in most document files. I have a feeling that if people start using those, spotlight will become far more useful.
 
'Tis cool that Finder uses Spotlight. So when one goes up to the upper right corner and clicks on Spotlight, is he searching through Finder if he chooses?
 
auxplage said:
'Tis cool that Finder uses Spotlight. So when one goes up to the upper right corner and clicks on Spotlight, is he searching through Finder if he chooses?
Click to expand...

Not just the Finder, but through the whole system (whereas the search bar in a Finder window just looks through files and folders).
-Chase
 
rendezvouscp said:
Not just the Finder, but through the whole system (whereas the search bar in a Finder window just looks through files and folders).
-Chase
Click to expand...

No, the search bar in the Finder just shows a spotlight search view. Searches all the metadata, mail, etc...
 
Catfish_Man said:
No, the search bar in the Finder just shows a spotlight search view. Searches all the metadata, mail, etc...
Click to expand...

Unless Apple's changed how the Finder searching works, or I don't understand what you're saying, that's not true. The search bar in the Finder just shows the things the Finder would normally show. It's just that now, it's Spotlight powered.
-Chase
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back