When a file or folder is selected, hold ⌘ to view its path on your Mac’s file system at the bottom of the main panel. Spotlight works in Dark Mode, but some text it difficult to see. Hopefully, this is one of those little things that Apple will tweak over time. Unfortunately, not all of the results look that great due to the use of a dark font in the main panel, as shown in the screenshot below. Now you will notice next time you open Spotlight that it too picks up the dark theme. Check the option labelled Use dark menu bar and DockĪctivate Dark Mode to make it easier on your eyes for prolonged periods. Open up System Preferences and select General.It’s preferred by many people, especially when working at night. Tip 4: use Spotlight in Dark ModeĪpple has thoughtfully included a special Dark Mode for Yosemite that uses a near-black colour for the menu bars and Dock. Get to your iTunes content with a few keystrokes. Spotlight shows you the album art where available, and double-clicking the result takes you to iTunes to start playing. Quickly search the Internet from Spotlight Tip 3: find iTunes content easilyĮven with iTunes closed, you can quickly find content in your library just by typing the track or artist name. Spotlight will suggest a website, a Wikipedia link (and the definition in the main panel), plus the Bing results which you can click to launch Safari right at that page. Type anything into Spotlight, and you’ll also see (normally further down the list, depending on your Spotlight preferences) Bing search results, which were not available pre-Yosemite. Tip 2: search the Internet without a browser Perform all manner of unit conversions right in Spotlight. Get instant calculation results by entering your sums directly into Spotlight.Īnother related feature is the ability to do inline unit conversions, for example between metric and imperial units. If you need the results of a calculation quickly, it’s far quicker just to open Spotlight and enter it directly than opening the Calculator app – which will take you back to the desktop.Īny calculations that you enter are displayed on the top bar with the result, as well as the main panel to the right.Ī nice added touch is that if you select the result and hit ⌘ + C to copy it, you can quickly paste that into your documents and applications. Tip 1: instant calculator and unit conversions Note that, depending upon your location, some of the new features such as Spotlight Suggestions may not work, as it’s currently restricted to certain countries. Now that you’re familiar with the basics, here are some useful tips and tricks to help you get the most out of Spotlight in OS X Yosemite. Spotlight now takes centre stage in the middle of your screen. It’s now much more visible, and even appears on top of other windows when you’re in full screen mode. The first thing you’ll notice is that instead of being hidden away in the corner of your screen, Spotlight now takes centre stage in the middle of your desktop. How to use SpotlightĪctivate Spotlight by using the Command and Space keys together, or just click on the small magnifying glass in your menu bar. If you want to limit the locations used to search, click on the Privacy tab and use the + icon at the bottom to add folders to the ignore list: Restrict Spotlight from searching and indexing specific locations in the Privacy tab. Note that you can also change the Spotlight keyboard shortcut on this screen from the dropdown list, as well as the shortcut to open a new Finder window for searches. Spotlight can be configured to only display certain types of results. Note also that it’s possible to move the order of each item, to place those results nearer the top. Simply check or uncheck the ones you are interested in. You will be shown a checklist of items (shown below) that will be displayed in your search results, such as Applications, Documents, Folders and many more. You can find Spotlight’s preferences by going to your Mac’s menu. Before using Spotlight, it’s worth taking a quick look at its settings so you can control what results are shown, and the order of those results. For example, suppose that you don’t want to display any email messages in searches, you can just disable those but keep everything else.Īlternatively just launch System Preferences from your Dock and then choose Spotlight.
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