You can get overwhelmed with macOS, especially if you’ve recently switched from Windows. It may take some time to get the hang of it.
As you discover new features, you might miss one of the most powerful tools in macOS, Spotlight.
Spotlight reduces many taps and saves you a lot of time. This guide will show you how to use Spotlight on your Mac and get the most out of it.
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What is Spotlight on macOS?
Spotlight in macOS is a system-wide search tool that lets you search files, photos, email, documents, calendars, and the web all at once.
Spotlight indexes your Mac’s hard drive for instant access to files when you need them. However, you should put your Mac to sleep instead of shutting it down to better index files.
Spotlight in macOS is quite similar to its iOS counterpart in terms of the search results you get. However, accessing Spotlight is different on iOS and macOS.
You can launch Spotlight in macOS by clicking Search icon (magnifying glass). in the menu bar or by pressing the cmd + spacebar on your keyboard. Additionally, some keyboards, including Apple’s Magic Keyboards and MacBook’s built-in keyboard, have a dedicated key to access Spotlight.
What can you do with Spotlight in macOS?
Spotlight isn’t just a search tool; you can do more than you realize. Here’s a list of some useful things you can do with Spotlight search:
launch apps
There are many ways to open apps on Mac, but Spotlight lets you launch apps faster than any other method. All you have to do is bring up Spotlight with cmd + spacebarenter the name of the app and press Input to open it.
Also, you don’t need to type the app’s name to open it. For example, if you want to open Microsoft Teams, instead of typing “Microsoft Teams” in full, you can type “Mic” or “MT” and Spotlight will bring it up. And you can push Input to start it.
Browse files on your Mac
Search is an essential thing you can do with Spotlight. You can search for apps, documents, email, and other items on your Mac. And thanks to Apple’s Live Text feature in macOS, Spotlight can also find text in documents and images.
You can also search for specific types of files in Spotlight. You can do this by adding an extension “kind:” followed by the file extension. Example: If you want to search for a PDF file with “iOS”, you can type “iOS kind:pdf” to show only PDF files.
web searches
Spotlight doesn’t limit your search to files on your Mac, you can also search the web. You can get most information at a glance without opening the browser on your Mac.
You can search for a person, photos, or anything else, and Spotlight will search the web for you. If the required information is not found, you will see an option to search for the same in your default browser.
calculations and conversions
Spotlight can come in handy for you when you do a lot of calculations and conversions. You can perform basic math calculations including addition, division, subtraction, multiplication and more.
You can also do unit-to-unit conversions, including currency, temperature, and measurement conversions. Once you enter the first unit, Spotlight will auto-complete the query based on your location. Otherwise you can end it manually.
For example, if you enter “100 USD”, Spotlight will show you the conversion to INR in India or GBP in the UK. And the same goes for other conversion metrics.
definitions
While you can use your Mac’s dictionary to quickly look up words, Spotlight lets you do the same on the fly. You can quickly search for any word by typing “define” followed by the word you want to search for and Spotlight will return with its definitions.
Check the weather
You can use the Weather app in macOS Ventura to check weather conditions on your Mac. However, you can do this much more quickly with Spotlight search.
All you have to do is type in “weather” followed by the location and press Input. Spotlight returns with the current and the next ten days’ weather forecast.
track flights
There are many websites and apps to track real-time flights, but you can quickly track flights with Spotlight search. You just need to enter the flight number, press Input on your keyboard, and Spotlight shows you the details and real-time status on a map.
Other things you can search with Spotlight
Spotlight is not limited to the above actions; there’s more to it than that. Here are a few other things you can look for in Spotlight:
- Fonts on your Mac
- Sports results and dates
- stock prices
- Information about the film and its showing times
- contacts
- maps and driving directions
- Music (albums, artists and songs)
- Safari bookmarks and history
- Calendar events and reminders
How to customize Spotlight search results
If you don’t want to see certain search results on Spotlight, you can turn them off. Follow these instructions to customize Spotlight search results:
- Go to System Preferences > Siri & Spotlight.
- Scroll down to the Spotlight section and enable/disable what you want to see in Spotlight search results.
For example, you can turn off the Documents option if you don’t want Spotlight to show documents in search results.
You can also show all search results but exclude specific folders. Follow these steps to learn how:
- Go to System Preferences > Siri & Spotlight.
- Scroll all the way down and click Spotlight Privacy.
- press the Plus sign (+).navigate to and select the folder you want to exclude from Spotlight results Choose.
- Beat Completed once done.
From now on, the contents of this folder will no longer appear in Spotlight search results.
Master Spotlight search on your Mac
Spotlight is one of the most powerful and incredible tools in macOS. You can search almost anything without opening multiple apps to look something up. So before you search for something in a web browser or different apps, try Spotlight first.
Spotlight is great, but it’s not perfect. So if after a while you are not a fan of Spotlight, you should know that various third-party apps are available to replace it on your Mac.
