- Introduction
- Finding Information Using Spotlight
- Finding Information in the Spotlight Window
- Filtering Spotlight Results
- Grouping and Sorting Spotlight Results
- Working with Spotlight Results
- Setting Spotlight Preferences
- Searching for Files Using the Find Window
- Searching for Hard to Find Information
- Working with Find Window Results
- Creating and Using Smart Folders
- Getting Help While You Work
- Getting Help Using Spotlight
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Setting Spotlight Preferences
You can change Spotlight preferences to customize the way you use Spotlight. You can specify the categories, such as Applications, Documents, Folders, and so on, you want or don’t want to include in a Spotlight search. In addition, you can change the order of the categories to prioritize the way the results appears. If you prefer different shortcut keys to display the Spotlight menu or open the Spotlight window, you can change them. When Spotlight performs a search, it looks everywhere on your computer (except for someone else’s Home folder). If you want to keep certain disks, partitions, or folders private, you can add them to your privacy settings in Spotlight preferences. When you add an item to the privacy list, Spotlight removes them from the Spotlight index.
Set Spotlight Search Results Preferences
Click the System Preferences icon in the Dock, and then click the Spotlight icon.TIMESAVER Click Spotlight preferences at the bottom of the Spotlight menu (after you’ve started a search).
Click the Search Results tab.
Select the check boxes you want to include in the search results or clear the check boxes you don’t want to include in the search results.
To change the order to the search results categories, drag the categories to the location you want.
Click the Close button.
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Set Spotlight Privacy Preferences
- Click the System Preferences icon in the Dock, and then click the Spotlight icon.
- Click the Privacy tab.
- Drag the items (disks, partitions, or folders) to the list of non-searchable items from the desktop, or click the Add (+) button, navigate to the item, and then click Choose.
- To delete an item, click the item, and then press Delete or click the Remove (-) button.
- Click the Close button.
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Set Keyboard Shortcuts for Spotlight
- Click the System Preferences icon in the Dock, and then click the Spotlight icon.
- Select the Spotlight menu keyboard shortcut check box, click the list arrow, and then select the shortcut you want.
- Select the Spotlight window keyboard shortcut check box, click the list arrow, and then select the shortcut you want.
- Click the Close button.
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