Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Anything on Your Mac
). Spotlight isn't perfect, by any means, but once you get the hang of
it, it's a pretty good way to find stuff.
It's also an excellent way to
launch
apps (and open files). Plus, you can use it without ever
reaching for a mouse or other pointing device.
Here's how you can use Spotlight as a launcher:
1. Press Command-Space to display the Spotlight search field.
2. Type the first two or three letters of an app's name (for example,
sa
for Safari,
co
for Contacts). If an app's name has multiple words, you can type the first
letter of each (such as
ka
for Keychain Access); you can also type InterCapped
letters, as in
bc
for BusyCal.
Wait a moment while Spotlight searches. As it finds matching items, it lists
apps at the top.
3. If the app you want to launch is highlighted as the top hit, press Return to
launch it. If it's not the top hit, you can either continue typing (to narrow
down the name further and increase the probability that the app you want will
percolate to the top of the list) or press the Down Arrow key until the app you
want is highlighted. Then press Return.
The app opens. This works regardless of where the app is located on your Mac.
You
can
usethesametechniquetoopendocuments,iTunestracks,recordsinContacts,items
from your Safari history, and so on. You can also use it to look up words in the dictionary and
to perform Web searches.
The problem with all these other types of matches is that they'll be further down on the list,
likely requiring quite a few arrow presses to get to them. (You can customize the order of
various categories in System Preferences > Spotlight > Search Results.) Also, the list won't
showyouallpossiblematches, andyoumayhavedifficulty picking outjusttheitemyouwant
based on the menu entry.
Even if you restrict yourself to opening apps from the keyboard with this method, Spotlight
tends to be kind of slow. And because its results change over a period of several seconds, it
often takes that long to be sure that the thing you want will still be highlighted when you
press Return. So you can't blindly type in a few characters and trust that the right thing will
open.
