apple f - New Search

[btagalen]

I've looked over the forums and see that several people are having problems with Spotlight and or Apple "F". I would like to add to this, which I consider a very serious problem, my experiences.

I have always used Apple F to find archived files. I am a designer and need to locate files from time to time, like logos, pictures, etc that I have used several years ago. I keep everything and try to organize them as best as possible, but I have such a busy schedule I don't have the time to get detailed with my files system. I, until Tiger, could always find what I needed with a simple Apple F from the finder. NO LONGER!! When I use spotlight, I get pretty much the same results. When you open New Search by Apple F for some reason it always comes up with Computer as default with Kind and Any as the first set of filter parameters and Last Opened and Any Date as the second filters. WHY??? I usually search by Name and Name Contains as the parameters.

Then to make matters worse, even before I finish typing (and there is no SEARCH or SUBMIT or OK) it goes off searching, freezing up the text entry into the search field and jumps around as if it's looking for anything that starts with the first letter I typed in. Then the first and second letter and so on and so on... Then, if I'm lucky it might eventually refresh itself and fill in the entire word I entered into the search box, or it may just spin and find nothing. WHAT IS GOIING ON HERE???!!!!

This is such a hinderance to productivity.

How can we tell apple to get this fixed. I hate it!!

[ex2bot]

It sounds frustrating. One solution is to type your search somewhere else, in TextEdit or Word, for example. Then highlight it, cut it (Apple-X). Type Apple-F. Then paste it in (Apple-V).

That way Spotlight won't start searching for the first letter you type. Whether that way is better or not I don't know.

I'm pretty sure you'll start to see some free search programs coming out soon for people who don't like Spotlight.

Doug

[adambyte]

About the typing the name thing....

The idea is that, as soon as you start typing, all you have to do is type "reci", and before you know it, Spotlight will show you a file you're probably looking for called "recipes." it's a very on-the-fly kind of thing.

However, you problem seems to be that the computer is simply doing it not fast enough, and stalling in between the letters. As if your computer is just really slow. Weird.

I thought there was a way to conduct an old-style search, but, ironically, it seems as though macosx.com's search thing isn't working correctly for me.