Basic search questions

[crabocado]

Utter newbie here. I am running OS 10.5.8. I have some search-related questions:

1) At the bottom left of every Finder window is a group of "Search By" options. I accidentally dragged off the one called "This Week". Please tell me how to put it back (i.e. create the relevant smart folder or whatever it's called). Any way to put it back like new, i.e. with the special icon?

2) When I search (quickly, by just entering a term in upper right corner of Finder window) I get a godawful list including email messages. How can I exclude email messages. Better yet, how can I set things up so that by default, email messages are NEVER included. Since it is easy to search for email within email clients (e.g. Mail.app), I don't see why they had to cloud things up by calling up emails in Finder searches as well.

3) Also (similar to Question 2), by default the search uses the "Contents" option. I have to click on "File Name" or else I get another godawful list of everything under the sun. How can I make "File Name" the selected option by default? What in heaven's name were they thinking when they made "Contents" the default, other than "let's show off how powerful our search tool is by swamping the user in a heap of garbage".

Thanks in advance...

 

[pen-helm]

I see nobody ever answered your question. I have never run OS X 10.5.8, but I can tell you what I see in 10.10.1.

1) To put back the search criterion, look for a "+". On my machine, it is to the right of [Kind] is [Any].

2) To not see email messages in Spotlight results, go to System Preferences > Spotlight > Search Results, and uncheck "Mail & Messages". I agree with you, and did it myself.

3) In 10.10.1 Contents is still the default :-( , but as soon as you start typing something into a Finder search window, up pops something which says "Name matches: (whatever)" which you can click on.