command-f in Panther?

E

erikv11

Registered
I discovered this when I was looking for the OS X Finder

I have two :D machines in the house:

10.2.3 (~ 2 week old clean install) on TiBook 800 G4, 1 GB RAM.
10.2.8 on G3 Lombard 400, 512 RAM

weird - if I use command-f in the Jag Finder, it seems to search truly "everywhere" as I request. Certainly it searches within /System, for example.

command-f in my Panther Finder does not search /System. I assume it is otherwise looking "everywhere" though I haven't thoroughly checked. Why not looking at /System, when 10.2 does? A new "feature" (?) or a bug or a problem unique to my installation?
 
Open your System folder and type "finder" in the search box at the top (assuming you're viewing your windows in brushed metal and haven't removed the box). It should have no choice but to search System.
 
When you use command-f, the "Everywhere" setting is a bit misleading. It won't search invisible folders or in the trash, and probably won't search in certain system areas.
 
OK, this works, thanks.

So if I am looking for something and think it might be in the System folder, I can make a special effort to look there. But, surpisingly, an "Everywhere" search is not at all what it sounds like. This little box is just an alternaqtive GUI for command-f, from what I can tell.

e.g. if I use the same method as above after opening the hard drive, it does *not* work to type "finder in the box. Why not? After all, my hard drive contains System contains Finder. This is very misleading - the utility says it is searching "Everywhere" or "Selection" but in fact it isn't. At best it is looking at "Everywhere (etc.) except for System" maybe some effort to protect us from ourselves (no thank you). And how do I know there aren't other directories I'm unknowingly "protected" from? When I select system does it truly search all of system, even when I ask command-f to include invisible items?

I can adjust, I'm just surprised, and disappointed that there isn't a truly "Everywhere" search method. Maybe this is one of the reasons some people dump the Finder for PathFinder etc.
 
ElDiabloConCaca said:
When you use command-f, the "Everywhere" setting is a bit misleading. It won't search invisible folders or in the trash, and probably won't search in certain system areas.
Click to expand...

It will search within and find invisible items, that is a toggle pref on the GUI.

And in 10.2 it searched in the System folder too. But in 10.3 it seems to refuse searching in /System entirely. e.g. search for "library" doesn't find /System/Library. Try it.
 
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