10.4: Use Boolean (NOT, OR) searches in Spotlight
May 12, '05 10:28:00AM
Contributed by: HiramNL
There's limited (and undocumented) support for boolean queries in Spotlight. After experimenting a little, I found the syntax for OR and NOT.
- lenin|trotsky will find documents mentioning either Lenin or Trotsky
- lenin(-stalin) will find documents mentioning Lenin, but not, thankfully, Stalin
- lenin|trotsky(-stalin) will find documents mentioning either Lenin or Trotsky, but not Stalin
For more details, check this article on my site.
[robg adds: This is the first I've heard of using a minus sign to get a NOT functionality directly in the Spotlight bar. The comments on the linked site (note that it was very slow to load when I tested it) add a bit more detail...]
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