10.4: Use unique Spotlight comments for fast launches
Jun 27, '05 08:42:00AM
Contributed by: Deut3221
This is a pretty lame hint, but if you want to dramatically boost the speed of Spotlight for frequently-used searches, assign a short, unique name to the application or document in the Spotlight Comments field.
For example, I assigned the following "Comments":
- Microsoft Word: mdoc
- Microsoft Excel: mxls
- Microsoft Powerpoint: mppt
- Apple Backup: abk
- ... and so on
Now, when I want to launch Word, I type mdoc, and the only item to appear in Spotlight is Word. Hit Command Enter, and the app the launches. Yes, LaunchBar is 10X faster, but this hint improved Spotlight's speed for me to where it is more than satisfactory.
Of course, you can continue assigning unique names (as others have helpfully suggested) to any files and/or apps that you frequently open. The point is short and unique to minimize the number of hits and improve the speed. Hope this is useful to someone...
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Mac OS X Hints
http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20050614153132518