
Spotlight does not index network volumes, so in a workgroup environment where all the 'interesting' documents are on a network volume, it's not very useful. However, since Spotlight will index the contents of files on your hard drive, we can leverage this in a brute-force kluge to get some information on our interesting documents or phone lists.
- Searching for people will show the contact's name in Spotlight. However, if I just want a phone number, I have to select that contact which opens Address Book. However, you can change your frequently-used Address Book entries to include the phone number in the name. Instead of just "George Washington" in the name field, add a suffix with his phone number. "George Washington 555-1776," for instance, will show up in Spotlight's search field, no opening of the app is necessary.
- I need to know the status of particular parts in our database, and whether we've made PDF files of them. From our database, I selected those parts which match a particular criteria, and exported just the part numbers into a text file and named the text file something like --Sent to Vendor.txt and save it on my hard disk. (Other text files for useful criteria I've used are --Obsolete.txt, --Proofs Received.txt and --Superceded by other parts.txt.)
Now, if I search Spotlight and enter a part number, if that number is in any of these text files then my "criteria" files shows up in the quick results window. I can tell immediately if the part is obsolete or not, sent to vendor or not, etc. without even opening the database. Of course, this is only as current as the last export of the text file, but if you can live with that, it's a very quick-and-dirty way to categorize any bits of text you want, regardless of where the data lives. (Opening and re-saving the text files every so often will make sure they float to the top of the heap of results.)
- I've got a couple thousand files (named with our Part Number) on a network volume that I need to refer to frequently. I made a folder on my hard disk with aliases to all those files. Now entering the Part Number into Spotlight will give me an idea of the category/status of the part and show me the alias -- I don't have to scroll through whatever folder structure the file is stuck in. Once again, this is only as current as the list of aliases, but if a part doesn't show up, then you will need to dig out your regular search tools.
I want to eventually set up an Automator workflow, or a folder action, to let me know when I need to update my crude indexes, but this can give a nice snapshot of what's what, especially useful for archived or infrequently accessed items.