Submit Hint Search The Forums LinksStatsPollsHeadlinesRSS
14,000 hints and counting!


Click here to return to the '10.4: Yet another way to change the Finder's default search' hint
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
10.4: Yet another way to change the Finder's default search
Authored by: chris_on_hints on Jul 09, '05 09:10:01AM

This is a neat way to generate a working default search plist file, but can be improved slightly. Here is what I did:

hit command-F to bring up the default finder search. I left the 'Kind is any' and the 'Date is any' options there, and just added a 'Filename contains' field (hit the + button). Unfortunately, to save it as a search, you need to type something into the query... either in the search bar (top right) or in the 'Filename contains' box.

The hint author suggested typing 'Type filename here' into the 'Filename contains..' box, but this means that when you use it as a default search, the window will contain the results of that (probably fruitless) search. Then you need to replace 'Type filename here' with the thing you want to search for, which needs accurate mousework.

Solution:
=========
After creating the saved search and renaming it to be a '.plist' file, open it for editing in Textedit / BBEdit / terminal etc and make the following changes:

1) remove the "type filename here" text from between the "<string>" and "</string>". this means that the resulting search will have an empty 'Filename contains...' box.

2) remove the text between the "<string>" and "</string>" which follows the "<key>RawQuery</key>" line. This means that no search will be performed when you hit command-F, presenting you with a clean window.

This allows me to type a 'normal' spotlight search in the box at top right, or do a filename search by putting text into the 'filename contains box'.

Obviously the basic search could be adjusted to have all of your favourite options visible by default, with empty boxes ready for your search query. Ahhhh. Thats better.



[ Reply to This | # ]
10.4: Yet another way to change the Finder's default search
Authored by: Spaztik on Dec 29, '05 01:42:32PM

If you ever wanted to search in COLUMN view. Simply use change the .plist file to <key>ViewStyle</key>
<string>clmv</string>



[ Reply to This | # ]