Spotlight

I spent my first week navigating to Applications in Finder every time I wanted to open something. Click Finder. Click Applications. Scroll through a list of apps I didn't install. Double-click the one I wanted. It was like browsing Program Files on Windows, except worse because I didn't know where anything was yet.

Then someone said "just press Cmd + Space" and I felt personally attacked by how much time I'd wasted.

The Fix for Everything

Cmd + Space. A search bar appears. Type anything. That's Spotlight. It finds apps, files, emails, calendar events, contacts, system settings. It does math. It converts currencies. It defines words. It previews documents without opening them.

Type "Saf" and hit Enter. Safari opens. Type "23 * 47" and the answer appears. Type "50 usd in euros" and you get today's rate. Type "define ephemeral" and you get a dictionary entry.

It's Start Menu search from Windows, except it works. (I said what I said. Windows search has been gaslighting us for years. "Did you mean to search the web?" No, I meant to find the application that's literally installed on this computer.)

What Spotlight Can Do

Type this	Spotlight does this
App name	Launches the app
File name	Finds and previews the file
345 * 12	Calculator: shows 4,140
50 usd in euros	Currency conversion
define serendipity	Dictionary definition
weather	Current conditions
Settings keyword	Opens the matching System Settings panel
Contact name	Shows their info

Tricks

• Press Cmd + Return on a result to reveal it in Finder instead of opening it.
• Use kind:pdf or kind:image to filter by file type.
• Type a folder name to jump straight to it.

Windows Comparison

Action	Windows	Mac
Open search	Win key or Win + S	Cmd + Space
Launch app	Type name, press Enter	Same
Calculator	Open Calculator app	Type math directly
Find settings	Type in Start Menu	Type in Spotlight
File search	Win + S, then "Files"	Just type

Windows search requires you to tell it what kind of thing you're looking for. Spotlight just figures it out. Score one for Apple. (I'm keeping a running tally. Don't worry, Windows is winning in other categories.)

If you take one thing from this article: stop clicking through folders. Cmd + Space, type what you want, hit Enter. You'll use it fifty times a day. It's the single best feature on macOS and the one I'm angriest about not knowing sooner.