Tag Archives: Spotlight

How To Prevent Mac OS X Spotlight From Indexing A File Or Folder

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Hiding files on your Mac is not easy, and Spotlight is the reason why. Without a doubt, OS X has a very smart file indexing feature - a little too smart even, making it really hard to get around it. Hiding or protecting your files in the absence of an efficient encryption tool is a challenge in itself. The problem with encryption tools is that you have to go back & forth between encrypting and decrypting files whenever you need to access or modify them. It’s one area where Windows’ users have it easy. Coming back to Spotlight, the feature is what will most likely help someone find the files you want to hide the most. There is a built-on option to mark files that Spotlight shouldn't index but it isn't as effective as it should be. Here’s a much faster way to get the same results. Read More

Add Chrome & Firefox Bookmarks To Mac Spotlight Search Index With Brow

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Spotlight in OS X indexes a lot of things but when it comes to browser bookmarks, it does index the ones saved in Safari, but not the ones saved by other browsers. If you use more than one browser and often struggle with different bookmarks libraries for each one, you might like Brow. It’s a small free utility that adds your Chrome and Firefox bookmarks to Spotlight’s index. While it runs in the background or the Menu Bar, it continually monitors the profile folders that each browser creates, and keeps the bookmarks up-to-date in Spotlight’s index. This makes your bookmarks saved across three different browser searchable from one central location i.e. Spotlight. Read More

Search App Store, Cydia, Social Media & Much More From iOS Spotlight

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Spotlight search is among the most favorite targets for Cydia developers. The perfect combination of permanent presence and limited usefulness has enticed many jailbreak developers to come up with tweaks that can really enhance Spotlight. SLightEnhancerSearch is the latest tweak that will put your iPhone’s Spotlight search on steroids. While almost all local areas of your iDevice are already accessible through Spotlight, the search range is by no means complete. For example, Spotlight is useless if you want to search within the App Store. When it comes to web searches, there are just search engines (Google by default) and Wikipedia on offer. SLightEnhancerSearch lets users decide what they want to search for from the Spotlight. You can add a lot of search shortcuts to the list, including major social media apps, iTunes, App Store, Cydia, iBooks and more. Join us after the break for the complete list and further details. Read More

SpotMail Lets You Start Composing Emails From iPhone Spotlight Search

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It might not matter in most cases, but there are times when skipping even one small step in a task can make your iDevice feel much more efficient. Some of the tweaks available in the Cydia store let you create shortcuts for a number of tasks, but why clutter your iPhone’s SpringBoard when there is an area of iOS that is always a swipe away, and generally, is seldom used. We are talking about Spotlight search, of course. SpotMail is an unobtrusive Cydia tweak that allows you to start composing mails from the Spotlight search area without adding any extra buttons or disturbing the Spotlight area's existing functions in any way. The tweak won’t let you write the whole mail within Spotlight search. You just have to enter an email, and a new draft will automatically be opened in the stock Mail app with the recipient’s address already entered. Read More

Rename: Edit File Names & Add Spotlight Comments In Bulk [Mac]

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Batch file renaming is often needed when you have to organize a large number of files, and their names make little or no sense. Image files from your camera are the first thing that come to mind, but the need to clean up file names can occur for just about any file type. Rename is a batch file renaming app for Mac, which, unlike many file renaming apps that we covered earlier, has multiple ways of changing the file names; with Rename, you can simply select an entire folder that contains the files you want rename, enter a word that is found in the file name, and the app will find and rename it. It saves you the trouble of having to select a file that is to be renamed, or finding it from a large folder. Other features of this app include adding a serial number to all files and folders within any folder, appending a suffix or prefix to a file name, adding spotlight tags in bulk, and removing a given number of characters from the start or end of a file name. Read More

SpotLock: Lock Your iPhone By Swiping To Spotlight Search Area [Cydia]

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The Spotlight search area in iOS devices does have some fans, but many people simply don’t use it. This is apparent when you look at the number of Cydia tweaks that alter Spotlight search with some new functionality. Apart from those tweaks, there are a few that disable Spotlight search completely, but SpotLock is the first one that disables Spotlight while endowing it with a new use. Using SpotLock, you can lock your jailbroken iPhone simply by navigating to the Spotlight search area. By default, iDevices can only be locked using the hardware button designed for that purpose (other than the auto-lock), so SpotLock provides users with a software alternative for locking your device’s screen. As a bonus, the whole feel of the swipe to lock feature is pretty neat as well. Read More

SpotSiri: Use Spotlight Search To Invoke Siri & Ask Anything [Cydia]

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Thanks to the Cydia store, there are many ways of customizing the Spotlight search area of iOS devices. SpotSiri is the latest in a long line of tweaks that are designed to let users do something new and different from the otherwise mostly-redundant Spotlight search. This tweak serves a dual purpose. With SpotSiri, you get an extra and easily accessible Siri launch button on your iDevice, and you will also be able to type your query in the Spotlight search text box to get Siri to answer it without having to speak at all, making it super helpful to use Apple's virtual assistant in quiet environments. Sure you can state your query to Siri and then ask her to search the web, but SpotSiri comes up with a more direct way of doing things. Read More

Search iOS Native Dictionary From Spotlight Using SpotDict [Cydia]

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For some, Spotlight search, is one of the most useful and frequently used features in iOS. It lets you search almost every facet of your iPhone, providing real-time results; almost every facet. There are many tweaks in the Cydia store that focus on making additions to Spotlight search or changing its functionality altogether. While SpotDict does not do something as drastic as the latter, it does make an extremely hand addition to the things you can search from the Spotlight area. It allows you to search the iOS native dictionary from within the Spotlight area. It adds a button beside the search field that, when tapped, looks through the native dictionary for whatever text has been entered in the field. What makes this tweak handy is the fact that Spotlight is among the most easily accessible areas of iOS, and the native dictionary can only be accessed by selecting text from within apps. Read More

Replace iOS Spotlight Search With Any Webpage Using WebSpot [Cydia]

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Although the Spotlight search area in iPhone, iPad and iPod touch devices comes in handy on a number of occasions, there is a considerable percentage of users who find it useless and a waste of the iOS Springboard space. If you are one of those people, there is a bunch of stuff you can do to the Spotlight to alter it to your liking, using Cydia tweaks like Fbspot and CommandSpot. However, you will find out that the Cydia store also has some tweaks which replace the Spotlight completely, and now another such tweak has been added to the jailbreak store. WebSpot lets its users pin any webpage or web app to the Spotlight search area, removing the Spotlight altogether. Read on if you find this concept interesting. Read More

Stop Folders From Appearing In “All Files” & Spotlight In Mac [Tip]

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We recently covered an app, Easy File Hider, worth $1.99, which allows you to change the visibility attribute of a file to Hidden. In the spirit of hiding things from the world and anyone who uses your Mac, here is a little tip to keep files from appearing in Spotlight search and in ‘All Files’ in the Mac Finder. The fact is, hidden files will be visible if you’ve enabled Mac to show them in Finder. They can be searched for from Spotlight, and if you were to view All Files in Finder, they will be listed with their respective file types. Hiding folders and their contents from Spotlight and All Files involves nothing more than a quick visit to the System Preferences. Read More

Control Music From Spotlight Via Commands Using SpotPod [Cydia]

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The Spotlight search area is made more and more useful with the release of each Cydia tweak that allows users to type commands in it to perform various tasks. Examples of such tweaks for iOS devices include CommandSpot and Fbspot, which convert the Spotlight area into a command prompt of sorts. Now you can add another tweak to this list, as SpotPod is a new tweak which will let you enter a few basic commands in the Spotlight search area to control the stock music app in your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Admittedly, the number of commands is pretty limited for now, but if you have SpotPod installed on your iDevice, it becomes possible to control the music with ease and efficiency. All you have to do in order to control any area of the Music app is to type a one-word command in the Spotlight search area, and hit the enter button on the keyboard. Read More

SpotTweet: Send Twitter Updates From Spotlight Search [Cydia Tweak]

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If you tweet a lot, then having an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch is just the thing for you, owing to the impressive Twitter integration on offer in the latest version of iOS. There is now an option for tweeting in just about every area of the platform, and within most stock apps, but if you want to compose a tweet and send it to your account without any fuss, you will have to rely upon some of the third-party options available for users. There is Twicon, Tweet Time and many other apps and tweaks which are designed for speed and efficiency when it comes to tweeting. SpotTweet is the newest addition to this category, and using this Cydia tweak, you can compose and send a tweet from the Spotlight search area in an iDevice. Read More

CommandSpot: Execute Shortcut Commands From Spotlight Search [Cydia]

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The Spotlight search in iOS is one feature of the iPhone which gives the impression that it has the potential of achieving much more than it currently does. A few months ago, we covered a Cydia tweak named Fbspot, which allows users to run commands related to Facebook from the Spotlight search. CommandSpot is a new tweak which generalizes the concept, and takes things a step further. This tweak comes with a number of commands, which make using an iDevice faster and more convenient, by providing shortcuts executable via Spotlight. Read More

iFileX: Search Files By Name, Size, Modification & Creation Date [Mac]

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Spotlight search in Mac is, no doubt, one of the best utilities there is. It lets you search across any and all folders for all kinds of files, and remembers your frequently used files and apps so that the results are always more meaningful. While it is an excellent global search for the entire system, it does lack filters. iFileX is a Mac app that that lets you add several search criteria when you are looking for a file. Search can be narrowed down by name, modification date, creation date, size, folder or alias. You can also limit your search by specifying a particular location. Read More

iTweaX: Tweak Hidden Mac OS X Features & Run Maintenance Procedures

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Onyx and Deeper are two well known tweakers for OS X. Their main advantage: even a novice can tweak their OS without worrying about going critical mass on a brand new Mac book. For those who think that people messing around with the default settings on a Mac must secretly work for NASA, these apps reveal that they are actually tweaking with hidden (read: built in and totally changeable) Mac features. Similar to those two app is iTweaX, a Mac app that lets you change several default settings on your Mac OS X Lion. The app divides its customization options into three broad categories, i.e., Maintenance (backup scripts), Tweaks (change how the default apps behave) and Cleaning (emptying Caches and logs). A fourth category lets you restore your system from one of the backups that you’ve taken. Read More

Fbspot: Control Facebook Account From iPhone Spotlight Search [Cydia]

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There are countless tweaks available at the Cydia store for jailbroken iOS devices. Some are really useful, while others are there to just make up the numbers. FBspot is a tweak which falls somewhere in between the two categories. The functionality it offers is, admittedly, pretty minor, but many iPhone users who like Facebook might find the tweak really useful. Fbspot lets you type commands in the Spotlight search area of your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and those commands will take you straight to the desired area of your Facebook account. Confused? Read on for details. Read More

EasyFind: Mac OS X Spotlight Replacement With Better Search Options

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Although Mac’s Spotlight is an efficient index-based search feature, it’s devoid of some advance search options such as search file content, keyword-based search modes, etc., which compel users to consider third-party file search tools to find files, folders and content inside files with more speed and options. One such powerful application for Mac OS X is EasyFind that has been developed to replace Mac OS X native desktop search utility. Unlike Spotlight which creates virtual indexes to find files, folders, applications, etc., from the system, it is a standalone application that doesn’t require indexing your entire disk to perform search operations. Read More

winLight Is Windows Search Alternative To Spotlight On Mac

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This is one app everyone should keep tab of. winLight is a new upcoming tool touted to be Windows replacement for Spotlight on Mac. For those who don’t know, Spotlight is the default search feature on Mac which is simply brilliant. It would be immensely difficult to create an exact copy of Spotlight for Windows but the developer of Winlight has aimed to do it anyway. Read More