The Search Field

The Finder's Search field appears in the top-right corner of a Finder window's toolbar (Figure 1). You can use it to initiate a search based on item name or contents. Simply enter a word or phrase in the field and Mac OS X displays a list of matches.

Figure 1. The Search field appears in the toolbar of a Finder window.

Tip

• A window's toolbar must be displayed to use the Search field. If the toolbar is not displayed, click the toolbar control button (Figure 1) to display it.

To find files with the Search field

1.	Click in the Search field of a Finder window to position the blinking insertion point there (Figure 1).
2.	Enter the word or phrase you want to search for (Figure 2). Figure 2. When you enter a search word, Mac OS X immediately begins displaying search results. As soon as you begin typing, the window turns into a Searching window. Mac OS begins displaying results sorted by item type (Figure 2).

Tips

• You can specify a search location by clicking one of the location buttons above the search results in the Searching window (Figure 2). I tell you more about search locations on the next page.

• Remember, the search feature searches by name or contents. If you're not sure of a file's name, search for some text you expect to find in the document. Figure 3 shows an example.

  Figure 3. Remember, the search feature searches by contents, too. In this example, I found two other letters by searching for the word Dear - which appears as part of the text in most letters - rather than letter.