Searching for Files and Folders


No matter how carefully you organize your folders and disks, the time will come when you can’t find a file or folder without a lot of digging through layers of folders. The Find command fetches lost or buried items with less effort. Using Find, you can search by name, text content, or a combination of name, content, and other criteria, such as file size or modification date. You determine which folders and volumes (disks) Find searches. When a search ends, Find displays a list of the files, folders, and volumes that match your search criteria. You can do a lot with items on this list, including seeing folder locations, opening them, and putting them in the Trash.

Searching by name

Searching for files, folders, and volumes by name is a simple matter. You specify the name or part of the name you want to find and where you want Find to look for it.

There are two ways to search using Find — by using the stand-alone Find window and by using the Search field in the Finder window toolbar.

Finder window Search

In Mac OS 10.3, every Finder window has a built-in Search field in its toolbar. Refer to Figure 7-1 for an example.

click to expand
Figure 7-1: Every Finder window includes a Search field in its toolbar.

If the toolbar is hidden, show it by clicking the lozenge-shaped button in the upper-right corner of the window. If the window is not wide enough to display the Search field in the toolbar, click the double-arrowhead at the right end of the toolbar and select Search from the pop-up menu, as shown in Figure 7-2, to display the Find window shown in Figure 7-3.

click to expand
Figure 7-2: Narrow Finder windows place the Search command in a pop-up menu on the right side of the toolbar.

click to expand
Figure 7-3: Use the Find window to search for files.

By default, the Search field contains the words “local disks” in gray, denoting where the search will take place, as shown in Figure 7-1. Clicking on the magnifying glass icon just to the left will show a pop-up menu with other locations you can choose for the search: home, selection, and everywhere (explained in more detail later in the Chapter). Your selection will appear in the Search field in gray.

To enter text into the Search field, click inside it to make the search location selection disappear, and a flashing insertion point appears. Then type the name you are searching for.

As you type the first letter, changes start to happen:

  • Items containing that letter begin to appear, listed in the large pane of the window.

  • An icon of a white X in a gray circle appears on the right of the Search field; clicking this clears the search results from the large pane.

  • In the middle of the bottom of the window, Find tells you how many places are being searched and how many items have been found.

  • In the lower right of the window, you may see (if the search takes long enough) the clock icon spinning to show Find is working.

  • To the right of the clock initially appears a tiny white counterclockwise arrow in a gray circle, which can be clicked to halt the search. As you type the second letter, this halt arrow icon turns into an X that more properly symbolizes its function.

With each successive letter typed, Find narrows its search. When the search is done, the clock in the lower right disappears, and the halt X icon in the lower right turns back into a clockwise arrow; clicking on it will perform the search again. If you add new letters to the field, the search begins again. If you subtract letters, the list alters to reflect the change.

The Find command and window

To see a Find window, as shown in Figure 7-3, first click anywhere on the desktop or on the Finder icon in the Dock to switch the active application to the Finder; then use the File Find command. The keyboard shortcut Command-F opens the Find window.

The Find window is set up by default to quickly perform a file search by name on all local disks. Follow these steps:

  1. Open the Find window.

  2. In the first text field, enter the name or part of the name that you want to find. To enter text in the text box, you can click inside the box or press Tab as needed to place an insertion point in the box. If the box already contains text from a previous search request, pressing Tab selects this text so that you can replace it simply by typing.

    It doesn’t matter how you capitalize the name or partial name that you type. Find considers the lowercase and uppercase forms of letters to be the same; ReadMe is the same as readme, Readme, or README.

  3. Click the Search button or press Return to begin the search.

Looking at found items

When you click the Search button, the Search Results window immediately opens, showing the list of items as they are found. If your search lasts long enough, you may see the clock icon spinning in the top right. To its right, you see the counter-clockwise arrow icon; click it to halt the search.

When the clock icon disappears, the search is complete, and the window appears as shown in Figure 7-4. Find displays the total number of items it found just below the window’s title bar. If Find doesn’t find any items that match the name you specify, the message “No items were found” appears here.

click to expand
Figure 7-4: Search results display in a separate Search Results window.

You can scroll through the list of found items to see if it includes the file or folder you are seeking.

If you see a likely item, click it once to see its folder location path appear in the information area at the bottom of the Search Results window. New in Mac OS 10.3, by default this path is shown as a single row of folders separated by arrowheads, starting with drive icon on the left and ending with the selected item on the right. You can view the name of a folder by positioning your cursor over it. You can also expand the information area to see the path represented in two other ways, first with the names of each item showing, and then as you make the area bigger, with each item listed below the item enclosing it and indented to the right. (These path-viewing options are shown and described in greater detail later in this Chapter.)

Double-click any item in the list of searchable sources or any item in the information area to open the item. If you double-click a folder, a new Finder window opens to display the folder’s contents. If you double-click an application, it launches or opens. If you double-click a document file, the associated application launches or opens and displays the document contents in a window.

You can do other things with files and folders in the found items list, such as find other items that are similar to one of the found items. We discuss these options later in this Chapter, under the heading “Working with Found Files and Folders.”

Stopping and restarting a search

You may happen to specify a search that takes a long time to complete, and you may realize you don’t want to wait any more, especially if you already see what you are looking for. You can stop the search by clicking the small round gray button just below the lozenge-shaped toolbar button in the upper right of the Search Results window. As noted previously, this button contains a counter-clockwise arrow as the search is occurring. If you stop the search, and click this button again to restart it, the arrow is replaced by an X. When the search is complete, the X reverts back to the arrow icon.

Yes, this button behavior is slightly different from the similar button behavior that appears in a Finder window if you use it to do a search, as described previously. If you find this discrepancy a little strange, be assured you are not alone! It must have made sense to the developers.

If you stop a search in progress, Find displays the list of items it found before you stopped the search.

Revising or repeating a search

If you want to repeat a search and possibly revise the name to search for or the sources to search, click the Find window behind the Search Results window to bring the Find window to the front. To expand your search, shorten the name entered in Find’s text box or turn on more searchable sources. To narrow your search, lengthen the name to search for or turn off some sources.




Mac OS X Bible, Panther Edition
Mac OS X Bible, Panther Edition
ISBN: 0764543997
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 290

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net