20 Things You Can Do With Spotlight Besides Searching For Files

Besides file searches, you can use Spotlight to search for word definitions, sports scores, weather, stock prices, System Preferences, perform complex math calculations, unit conversions and much more.

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. There are twenty things you could do with Spotlight  on your Mac that don't involve searching for files.
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So Spotlight is a great tool on your Mac for searching for files and you probably know that you can also search for other things. In fact I try to use Spotlight only to search for those other things. If I want to search for a file I do that in the Finder. So here are twenty different things that you can do with Spotlight that aren't searching for files. 
First, go to System Preferences and then go to Spotlight. Make sure you've turned everything on for these to work. I've turned Off various things here including searching for files because we're not going to use that in this tutorial. So let's start off with something really simple. I'm going to activate Spotlight each time using Command Space rather than the Menu Bar. Then if I search for weather I'll find the results for weather and you could see them there below. Now if the result you want isn't at the top you can use the arrow keys to go down to get to it. Command Down will actually jump to the next section. So I could quickly get to the Weather. You could see here the local weather including a forecast. You could also search for weather in another location. So just type weather and the name of the location and then you should get it and it will most likely be at the top. Note that if you see a result like this but you want the expanded results all you need to do is press the Tab key. Then you get all that information there to the right. 
You could also find Sport's Scores. So you can do it for an entire league, like this, and then I'll tab here and get results that I can scroll through. You could also go and just search for a team and then you could see details about that particular game, even how all the players did. You can even get schedules as well and see the upcoming games.
Another thing you could do is get Stock Prices. You could do that by just using the symbol and then Tab will give me more information. Sometimes it helps to put the word Price after it. So I could do dji for Dow Jones Industrials and then price and it will be the first result there. 
You can get definitions for words by just using the word. But you could also use define and then the word and that will usually put it closer to the top in some cases. Here I've got the definition down here and I can get to it with Command Tab. But a quicker way to do it is to actually type the word and then use Command L and it will jump right to the definition no matter how far down it is in the list. 
Now you can also use Spotlight to do a web search. So before you even launch your default web browser you can simply search for something and then you could see Siri suggested websites down below. But if you use Command B right after typing it will go right to the search. That's actually less steps than launching the browser or switching to it and then doing the search. 
Now you probably know you can do Math calculations very easily in Spotlight. You can also use parentheses, something you really can't do in most calculators apps. So you can get results like that. In addition you can use constants like that and you can use functions like that. Plus when you do a calculation like this you can use Command C to Copy the result. Then you can Paste it anywhere you want. 
You can also do quick currency conversions. Just type the currency, like USD for US dollars, and you'll get a conversion after it. If you want a different currency just use in and the name of the currency, like that. You can also press Tab and you'll get more information here. Usually the top currencies to convert it to. 
You can do measurement conversions as well. So you can do something like ten miles and it's going to assume you mean kilometers. But you could also do another unit like this to convert it to something else. Tab will also give you more here. It works with liquid measurements. Works with weights. Just about anything. 
You can also do temperature conversions. So you could do say 60 degrees and since it knows I'm in the US it's going to assume I mean Fahrenheit and it's going to convert that to Celsius. But I could actually type f after it like that or c after it like that.
You can also use Spotlight as a way to quickly get wikipedia entries. So just type something in and then look for Siri Knowledge. Then you'll get the Wikipedia entry here. You could always press Return and it will jump to the full entry. 
You can also get Movie information and times. If I Tab I can see information here as well as times in local theaters. If you search for something that is already available for rent or streaming then you'll not only get that information there but links to take you right to renting it in the TV App.
Now another thing you could use Spotlight for is to search for a launch app that you have installed. But you don't need to type the entire app name or even just the beginning of it. For instance I can start typing GarageBand and it will come up. But I can also type gb. Spotlight is going to recognize the first letter of each word or the first capital letters in a word like in GarageBand. So I could type mw and you could see it comes up with Microsoft Word. Also instead of just launching the app you can go right to a recent document. When you use Tab you're not only seeing the app there but if you tab again you go over to the list of recently opened or currently opened documents. You can press Return and that document will open. 
You can also search for flights to see if they are on time or where they are. So you can see I come up with this flight and Tab will show me a map and it will show me arrival information. Even gates. 
You can also do other things with Maps. For instance you could type a description like this and then jump down to a map like this. You'll see it on the right there along with directions and hours and a way to call. Go to the website. All of that. If you know the exact address then it will take you right to it. 
Now you can also search for Contacts. So, you can start to search for a contact and go down to it. You can see I've got a couple down here. Na ote that in addition to seeing the contact information without every having to open up the Contacts app you can click on one of these icons here to start a message, send an email, or make a phone call with FaceTime. 
You can also search for Music. You can search for artists, albums, or songs. In this case I've got that album here in my music collection and I can actually start playing it. Or if I don't I can go to iTunes Store information or if I'm using Apple Music I can start playing it from Apple Music as well.
Now in addition to searching for websites you can also search your Bookmarks and History without having to open Safari. You can jump right down here to this and then a Return will take me right to it. 
You can also search System Preferences. So instead of launching System Preferences and going to Bluetooth you can just type Bluetooth here and you could see the System Preference there at the top and Return will open up System Preferences taking you right to Bluetooth. 
You can also search for Calendar events and reminders. So, for instance, if I know I have a dentist appointment coming up I can search for dentist and I could go down and there, under Events Reminders, I see a calendar appointment. This is really handy when you know you've got something coming up and you don't know whether you put it in the Reminders App or in Calendar. You can search for it in both places using Spotlight. Note that if you put the word Event after it it usually puts that at the top. 
You can also search for Fonts and get a very nice display of them. So if you want to use a font you can type it in here. You'll see it appear here under Fonts and you can go through all of the different versions of it which can be a lot nicer sometimes than looking at it in a list inside of a word processing app or something like that. 
To end I want to show you two tricks that you can use with Spotlight. One is this little window here. You can easily click and drag the magnifying glass and put it somewhere else. The only problem is when you do that it's no longer centered. Every time you bring it up it's going to be in that place again. However if you go to the magnifying glass here in the Menu Bar, click and hold, it will pop back into its default location. 
Another trick is using the Escape key. No matter what you're doing in Spotlight, whatever you're typing up here, and anytime you use the Escape key it clears everything out and removes all the results. So you can start fresh.
Hope you found this useful. Thanks for watching.

Comments: 14 Responses to “20 Things You Can Do With Spotlight Besides Searching For Files”

Don J J Carroll

2 years ago

Wednesday, March 23, 2022, 5:00 p.m. - Spotlight video
If I have a Safari Window Open and in that window are 26 tabs. I know that one of those tabs is about motorsports, a YouTube video.

Now I have 25 Safari Windows, each with say 15 + tabs
Q-can spotlight search all my Safari Windows (and included tabs) for a tab that contains motorsports?

Gary Rosenzweig

Don: My head hurts just thinking about 26 tabs. It explodes when I think of 25 windows with 15 tabs each! Do you really have that? No, Spotlight won't list all of your tabs. It only shows bookmarks and history from Safari.

Thursday, March 24, 2022, 12:26 p.m. - Thanks for the reply Gary, bummer I wished Spotlight could have searched Safari tabs. I just counted (are you sitting down) 70 Safari windows open and as I stated multiple tabs open in each window.
Reason: There are so many awesome web sites (blogs, YouTube video, news...) stories that I found extremely interesting and I do not have time at the instant of finding them to read or look at them, so I save them. That creates find a specific item a problem.

Don: Please look into using the Reading List feature in Safari instead. It is a much better way to handle that.

Arnie Keller

Great tutorial. One question: Spotlight on my Mac is very slow (I’m running the latest OS on an M1 mini ). Is there any way to speed it up? Thanks.

Arnie: How long has it been since your last update (to 12.3, I'm assuming). Also, do you let your Mac sleep while not using it, or do you shut it down?

I Updated the day 12.3 came out. I shut down my Mac every night but it does go to sleep at times during the day. Come to think of it, so do I. Thanks for any advice.

Margaret Parkes

Another interesting tutorial but is there some way I can increase the size of the font or increase the size of the panel?
Thanks.

Arnie: You should let it sleep at night. It does maintenance then, like indexing for spotlight. See https://macmost.com/a-beginners-guide-to-whether-to-shut-down-or-sleep-your-mac.html

Margaret: There is no way to change the text size in Spotlight. But if you are having trouble reading it there, then you are probably having trouble elsewhere too. I'd change the resolution of your screen. See https://macmost.com/15-ways-to-make-text-easier-to-read-on-your-mac.html

nick

Gary, I just tried the NHL scores, but using the tab key didn't take me to the expanded results like you show in your video. Maybe I missed a step? thx

nick: Are the scores the selected result when you press tab?

Never mind Gary, I went into Spotlight Preferences and turned on Siri Suggestions, now the tab works :)

William Prusak

Gary, you are a permanent fixture on my iMac. This tutorial was amazing! I Read (Watch) all your Vlogs,
You are genuinely the Source for anything, Mac.

Comments Closed.

20 Things You Can Do With Spotlight Besides Searching For Files

Comments: 14 Responses to “20 Things You Can Do With Spotlight Besides Searching For Files”

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