Spotlight's Kind Keywords
TMO Quick Tip - Spotlight's Kind Keywords
by , 7:30 AM EDT, October 9th, 2006
Tiger's Spotlight is capable of finding a wide range of files on your Mac, but if all you really want is to perform a quick search for a specific type of item, like a contact or a folder, the long list of items Spotlight shows you is just plain overkill. Spotlight has the ability to limit the scope of item types it looks for - as long as you remember to include the appropriate kind keyword.
A kind keyword is a special term you add to the end of the text you enter in a Spotlight search. The keyword you use limits Spotlight's search to a specific file type. For example, if you want to look up a business contact named Anna, but you can't remember her last name, you can enter "Anna kind:contact" in Spotlight's search field. Your search result will list every Address Book contact with "Anna" in their name.
 Spotlight kind keywords filter out items you aren't interested in. |
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Spotlight includes kind keywords for several different item types like applications, contacts, email, iCal, and more. Here's a full list of keywords:
| Applications | kind:application kind:applications kind:app |
| Audio | kind:audio |
| Bookmarks | kind:bookmark kind:bookmarks |
| Contacts | kind:contact kind:contacts |
| kind:email kind:emails kind:mail message kind:mail messages |
|
| Folders | kind:folder kind:folders |
| Fonts | kind:font kind:fonts |
| iCal Events | kind:event kind:events |
| iCal To Dos | kind:todo kind:todos kind:to do kind:to dos |
| Images | kind:image kind:images |
| Music | kind:music |
| Movies | kind:movie kind:movies |
| kind:pdf kind:pdfs |
|
| Preferences | kind:system preferences kind:preferences |
| Presentations | kind:presentations kind:presentation |
Spotlight kind keywords are handy when you need to perform a quick search for a certain type of information. If you need a more refined search, however, it's time to move on to Smart Folders. Not familiar with Smart Folders? Check out this Quick Tip.
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