Spotlight is buggy?
in [Mac Systems]
|
From: AES on 28 Dec 2009 12:01 > > > > spotlight is buggy. it fails to find a lot of things. > > > > > > Spotlight is not buggy. > > > > it very definitely is Threads like the one that these quotes came from are generally dumb, or at least contain a lot of dumbth. But Spotlight (at least the 10.4.11 version I'm using), while it certainly has some attractive features and capabilities, also has a considerably less complete user interface than one might expect for an Apple utility this important and this basic: * No Help is available when it's running. * Is there any immediate or easy way to know if a multi-word search string searches for "All words" or just "Any word"? * Is there any immediate or easy way to know if a multi-word search string in quotes will search for the full string only? * No Services are available when it's running. * It doesn't give you access to its preferences when you just open it. You have to start a search ***and the search has to have delivered some results*** before the Preferences line appears at the bottom. * And that Preferences line is not present in the more detailed "Show All Results" window. * And if you then go to the Spotlight preferences from that line, when you close them, the Spotlight window is gone (although the previous search results are preserved when you re-open it). * And the preferences are relatively limited, it seems to me. Maybe I've missed the boat on one or two of the above in my quick tests (and maybe the 10.5 and 10.6 versions are better?). But one would hope that Apple could do a bit better on the interfaces for its really basic tools, like Spotlight and, for that matter, TextEdit.
From: Paul Magnussen on 28 Dec 2009 12:44 Is it just me, or does Spotlight only search the boot volume? Paul Magnussen
From: D. Finnigan on 28 Dec 2009 13:15 Paul Magnussen <magiconinc(a)earthlink.net> wrote: > Is it just me, or does Spotlight only search the boot volume? > > Paul Magnussen It's just you. ;-)
From: Barry Margolin on 28 Dec 2009 20:24 In article <siegman-DE4988.09005528122009(a)news.stanford.edu>, AES <siegman(a)stanford.edu> wrote: > * It doesn't give you access to its preferences when you just open it. > You have to start a search ***and the search has to have delivered > some results*** before the Preferences line appears at the bottom. > > * And that Preferences line is not present in the more detailed "Show > All Results" window. So? Is it so hard to use System Preferences? -- Barry Margolin, barmar(a)alum.mit.edu Arlington, MA *** PLEASE post questions in newsgroups, not directly to me *** *** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***
From: AES on 29 Dec 2009 10:50
In article <barmar-A78EF9.20241528122009(a)news.eternal-september.org>, Barry Margolin <barmar(a)alum.mit.edu> wrote: > In article <siegman-DE4988.09005528122009(a)news.stanford.edu>, > AES <siegman(a)stanford.edu> wrote: > > > * It doesn't give you access to its preferences when you just open it. > > You have to start a search ***and the search has to have delivered > > some results*** before the Preferences line appears at the bottom. > > > > * And that Preferences line is not present in the more detailed "Show > > All Results" window. > > So? Is it so hard to use System Preferences? As I imagine you well know, nearly every well-done Mac app, when open and in use, provides direct access to its own preferences, at all times, via a menu item in its own whatever-its-called left-most menu, next to the Apple menu. You don't have to have any knowledge of where those preferences may be stored to get at them. And opening those preferences, at least in every case I'm familiar with, does not kill the app, nor does it shut down any of the windows related to that app that you may have open. Having all these features available and quite strongly standardized in nearly all Mac apps -- most of the good ones, anyway -- is helpful to users. None of them is available, or at least fully available, in that fashion in Spotlight. |