17953
EasyFind 3.9 Search Utility
HoudahSpot 1.4.8 File Search Tool
Laserlight 2.0.3 Bypasses "Find-As-You-Type"
Locator 0.7.3 Freeware File Name Search Utility
MoRU: Smarter Enhanced Spotlight Interface For Smarter Searches
NameFind 2.0 Filename Search Utility
SpeedSearch 2.3 Text Content Search Utility
SpotInside 0.2.8 Spotlight Search Enhancer
Spotlaser 1.3.1 Spotlight Enhancer

I have a love/hate relationship with Spotlight in OS X 10.4. I've become addicted to it; having a convenient search utility ready and waiting all the time, and while it falls short of Apple's “Find anything, anywhere, fast,” hype, it is seductive. On the other hand, Spotlight has numerous shortcomings.

First off, I dislike its find-as-you-type initiating searches from the first letter you type. This is distracting, and bogs things down on the slower Macs I use. It is dismal for simple file name searches, much less convenient that the Find dialog in OS 10.3 Panther. Why no simple ‘find by name’ option?

There no path information revealed in the Spotlight Results window. You have to resort to Get Info or Reveal in Finder. There is no preview of file contents available, and you can't refine your search within results, which is a pain, because Spotlight suffers from a bad Google-esque, "too much information" and "not precise enough information" syndromes - not about the location or contents of files, but the vast number of returns it gives in a typical search. There is no indication of whether a document found in a Spotlight search contains one mention of the word you're looking for or a hundred instances. Spotlight search results are listed and sorted by name, file-type or modification date only.

You can do Boolean searches with Spotlight, but the method necessary is not intuitive, and uses somewhat nonstandard syntax. You can find out more about that in this article:
http://www.macintouch.com/tigerreview/spotlight.html

Spotlight doesn't support phrase searches, so if that's the key you need to find what you're looking for, you're out of luck - almost. You can muck around with using quotation marks in the search field. I've had indifferent success with that. A simple ‘match this phrase’ configuration button would be so much simpler.

Thanks to these angularities and deficiencies, a cottage industry has been spawned for third-party suppliers of Spotlight enhancers and alternatives, augmenting a number of search utilities that already existed prior to Tiger's release.

I've tried a bunch of them (although I make no claim to this article being exhaustively inclusive), and I wish I could say that there is one "killer search app." that can be what we all hoped Spotlight would be, but alas, there isn't, at least among the ones I've tried. On the other hand, some are very good, and provide functions and conveniences that aren't available in Spotlight, so we'll take a look at them in the following profiles, which appear in alphabetical order.

EasyFind 3.9 Search Utility

One of the advantages of Spotlight and various third-party applications that serve as front end enhancements to the underlying Spotlight technology is that it indexes your entire hard drive save for certain exclusions like your system files. This speeds things up enormously, once the drive has been indexed. Indexing updates are ongoing.

However, one of the Spotlight alternatives that I find works exceptionally well is Devon Technologies' EasyFind, which is freeware and positioned as an alternative to or supplement of Spotlight to find files, folders or contents in any file without the need for indexing. EasyFind is much slower than Spotlight, et al., but it is very thorough and delightfully configurable.

Befitting its name, EasyFind is easy to use with easily configurable search criteria, and also also offers a lot of functionality that Spotlight doesn't (at least conveniently), such as case sensitive or insensitive search, Boolean operators, wildcards or searching for phrases. In addition, EasyFind uses multithreading and is therefore very responsive even with multiple search processes running, provides contextual menus and Mac OS X Services, and displays the location of each item in a separate column for a better overview. Finally EasyFind uses little memory, supports drag-and-drop and the clipboard and optionally finds invisible items or items within packages (which Spotlight doesn't search). Consequently, even if you're running Tiger, EasyFind can be a very useful enhancement to your search capability.

The EasyFind interface is attractively and intuitively laid out, and there is a pop-out Cocoa drawer in which you can configure a variety of search parameters.

The latest EasyFind Version 3.9 implements its own wildcard interpreter, supports wildcards specifying or excluding a range or choice of characters ("[...]") and displays the full pathname for found items in tooltips, adds a convenient "Open With" submenu, removes support for DEVONthink Personal Edition and fixes a bug affecting wildcards at the end of words. Version 3.8.1 searches up to 2.3 times faster for files and folders, comes with a better French localization and the tooltips show the full pathname of search results.

You start EasyFind using the Finder or the Services-menu ("EasyFind/Find In Path..." and "EasyFind/Find Selection..."- items) within Cocoa-applications or Carbon-applications supporting services, enter your keywords, select the desired volume or folder and press search.

You can also open additional search windows in the meantime and run multiple processes at once or stop the currently running search (once you've started a search, the "Search"-button becomes a "Stop"-button until the process has finished)

EasyFind displays all found items immediately so it's possible to drag & drop an item (e.g. onto Finder windows, the dock or other applications) even while the search is going on (vertical motion begins a multiple file selection, horizontal motion starts drag & drop).

Or select "Open" in the "File"-menu to open one or more files with the appropriate application (or just double click on them), "Reveal In Finder" to open the enclosing folder in the Finder, "Destroy" to delete the items (after a warning) immediately, "Move To Trash" to trash them (without a warning) or "Show Info" to display the info panel of the Finder for the selected items. You may also use contextual menus by right- or control-clicking on selected items to perform these actions.

The speed compared to Spotlight varies - the more results you get and the smaller the folders you're searching in are, the faster EasyFind is (Devon says up to 5 times faster than Sherlock). But searching in whole volumes may be about 5 times slower than Apple's solution as EasyFind is "really" searching. HOwever, aside from the speed issue, I have to say that I've found EasyFind a very satisfactory all-round comprehensive alternative solution to Spotlight, it uses very little system resources and the price is right.

System requirements:
OS X 10.3.9 or higher

EasyFind is freeware

For more information, visit:
http://www.devon-technologies.com/

HoudahSpot 1.4.8 File Search Tool

HoudahSpot is a shareware application based on Spotlight that lets you search by name, contents, date, type or any other file attribute.

The primary HoudahSpot interface window is a basic query form which supports a selection of configuration options to help you pinpoint the files you are looking for. You can also create complex queries by combining criteria using boolean operators.

Happily, HoudahSpot does not run searches before you are done entering criteria. The search starts only at your command, which is the way I like it.

The top half of HoudahSpot's two-paned query window allows you to express search criteria. The bottom half defines the search scope.

Search results are displayed with useful information that Spotlight results lack - path info and a nice preview (both thumbnail and optionally larger as well for images) of graphics or text content. Results remain up-to-date as long as they are on screen. Create a new file and it instantly shows up in the searches that match it.

The top half of the three-paned results window lists the file matching your query. This list may be sorted as you wish. The action menu enables you to open files, reveal them in the Finder, move them or trash them.

In the bottom half is a column based file browser. The left-most column shows the items of the currently selected search result. To the far right is a larger view of the currently selected file.

HoudahSpot may be configured to start up as soon as you log in to your Mac. It also places a menu in the menubar when it's running.

You can save queries for later reference. A query set up with a few basic criteria and a search scope might serve as a starting point for future searches.

Saved searches with HoudahSpot are much like smart folders. When saving a search its run state and result sort order are saved along with the query. A search saved while running jumps back to life as soon as it is opened. HoudahSpot comes with 2 such predefined searches: 'Applications' and 'Recent Documents'.

Queries saved to the template directory always are readily accessible from the 'Template' menu. You may assign keyboard shortcuts to up to ten templates. Templates may be used as stationeries or as smart folders.

HoudahSpot has a very attractive interface, and it works well. On the downside, I found it somewhat slower returning results than some of the of the Spotlight alternatives, and it is cumbersome to have to open a new query document for each search.

System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.4.7 or later with Spotlight enabled.

System support
PPC/Intel

HoudahSpot is $14.95 Shareware

For more information, visit:
http://www.houdah.com/houdahSpot/

Laserlight 2.0.3 Bypasses "Find-As-You-Type"

If "find-as-you-type" bugs you, a simple solution is a little AppleScript freeware hack by Stephen J. Jonke called Laserlight. Laserlight provides a text entry field in which you can type your entire search subject before unleashing the Spotlight search with a button click. It also offers the option of either a standard, comprehensive search, or a more narrowly focused search on keywords/names only instead of all content. Just select the appropriate button in the Laserlight window.

LaserLight puts your search string directly into the Spotlight search field, bypassing the clunky, as-you-type search method a simple solution that facilitates a faster, better Spotlight.

There are also a number of options available that can be set in the script application. Drag the Laserlight application onto the "Script Editor" application in the "/Applications/Apple Script/" folder to edit it. At the top of the script you'll find the options with explanations. To set Laserlight to default to searching on Keywords and Files name only (instead of all content), set defaultToKeyword to true. There are several other options available within the script file as well. Save your changes to make them take effect.

For more information, visit:
http://macupdate.com/info.php/id/18364

Locator 0.7.3 Freeware File Name Search Utility

Locator adds a simple graphical interface to the Unix command /usr/bin/locate "locate“ command, which is able to find files by filename on your computer very quickly.

Locator also offers regular expression searches, is able to index removable media like CDs.

Locator provides an attractive and user-friendly, low-hassle GUI front end to OS X's powerful Unix locate routine, and also facilitates using fink's locate tool rather than the built-in locate by checking a box in the Preferences.

While the basic function of the program could hardly be simpler, it is also highly configurable using the four panes in the Preferences. It is also nice to use, happily more passive than Spotlight/Find in Tiger. Searches don't commence until you finish typing in your keyword(s) and hit Return or Enter. Searches are fast, and you can (Yippee!) search within results.

To search the locate database, first choose "Show Locate database search" from the "Database" menu, then, enter a part of the name of the file you are looking for or the entire file name in the field labeled "Locate" and click on "Start". You can also specify whether you are looking for a file that begins or ends with a certain string by making the appropriate selection in the small popup menu that by default shows "Contains". By checking the checkbox "Case insensitive", Locator will treat uppercase letters and lowercase letters the same. Ignoring the case makes the search a little slower.

If you want to limit the search to a certain directory, you can do this by entering the name of the directory in the field labeled "In Directory" or use the "Browse..." button to choose the directory.

When the desired file appears in the results box, you can highlight it and either open it or reveal its location by clicking the appropriate button in the toolbar.

For searching removable media, thorough configuration and operation instructions are provided in the Help Viewer dialog.

Locator is an excellent little filename search tool and well worth having aboard, especially since it's freeware and only a 388 KB download.

System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.1

Freeware

For more information, visit:
http://www.sebastian-krauss.de/software/#locator

MoRU: Smarter Enhanced Spotlight Interface For Smarter Searches

MoRU is another application that provides an enhanced interface to Spotlight, allowing you to configure more powerful searches and improving usability.

All searches in MoRU are automatically sorted according to when each items was most recently modified, opened, or created, which means that items that you have worked on recently will be at the top of search results. As files are modified, opened, or created, they move to the top of the list, keeping them easily accessible.

Searches can be performed either with a saved, detailed query called a Smart Group, or with an unsaved, ad hoc, text-oriented search called a Quick Search. With a Smart Group, you can search on any Spotlight attribute, such as "Last Modification Date", "Author", "Bit Rate", etc. With a Quick Search, searching is limited to file name and text content.

MoRU offers a number of advantages over the basic Spotlight interface:

• The Power of "OR"
The basic Spotlight interface only allows you to compose searches using the "AND" operator (intersection). MoRU takes searching to the next level by allowing you to mix in the "OR" operator (union) in your searches. For example, you can search for files which are either "MP3" or "Mpeg4".

• Precision
MoRU gives you more control over the way in which text is searched. You can choose to match just file names, just content, or both. You can choose to match all words, any word, or using an operator expression. In the basic Spotlight interface, the way in which text is searched is neither obvious nor very controllable, and is frequently not what you mean.

• Chronological Organization
Files which have been used recently are more likely to be needed again soon than are files which have not been used recently. Acknowledging this fact, MoRU always keeps search results sorted by time (last modification date, last opened date, or creation date), thus bringing recently used files to the top of the results list.

• Path Info
With the basic Spotlight interface, you need to click on a file in the search results to see its path. MoRU shows you the path to each file in the search results directly in the search results.

• Convenient access to more info
The basic Spotlight interface makes you jump through hoops to view details about a file. In MoRU, the gory details are only a click away.

• Exclusions
Don't want to see certain files? MoRU allows you to exclude files from a Smart Group by location, type, or name.

• You Initiate Searches
As we've noted basic Spotlight interface maddeningly launches a search while you are still in the process of defining it. MoRU, on the other hand only starts when you say so. You can hit the "Apply" button at any time while defining your search to see the results of the current search criteria, or just wait until you are done and hit "OK".

• Search within Results
MoRU adds another dimension to searching by allowing you to filter the results of a search by name, path, or content using an operator expression ("and", "or", and "not"). For example, if you want to see all the PDF files within the results of a search that contain other types of files as well, just type "pdf" into the "Filter by Name" field, and all non-PDF files will be temporarily hidden. Alternatively, switch to "Filter by Path" and see all matching files under a specified path.

• Copy To/Move To
Copying or moving a file from within MoRU couldn't be simpler. In addition to Drag and Drop support, MoRU provides popup menus that allow you to quickly drill down to a target folder for a copy or move.

• Defining Smart Groups
A Smart Group is a logical grouping of files based upon shared attributes of those files. For instance, a Smart Group could be defined as "all PDF files", or "all files whose name contains 'Windstorm'". Smart Groups are automatically kept up to date as changes are made to files, and are sorted so that the most recently used or modified files are at the top of the list, making them easy to find.

I found that MORU works extremely well and very quickly. It reminds me a bit of EasyFind grafted onto Spotlight. The interface is uninspiring to look at, but gets the job done, and this is a very solid and powerful search utility.

System Requirements:
• Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)

System Support:
PowerPC or Intel Mac

MoRU is $10.00 shareware. You can try out MoRU, for free, for up to 30 days. MoRU will be fully functional during that time.

For more information, visit:
http://www.windstormsoftware.com/wssw/index.html

NameFind 2.0 Filename Search Utility

NameFind is a simple filename-searching utility. Enter a search term, specify your search directory, and run the search query. NameFind will present a list of all files that match the search name.

NameFind compared to Spotlight:

• Simple to use: Type your search term, choose your search directory, and go.
• Fast: NameFind doesn't bog down system resources.
• View, open and delete files found in the search.
• Thorough, searchable user documentation via the "Help" menu.
• Featured as a powerful alternative to Spotlight at MacFixit.com.

NameFind works fine. For example, it found both "easel.jpg" and "modbookeasel.jpg" with the entry of "easel.jpg" in the search field, which is very commendable. I didn't find it especially quick, but it got the job done.

However, the big downside of NameSearch is that the developer wants a $20 shareware license fee for it, and it just doesn't offer twenty bucks worth of value compared to other solutions offered for less or for free that give you so much more.

All you get is a very minimalist interface that performs one-trick-pony name searches. It would be useful freeware, but twenty bucks? C'mon.

System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

System support:
PPC/Intel

$20.00 :Shareware. The download is a 30-day demo; you can purchase a license to use the program past the 30-day trial period.

For more information, visit:
http://www.codebykevin.com/namefind.html

SpeedSearch 2.3 Text Content Search Utility

A text content search tool that I've used since well back into Classic OS days is the wonderful little shareware application, SpeedSearch, which, as its name indicates, is very fast, and which, like EasyFind, happily requires no indexing. It searches the entire content of all documents in the folders selected, is very flexible, and supports searching any folder that is dragged to its Start Folder window individually.

SpeedSearch uses WASTE to display search results. The size of search results is limited only by application memory, and the colors used to display search results are user-configurable. SpeedSearch displays results similar to UNIX grep -- each line that matches the search string is displayed in the results area. And like grep, SpeedSearch supports regular expressions.

Instead of specifying a single start folder, you can also search one or more entire volumes. To specify the volumes, select the "Select Start Volumes…" item in the Search menu. This will bring up a dialog that allows you to specify the volumes to be searched.

You specify the string you want to search for in the field labeled "Search For:". By default, the text is searched for exactly as entered. However, you can have SpeedSearch treat the string as case-insensitive, as a whole word, or as a regular expression. The following criteria can be specified:

• Ignore Case
• Entire Word
• Regular Expression
• NOT Matching

Other Items in the SpeedSearch Window include:
• Search Nested Folders
• Search Folder Aliases
• Search File Aliases
• Autoscroll While Searching
• Search File Types
• Sound When Done
• List First Match Only
• The Search Filenames Menu
• The Start Folder Favorites Menu

SpeedSearch is $10.00 shareware. Registered users of a previous version are entitled to a free upgrade.

For more information, visit:
http://www.smartcache.net/speedsearch/index.html

SpotInside 0.2.8 Spotlight Search Enhancer

One of the Spotlight alternatives I've found most useful is SpotInside, which searches rtd, rtfd, html, doc, PDF(text), OpenDocument Format(text) documents and shows a preview their contents with keywords highlighted. It will also find the folder the desired document is located in with a click of the "Reveal in Finder button, and open it with the "Launch" button. There is even a Zoom slider for adjusting the size of the preview contents in the right hand pane of the interface window.

There is also a slide-our Cocoa drawer in which you can add bookmarks to search results you might want to return to.

And happily, your search is not launched until you finish typing your keyword and click the "Search" button. Spotinside works very nicely.

That's pretty much it. The single Preference setting is to select either a vertical or horizontal query format. Spotinside is freeware, and well worth the small effort of downloading it.

For some reason, I'm not sure exactly why, SpotInside tends to turn up the most useful collectiopn of results for my purposes, and displays them in a very convenient fashion. Most of the time, I find it the most helpful tool for the sort of content searching I do. If Apple would only make Spotlight work like this.

System requirements:
Mac OS X 10.4 or later.

System Support:
PPC/Intel

Free

For more information, visit:
http://www.oneriver.jp/SpotInside/index.html

Spotlaser 1.3.1 Spotlight Enhancer

Spotlaser has the prettiest interface of any of the Spotlight enhancers, IMHO, and it's highly configurable, allowing precision and flexibility that your can only dream about in Spotlight.

Configuring a search to find the file you want with Spotlaser goes as follows:

1. Answer any one or more of the following 4 questions:

In the What... section: What are your search terms?
In the Where... section: Where on your computer you want to search?
In the When... section: When was the file created/modified/last opened?
In the Who... section: Whose name is attributed to the file?

2. Click on the Search button at the bottom of the window.

3. View the results of the search in a Finder Smart Folder.

The Spotlaser search bar at the top of the Spotlaser also provides the option to perform a quick filename-only search, much like the way searches worked in previous versions (pre 10.4) of Mac OS X. This enables you to find that file without sorting through all the extra files that a normal Spotlight search would throw at you. Use the wildcard character * if you don't know the exact name of the file you're after.

In some instances I found Spotlaser searches a bit too specific. Looking for that image with "easel" in its name turned up "easel.jpg" but not "modbookeasel.jpg" - the latter being the one I was after. HoudahSpot found both.

What... Where... When... Who... by answering any one or more of these these four simple questions, you can refine SpotLaser searches, and after entering the information, press the Spotlaser button on the bottom of the Spotlaser window and a new smart folder (named "Spotlaser Search Results") will be opened in the Finder.

If you have selected the "Save Search Results" checkbox, a save sheet will ask for a name and location to save the Smart Folder.

With What... file name, contents or metadata searches, you can search for a file by name, content, metadata, or any combination of the three. By searching for all the words (logical AND), any of the words (logical OR), without the words (logical NOT) or even the exact phrase, you can find that file you want or need. Use as many search terms as you please, separated by spaces. Wildcard searches are possible by using the * character anywhere in your search terms. Select the "Word based" check box to perform "smart word searches". Word based searches are an alternative to using the wildcard character * in your searches. Word based searches detect spaces and changes from lowercase letters to uppercase letters. Select the type of file you're looking for from the File Type menu. Don't know the exact size of the file you're looking for? Optionally enter a size value and you can find files that are smaller, bigger or approximately the size you want, by way of Spotlaser's "fuzzy" search method.

Where... Location searches - use the quick-select buttons to search all connected drives, your boot drive or your home folder, or use the Open.. button to pick somewhere more specific. Focus your search however you please.

When... Date searches - When was this file created, last modified or last opened? Today, yesterday, this week, in the last 47 days, whenever. You can search by date by selecting an exact date, or a range of dates by selecting starting and ending dates from the calendar date picker, selecting from a list of time frames, or in the past X number of days, weeks, months or years.

Who... Contact searches - Whose name is attached to this file? Search by Author, Composer, Contact, Contributer, Lyricist, Publisher or Recipient if your file contains this information in it's metadata.

The Spotlaser disk image includes a handy User Guide which outlines all the details of Spotlaser usage.

System requirements.
Spotlaser requires you to be running Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or later to perform its functions.

System Support:
(Universal binary)

Spotlaser is donationware.

For more information, visit:
http://members.optusnet.com.au/frovil/spotlaser.html

___

In summary, as I noted above, if you're looking for me to declare a winner out of this concatenation of search utilities, I'm going to have to disappoint you. I'm having trouble myself picking a favorite. Most have their strong points, and none is the "perfect" solution for everyone, although I expect that one or more of them will be a useful addition to anyone's suite of production tools.

The drawback with all the alternatives compared with Spotlight is that the latter is always there, ready to go with a mouse click. I really miss Spotlight when I'm running any other OS than Tiger 10.4. Spotlight has vast room for improvement, and I'm hoping that we will see a lot of it in Leopard. In the meantime, one or more of the applications profiled above can fill in Spotlight's deficiencies.



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Charles W. Moore

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