What’s New in HoudahSpot 5.1

It’s already been a year since we released HoudahSpot 5.0. In that time HoudahSpot saw a series of minor updates bring enhancements, compatibility with macOS 10.15 Catalina, and – yes – bug fixes.

HoudahSpot 5.1 adds a handful of improvements. These are not so much features as seemingly small tweaks that will delight you by subtly improving your file searching experience.

Enhanced Quick Look Preview

XMP sidecars are files that sit next to image files to hold metadata like location information, keywords, and description. Precisely this rich information sometimes makes it easier to find the sidecars than the actual image files. Yet it is the images we want to see. Quick Look preview in HoudahSpot 5.1 locates the image file associated with the XMP sidecar and uses that image for a preview.

DEVONthink is a smart document management solution for Mac. It can catalog, organize, and work with any type of file. When HoudahSpot 5.1 comes upon a DEVONthink item it will call upon Quick Look to show a preview of the cataloged file.

“It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen.” – John Wooden

Use Templates from Finder

HoudahSpot can add a toolbar button to Finder windows. From this toolbar button, you can start HoudahSpot searches that focus on the selected folders.

The toolbar button now lists your search templates in a drop-down menu. Select one of the templates to start a new search modeled after your template. The search will use the search criteria, exclusions, columns, sort order, etc. set by the template. It will, however, focus on the selected folders.

Re-save Templates

When saving a search created from a template, HoudahSpot now suggests updating the original template.

New Keyboard Shortcuts

You can now set custom keyboard shortcuts to start a HoudahSpot search from Finder or bring HoudahSpot to the front.

Text Preview in Dark Mode

Text matches are now highlighted with colors that provide better contrast in dark mode.

Improved File Tagging Control

You can now click a recently used tag to add it to the files’ tags.