Is Macintosh HD full to the brim? Wonder what is using up all that space? With HoudahSpot, it is easy to find the culprits: large files that were recently added to your Mac. If disk space is running tight, you may want to delete or compress these files, or move them to an external disk. Continue reading Find Large Files in OS X
Author: houdah
Start a file search from LaunchBar
LaunchBar is a popular application launcher, clipboard manager, and much more.
HoudahSpot is a powerful file search tool. It takes the guesswork out of Spotlight searches and helps you find file hidden deep in the “haystack” of files accumulated over the years.
The “Search with HoudahSpot” LaunchBar action provides an elegant way to start a HoudahSpot search using LaunchBar.
Start a Tembo file search from Alfred, Butler, or LaunchBar
Tembo implements a custom URL scheme. Use this to start searches from third party tools like Alfred, Butler, or LaunchBar.
Tembo 2.0 search URLs have the following format:
tembo2://search?query=[QUERY]&location=[LOCATION]&group=[GROUP]
Such URLs can be invoked by any application, browser, launcher, script, etc. In this article we will look at setting up a custom search in Alfred.
Continue reading Start a Tembo file search from Alfred, Butler, or LaunchBar
Find files with no tags or Spotlight comment
When organizing files, we sometimes need to find files that lack a Spotlight comment or have not yet been tagged. Finding such files is easy with HoudahSpot. The procedure however is not immediately obvious. This post will show you how to search for files with no tags.
Continue reading Find files with no tags or Spotlight comment
Search for files with PopClip & HoudahSpot
PopClip is a popular Mac utility by Pilot Moon software. PopClip appears when you select text with your mouse on your Mac. Choose from a large collection of extensions to perform actions on or with the selected text.
The HoudahSpot PopClip extension searches for files related to the selected text. Continue reading Search for files with PopClip & HoudahSpot
Narrow down searches using the Info pane
The HoudahSpot Info pane shows all metadata Spotlight has recorded about a particular file. This includes generic attributes (file name, dates, etc.) as well as custom attributes filled in by the Spotlight importer responsible for indexing the file. You can use any of these attributes to find similar files.
Find and organize video files using HoudahSpot
With HoudahSpot, it is easy to search your hard drive for media files. Just set the Content Kind criterion to Audio, Image, or Video – and HoudahSpot will look for files of the type specified.
If you’ve ever been looking for a specific photograph, you may have already used the pre-installed sample template named “My Photos”. It lists criteria that come in handy when searching images, like pixel count.
When searching for specific video files, other criteria come into play, e.g. duration, video codec or bit rates. We have prepared a template for HoudahSpot 4 that helps you sort through your moving images: the Video template is available for download here. It is pre-configured with a set of criteria and results columns that relate to video files. Continue reading Find and organize video files using HoudahSpot
Geotag photos for the Apple Photos application
This post no longer applies to Apple Photos 2.0 under macOS 10.12 Sierra. HoudahGeo 5.1 can now add location information to photos in the Photos library.
The most common workflow for geotagging photos with HoudahGeo is:
- Import photos into iPhoto or Aperture
- Geocode the photos using HoudahGeo
- Write geotags to the original image files
- Notify iPhoto or Aperture of the newly added geotags
The new Apple Photos application lacks the programmatic interface needed for HoudahGeo to notify it of changes made to geotags.
Until this issue is resolved, we recommend that you geotag your photos before importing them into the Photos library.
Continue reading Geotag photos for the Apple Photos application
Find similar files using Find by Example
HoudahSpot gets you to your files quickly by helping you narrow down your search until only the relevant files are left over.
Find by Example lets you refine a search using a prototype file: a file that has something in common with the files you are looking for. Drag and drop a file from Finder or from the search results onto a search criterion. It will update to match that file. You just told HoudahSpot:
I want files like this one.
Search the current Finder or Path Finder folder
HoudahSpot 4.0 comes with a “droplet” that you can install in the Finder toolbar. This small application can be found from HoudahSpot > Preferences > Advanced. Follow the instructions found there to install Search.app as a Finder toolbar item.
When clicked, Search.app opens a new HoudahSpot window set to search the folder shown in the current Finder window. You can also drag and drop folders onto the toolbar item to open a new HoudahSpot window configured to search these folders.
If you use CocoaTech’s Path Finder, you should download and install the Search PF.app droplet to initiate HoudahSpot searches from the Path Finder toolbar. Continue reading Search the current Finder or Path Finder folder