Category: HoudahSpot

HoudahSpot – Powerful File Search for Mac.
Locate hard-to-find files and keep frequently used files within reach.

Save Queries for Recurring Searches

HoudahSpot allows you to customize many aspects of a file search:  query, criteria, locations, columns, sort order, etc.

You will want to save such customized searches for later reuse. HoudahSpot gives you different ways to do so.

Continue reading Save Queries for Recurring Searches

Find Copies of a Specific File

You can use HoudahSpot to find out whether a specific file on your Mac has identical twins somewhere in your file system.

This comes in handy if you want to make sure you have a backup copy before you start working on a file. Or you may want to check if a specific file – e.g. in your Dropbox folder – is a copy and not the original before you delete it.

Continue reading Find Copies of a Specific File

File Search: Exclude Folders by Drag & Drop

What can you do if your file search produces too many results? You’ll need to narrow down your search, and one way to do this is by specifying or excluding search locations. This refocuses the search on certain folders and excludes others.

Continue reading File Search: Exclude Folders by Drag & Drop

Find and refile misplaced files

Let’s say you have set out to store all your MP3 and AAC songs in the Music folder. Yet, over time, some of those files have been saved to other locations. You can use HoudahSpot to find the misplaced files and move these where they belong. Continue reading Find and refile misplaced files

Search in Text Preview

Need to find a specific word, phrase or text passage and not sure in which document to look for it? Combine HoudahSpot‘s regular search with its “Search in Text Preview” feature! Continue reading Search in Text Preview

Our Favorite HoudahSpot Tips & Tricks

HoudahSpot‘s core feature is to give quick access to the files you need. But there are many paths that lead to the same goal. And there are many more tasks you can get done using HoudahSpot than just finding files.

Discover new or more efficient ways to let this Mac search tool work for you – here are some of our favorite tips and tricks for HoudahSpot 4. Continue reading Our Favorite HoudahSpot Tips & Tricks

Find Images With No GPS Coordinates

In a previous post,  we searched for files with no Spotlight comment or tags. Today,  we are looking for photos with no GPS latitude or longitude information.

The technique we used last time works for any metadata attribute containing text. For example: subject, author, album, etc. It does not work for number or date values. HoudahSpot won’t let us use the “*” wildcard character in the criteria editor. It expects us to enter a number or a date.

Since latitude and longitude are both numbers, we need to use a slightly different technique. We will make us of some of the more advanced features of the HoudahSpot search field. This is located in the toolbar of the search window.

Continue reading Find Images With No GPS Coordinates

Change Default Application for File Type

Within HoudahSpot and Tembo, you can open files directly from the search results list. Just double click or select “Open” from the context menu, and the file selected will open in the default application for its file type.

In OS X, you can change the default application for a certain file type by following these steps: Continue reading Change Default Application for File Type

Create Lists of Files. Export Metadata to CSV

Use HoudahSpot to create lists of files. For example, you could create a list of …

  • Photos shot this year. List file name, resolution & path
  • Video files larger than 100 MB. List duration, codec & file size
  • Audio files located outside your iTunes media folder
  • Old files. List date created and date last modified
  • …

HoudahSpot can save search results to CSV files. These files can, for example, be imported in Apple Numbers, Microsoft Excel spreadsheets etc. Note that HoudahSpot uses the tab character as separtor beween columns.

Continue reading Create Lists of Files. Export Metadata to CSV