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Tag: macOS

ScreenCastsOnline: HoudahSpot Video Tutorial

Don McAllister of ScreenCastsOnline takes you on a tour of the new HoudahSpot 5.0.

HoudahSpot supercharges your macOS searches. HoudahSpot uses the same index as Spotlight but uses its own optimized user interface and powerful feature set to make searching much faster and so much easier.

Don walks you through many of HoudahSpot’s options for finding and working with files. Along the way, Don highlights some of the new features in HoudahSpot 5, gives a couple of tips for working with HoudahSpot, and points out some of the lesser-known features.

Continue reading ScreenCastsOnline: HoudahSpot Video Tutorial

Use Tags to Organize and Find Files

What are File Tags?

File tags are keywords you assign to files. They allow you to organize and find files.

Example of tagged file: a paid invoice
Example of tagged file: a paid invoice

Organize Files: Folders or Tags?

File tags allow you to organize files when a simple folder structure won’t do. Better yet: file tags can improve your existing filing strategy and make files easier to find. Continue reading Use Tags to Organize and Find Files

How-to: Customize the HoudahSpot LaunchBar Action

Objective Development’s LaunchBar is an adaptive app launcher, document browser, and much more.

HoudahSpot is a powerful file search tool. It takes the guesswork out of Spotlight searches and helps you find files hidden deep in the “haystack” of files accumulated over the years.

HoudahSpot 5 includes a LaunchBar action that provides an elegant way to start a HoudahSpot search using LaunchBar. You can install this action from HoudahSpot > Preferences > Extensions.

Screenshot: LaunchBar in action
Start a file search from LaunchBar 6

The action is selected by typing the hs abbreviation in LaunchBar.

Continue reading How-to: Customize the HoudahSpot LaunchBar Action

Hidden Gem: New Search – Old Window

In HoudahSpot you can open as many searches – windows or tabs – as you like. Sometimes you end up with more windows than you care for.

You found your file. The search is over. The next search is up. You open a fresh window. But first, you have to close the previous search. But what you actually do is delay housekeeping and clutter your screen with disused HoudahSpot windows.

Continue reading Hidden Gem: New Search – Old Window

HoudahSpot and Default Folder X

HoudahSpot 5.0 works with St. Clair Software’s Default Folder X to deliver files where you need them.

Default Folder X enhances open and save file dialogs on macOS. It provides quick access to favorite folders and recent files. With Default Folder X you can manage and organize files without having to jump over to Finder.

Select “Search with HoudahSpot” from Default Folder X’s Utility menu
Find files: Select “Search with HoudahSpot” from Default Folder X’s Utility menu

Continue reading HoudahSpot and Default Folder X

Quickly Switch Between File Size or Time Units

Searching by file size can be very useful – not only to find and clean out large files, but also to limit search results to files large enough to be relevant.

When you add a new file size criterion to your HoudahSpot search, it defaults to searching for files that match a size you specify in MB. When searching for files larger than 1 GB, you might be tempted to type 1000 so as to avoid reaching for the mouse to change the unit from MB to GB.

Actually, there is a much easier way.

Screenshot: Switch between KB/MG/KB using letter keys
Quickly switch between file size units

Continue reading Quickly Switch Between File Size or Time Units

Customize Your HoudahSpot Search Setup

In HoudahSpot, you can choose between hundreds of criteria to search for files. HoudahSpot also lets you specify in which folders to search and how to sort results.

Lots of options to choose from – and settings you don’t want to make over and again.

Search criteria, results display, and sort order are a matter of personal preference and habits. You may, for example, find yourself frequently searching for files by file name extension. You may prefer to search your full hard drive rather than just your home folder. You may want search results to always list file size.

Let’s see how you can set up HoudahSpot so that a fresh search window matches your preferred way of searching.

Continue reading Customize Your HoudahSpot Search Setup

What Search Criteria are Available in HoudahSpot?

When you open HoudahSpot – and have not yet changed the default setup – you will see three preconfigured search criteria in the Refine section:

Preconfigured Search Criteria in HoudahSpot

  • Name – e.g. the file name or the mail subject of Apple Mail messages
  • Text Content – e.g. of word processing documents, presentations …
  • Content Kind – file type like Image, PDF, Mail, Folder …

Continue reading What Search Criteria are Available in HoudahSpot?

Inspect File Metadata with HoudahSpot

MacOS file metadata holds many useful and diverse file facts. This is not limited to file size, extension or creation date. Depending on the type and the application that created it, there is a whole lot of information available on a file’s properties.

Sender name, duration, f-stop number – and more

For e-mail messages, this can be sender name, e-mail subject and attachment type. Or duration, bit rate and musical genre for audio files. In photos, you can even find information on camera model, f-stop number and exposure time.

This metadata is useful when organizing files by specific criteria or searching for files with certain properties. E.g. images with a resolution higher than 72 dpi, audios shorter than thirty seconds, or e-mail messages containing PDF attachments.

Inspecting file metadata using HoudahSpot

But what metadata is available for a specific file type? How is it labeled? And what kind of information does it contain? HoudahSpot can help you find out.

Continue reading Inspect File Metadata with HoudahSpot

macOS Services: Quick Access to Searching with HoudahSpot

The Services feature in macOS allows you to quickly perform actions – no matter what application you’re working in. HoudahSpot provides the following Services to start new searches from right where you currently are:

  • Search in HoudahSpot
  • Search Folders in HoudahSpot
  • New HoudahSpot Search

Services are available system-wide. Just choose Services from any application’s main menu or from the context menu. Assigning a keyboard shortcut to a Service makes access even faster.

Continue reading macOS Services: Quick Access to Searching with HoudahSpot