[wobbly]

I'm using spotlight in 10.5.x but can't figure out how to do wild card searches:

For example, if I search for "Firefox" in spotlight, I start to type "Firef" and the correct application is already at the top of the list. However if I start the search with "IREFOX" (leaving the 'F" off by accident or otherwise) I don't get any hits at all. There must be a way to search without using the beginning of a file name, it would be useful to know how to do this as sometimes I can only remember part of a file or application but not the whole name. It must be easy but I tried adding an asterisk at the beginning or a percent symbol but neither worked, i.e., "*IREFOX" or "%IREFOX"

thanks!

[TETENAL]

You have to use the (Name) (contains) search criterium.

[wobbly]

Originally Posted by TETENAL 

You have to use the (Name) (contains) search criterium.

thanks for the reply. Is it possible to do this from the spotlight quick menu thing (i.e., command + spacebar)?

I guess I was thinking of spotlight in terms of the quick launch rather than the command + F search (i associate the search strategy you outlined with the finder, although maybe it is spotlight too?)...in any case thanks!

[Hal Itosis]

Originally Posted by wobbly 

thanks for the reply. Is it possible to do this from the spotlight quick menu thing (i.e., command + spacebar)?

Probably not. [no options or selectable criteria available there, so...] We might could save a search (with various settings) and perhaps rig a key-combo to pull that up.

Originally Posted by wobbly 

I guess I was thinking of spotlight in terms of the quick launch rather than the command + F search

FWIW, that "(Name) (contains):" type of search is more quickly accessed via command-shift-F (⌘⇧F).

[CharlesS]

Actually, that makes it less quick, because the ⌘-shift-F shortcut causes the search criteria not to show up at all, causing you to have to click the "+" button.

[Hal Itosis]

Not here (still running 10.5.8 until the "Arrandale" MBP is released).

Command-shift-F lands me right inside the exact criteria TETENAL suggested...

(Name) (contains): _________________

...and text can be immediately typed into that blank field (w/o needing to click).

[edit: maybe Snowy's new Finder/Spotlight pref has short-circuited that ability... idunno.]

[CharlesS]

In Snow Leopard, that just puts the insertion point into the rounded Find field, sets it to search in the filename only (in other words, disabling the content search), and hides all the search criteria.



It's effectively the same thing as prepending "name:" to the beginning of a search done via the ⌘-spacebar shortcut. The good news is that it's probably a good deal faster than the "name contains" search since it just can do a simple B-Tree search for the name, but the bad news is that while "Firefo" will turn up results, "irefox" won't.