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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > macOS > Looking to re-establish OS productivity features

Looking to re-establish OS productivity features
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m3orange
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Dec 24, 2010, 11:03 AM
 
Hello. I'm trying to find ways to go back to previous features that I can't seem to use currently with my OS version.

1) Spotlight: I'd like to know if there's a way to go back to the previous "generation" of Spotlight's results window, which is much more organized than the one my 10.5.8 OS provides. This is what I want to go back to:



2) Mac OS screenshots: Trying to go back where after taking a screenshot (Command + 1, +3, etc), the resulting jpg's file name would contain the date and time of when the screenshot was made. Tired of having "Shot 1, Shot 2, etc" in my desktop (let's not get started in this process not even adding the file's jpg extension!!!) Here's where I'm trying to get at:



Thanks for all your help,

m3orange
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I roll with a 15" MacBook Pro | Intel Leopard, OS 10.5.8 | 2.5GHz | 4GB RAM.... Thanks!
     
AKcrab
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Dec 24, 2010, 07:20 PM
 
Welcome to the forums!

1) Nope. Spotlight is what it is. You may find 3rd party software that comes closer to what spotlight used to do.

2) My screenshots include the date and time... "Screen shot 2010-12-24 at 2.10.02 PM" The .png extension is indeed there, it's just hidden. If you want to change the format back to jpeg, there are a few ways to do it. (I don't know why you would want to, the png format plays nicer with transparencies.)

Change Default Screenshot Save Format In Mac OS X With Default Grab App

I like to use "secrets" to tweak some of these settings. It appears you can customize the text for the filename in a screen capture, but I've never played around with that function.

Download Secrets for Mac - Customize many hidden or incomplete Mac OS X settings. MacUpdate.com

If you don't mind, could you review our signature guidelines?
Our current signature rules give you two options:
an image (200x50px max, 10KB max, non-animated) and up to one line of text, OR
no image, and up to four lines of text.
     
turtle777
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Dec 24, 2010, 07:26 PM
 
You might wanna take a look ah HoudahSpot.

It's the Spotlight GUI what it should have been.

HoudahSpot - Spotlight frontend. Find Mac files. Fast!

-t
     
tightsocks
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Dec 25, 2010, 01:19 AM
 
And Turtle777, you might wanna take a look at the terms of the ShareASale affiliate program.

(Not that your linking code even works...)
     
turtle777
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Dec 25, 2010, 02:26 AM
 
Huh ? ShareAWhat ?

-t
     
m3orange  (op)
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Dec 25, 2010, 08:47 AM
 
Originally Posted by AKcrab View Post
Welcome to the forums!

1) Nope. Spotlight is what it is. You may find 3rd party software that comes closer to what spotlight used to do.

2) My screenshots include the date and time... "Screen shot 2010-12-24 at 2.10.02 PM" The .png extension is indeed there, it's just hidden. If you want to change the format back to jpeg, there are a few ways to do it. (I don't know why you would want to, the png format plays nicer with transparencies.)

Change Default Screenshot Save Format In Mac OS X With Default Grab App

I like to use "secrets" to tweak some of these settings. It appears you can customize the text for the filename in a screen capture, but I've never played around with that function.

Download Secrets for Mac - Customize many hidden or incomplete Mac OS X settings. MacUpdate.com

If you don't mind, could you review our signature guidelines?
@ AKcrab: Thanks so much for the help! About Spotlight, I will try to use the link suggested by Turtle777. As for the screen capture, I'm glad to know I can change the format via the Terminal (sometimes I prefer jpg's for uploading to blogs and other social networking channels, as I'm aware (I'm a developer) that png's don't play nice sometimes unless websites include the IE png hack in their CSS).

I still don't know how to get back to having the datestamp automatically included in the file's name. Right now I get "Sshot 1" as the naming convention and then I have to add the date as I like to keep track of when and where I got images from. This may be a result (don't know) of my using Snapz Pro X for more accurate screen capturing (and thus, I may have a conflict in configurations?!?!). I will try Secrets for Mac (looks awesome!) and will write back if I don't find the answer there the answer to my problem.

Lastly, thanks for the heads up on the signature. I'd like to keep the image for easier recognition. Where do I include my system's specs, as I understand they're important in these forums?

May you all have the most wonderful holidays! :-)
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I roll with a 15" MacBook Pro | Intel Leopard, OS 10.5.8 | 2.5GHz | 4GB RAM.... Thanks!
     
jmiddel
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Dec 25, 2010, 04:37 PM
 
I think the +++++++++++ is the offending item, it counts as one line. You can kee the pic and either the plusses or the specs
     
turtle777
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Dec 25, 2010, 04:50 PM
 
Originally Posted by m3orange View Post
Where do I include my system's specs, as I understand they're important in these forums?
Honestly, nobody cares.

A few members show their specs, but most don't.

-t
     
Oisín
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Dec 25, 2010, 04:58 PM
 
Originally Posted by jmiddel View Post
I think the +++++++++++ is the offending item, it counts as one line. You can kee the pic and either the plusses or the specs
Exactly. If you want (and to make it look a bit more consistent with the forum design), you can have the image and then your specs (or the pluses) on a separate line. As long as there’s only one line of text apart from the image, you’re fine.

Originally Posted by AKCrab
I like to use "secrets" to tweak some of these settings. It appears you can customize the text for the filename in a screen capture, but I've never played around with that function.
Are you sure? The file name has always been just “Image 1.png”, etc., for me as well.
     
AKcrab
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Dec 25, 2010, 07:26 PM
 
Originally Posted by Oisín View Post
Are you sure? The file name has always been just “Image 1.png”, etc., for me as well.
It was a new feature in 10.6. And yes, I tested before I posted.

Wonder why you and the OP are not seeing it?
     
Oisín
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Dec 25, 2010, 08:04 PM
 
Originally Posted by AKcrab View Post
It was a new feature in 10.6. And yes, I tested before I posted.

Wonder why you and the OP are not seeing it?
I’m on 10.5.8 on the MacBook here—but I’ve done screenshots on the desktop at home (which is on 10.6.something), and I’m as certain as I can be without actually having access to it, that they’re just called “Image 1.png”, etc.

Strange.
     
ghporter
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Dec 25, 2010, 08:57 PM
 
I just tried the screen shot thing and got "Screen shot 2010-12-25 at 6.53.09 PM.png" using CMD-Shift-4-Space... No prior fiddling with settings, that's just the way it came out. I also don't find anything in Grab's preferences (only the selection of cursor type), nor anything in System Preferences...

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
shifuimam
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Dec 25, 2010, 09:54 PM
 
I had no idea that's what Spotlight used to look like. Is that from Tiger?

All I can say is...holy freakin' crap, those search results are a billion times better!!
Sell or send me your vintage Mac things if you don't want them.
     
Big Mac
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Dec 26, 2010, 12:05 AM
 
Yeah, that's what the Show All Spotlight results window used to look like in Tiger, but it's been gone since Leopard for some unknown reason. It's strange, too, because the normal menu search results are segmented by group; it doesn't make sense that Show All can't retain/regain that lost functionality.

The thing is, though, we learned this year from the public critique by the Apple employee developer of the iOS Remote app that Apple operates its development teams like a startup company. Very small developer teams work on these projects, and while in general the model works well for Apple, smaller software priorities fall through the cracks. This is one feature that obviously fell through the cracks. We all know that Mac OS X developers got shifted to the iOS team and that Apple probably devotes a lot more resources to iOS than Mac OS X development. It would be nice if Lion would bring the Tiger style Show All window back; I can't see it taking up too much time to implement, and since Lion seems to be short on improvements they could at least throw that in.

As for the screen shot naming issue, maybe the OP did a straight Upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard and experienced an upgrade glitch. I just took my first screen shot in SL a few days ago and noticed the superior naming scheme. In Leopard I wrote a "Rename With Date" Automator function to gain that help tell them apart, so at least someone was paying attention to that little detail during SL's development.

Btw, I have no idea if these submissions have ever been read by anyone, but FWIW Apple still has the Mac OS X Feedback page up.
( Last edited by Big Mac; Dec 26, 2010 at 12:13 AM. )

"The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground." TJ
     
gloubibou
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Dec 26, 2010, 06:51 PM
 
You may want to try Tembo: made@gloria!

It is similar to the Spotlight interface in Tiger, but improves upon it.
     
turtle777
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Dec 26, 2010, 07:11 PM
 
Originally Posted by gloubibou View Post
You may want to try Tembo: made@gloria!

It is similar to the Spotlight interface in Tiger, but improves upon it.
How is this affiliated with Houdah and Houdahspot ?

-t
     
gloubibou
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Dec 27, 2010, 03:54 AM
 
I am the developer behind both HoudahSpot and Tembo.

HoudahSpot tries to unlock the full power of Spotlight while keeping the interface relatively simple.

Tembo makes searching as easy as possible. Rather than have / let you build complex queries, it provides you with ready-made filters to process the search results.

HoudahSpot and Tembo target different audiences. Tembo was created for the average user. HoudahSpot for those wanting a more powerful search tool.
     
turtle777
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Dec 27, 2010, 04:28 AM
 
Cool. Thanks for sharing.

-t
     
   
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