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8a420 (Page 2)
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Agent69
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Mar 30, 2005, 09:18 AM
 
Can someone tell me if Spotlight can be turned off?
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TETENAL
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Mar 30, 2005, 10:49 AM
 
Originally posted by Agent69:
Can someone tell me if Spotlight can be turned off?
Why would you want to turn it off? It's great.
     
Geobunny
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Mar 30, 2005, 11:57 AM
 
Originally posted by TETENAL:
Why would you want to turn it off? It's great.
I presume so that you don't waste space with the index - that's why I turned off "Find by Content Indexing". It's not a feature I would use, in fact, I rarely ever search for anything - I'm one of those really annoying organised folk!
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Severed Hand of Skywalker
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Mar 30, 2005, 12:23 PM
 
Originally posted by Agent69:
Can someone tell me if Spotlight can be turned off?
You can also tell it not to index certain folders which is cool.

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
     
TETENAL
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Mar 30, 2005, 02:16 PM
 
Originally posted by Geobunny:
It's not a feature I would use, in fact, I rarely ever search for anything - I'm one of those really annoying organised folk!
It's not only for searching, it's for accessing data.
     
galarneau
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Mar 30, 2005, 02:40 PM
 
Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:
You can also tell it not to index certain folders which is cool.
Phew.... 'cause some folders shouldn't be easily accessible. <cough> Pron </cough>
     
Severed Hand of Skywalker
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Mar 30, 2005, 04:02 PM
 
Originally posted by galarneau:
Phew.... 'cause some folders shouldn't be easily accessible. <cough> Pron </cough>
Bingo.

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Geobunny
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Mar 30, 2005, 04:25 PM
 
Originally posted by galarneau:
Phew.... 'cause some folders shouldn't be easily accessible. <cough> Pron </cough>
Well, between this and the new "porn mode" (poorly disguised as "privacy mode") in Safari, I'm thinking Apple are aiming at a new type of customer!
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Geobunny
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Mar 30, 2005, 04:30 PM
 
Originally posted by TETENAL:
It's not only for searching, it's for accessing data.
In what way? Currently, I already have a very efficient way of accessing my data, I know what each of my documents are called and where they are. If I need something, I can go to exactly where it is. I imagine that a change to the way I access my files is likely to be a hindrance to my work flow - if I find that's the case, I'm not going to use it and would like a way to turn it off.
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CatOne
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Mar 30, 2005, 07:27 PM
 
Originally posted by Geobunny:
In what way? Currently, I already have a very efficient way of accessing my data, I know what each of my documents are called and where they are. If I need something, I can go to exactly where it is. I imagine that a change to the way I access my files is likely to be a hindrance to my work flow - if I find that's the case, I'm not going to use it and would like a way to turn it off.
So say you have 1000 PDF files on your system, and you want to see if any of them contain details about toothbrushes. None of them have "toothbrush" in the file name... how do you know which contains what?

I just did a search on "toothbrush" and found this in a document, related to BICYCLE HUBS:

Lubrication
Normal conditions
TM3.Using a soft toothbrush, pull the bristles across the helix in an outward direction.
Work your way all the way around the inner circumference to remove any
small particles that may be in the spline grooves.

It took less than 1 second. Certainly you can think of an application that's more practical to you
     
TETENAL
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Mar 30, 2005, 07:43 PM
 
Originally posted by Geobunny:
In what way? Currently, I already have a very efficient way of accessing my data, I know what each of my documents are called and where they are. If I need something, I can go to exactly where it is. I imagine that a change to the way I access my files is likely to be a hindrance to my work flow.
I think we first need to give it a try before we call it a hindrance. If you know how the document is called you just type the name, hit return and - bang - it's open. No clicking through folders and scrolling through lists etc.
     
Geobunny
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Mar 30, 2005, 09:24 PM
 
Originally posted by TETENAL:
I think we first need to give it a try before we call it a hindrance. If you know how the document is called you just type the name, hit return and - bang - it's open. No clicking through folders and scrolling through lists etc.
By no means am I judging spotlight yet and I certainly have every intention of giving it a try, that's why I said I'd want a way to turn it off if it does turn out to be less efficient for me.

CatOne's response does give me an idea though, I can see how it'd be helpful from a development standpoint. Being able to search through all my source code for a method or class which I know I've written in the past but can't quite remember which project I used it in, could prove invaluable.

Guess I'll just wait and see, I was wrong about expos� being a gimmick - I can't count how many times I use it in a day!
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Detrius
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Mar 30, 2005, 09:45 PM
 
Originally posted by galarneau:
Phew.... 'cause some folders shouldn't be easily accessible. <cough> Pron </cough>
My wife would not be happy if I hid the porn collection from her, as she wouldn't know how to find it herself otherwise. As a result, this folder will definitely be indexed by spotlight.
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SS3 GokouX
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Mar 30, 2005, 09:54 PM
 
Originally posted by Detrius:
My wife would not be happy if I hid the porn collection from her, as she wouldn't know how to find it herself otherwise. As a result, this folder will definitely be indexed by spotlight.
But Spotlight really won't help unless you add keywords to the comments field in the Finder for each file.

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ashtoash
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Mar 30, 2005, 10:55 PM
 
Save space? What are you kidding? It's not that much, I've never seen it on my machine with 500GB of files go over 1-2gb.

you probably waste waayyyyyy more time keeping your computer organized and everything nice and neat than if you didn't focus on keep them so "nice"

Maybe we should "turn" off the find feature built into the Finder as well... Just don't use it. Or you can change it in the preferences that your entire disk is "Private" so it doesn't get indexed.

Originally posted by Geobunny:
I presume so that you don't waste space with the index - that's why I turned off "Find by Content Indexing". It's not a feature I would use, in fact, I rarely ever search for anything - I'm one of those really annoying organised folk!
     
Geobunny
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Mar 31, 2005, 03:48 AM
 
Originally posted by ashtoash:
Save space? What are you kidding? It's not that much, I've never seen it on my machine with 500GB of files go over 1-2gb.
Without having used 10.4, I have no idea how large the index would be. Given that you can search using a large variety of criteria, I assume the index would have to be quite detailed. Basically, I'm basing all this on my knowledge of "Find by Content" indexing which was spectacularly inept at finding anything useful and had a huge index.

you probably waste waayyyyyy more time keeping your computer organized and everything nice and neat than if you didn't focus on keep them so "nice"
I don't focus on it at all, documents are given descriptive names while being saved into an appropriate place in my Documents folder. If an appropriate folder doesn't exist, I'll create one using the "New Folder" button in the save dialog box. It's not like I sat down one day and decided to organise my Documents folder, it just happened that way from the outset.

Maybe we should "turn" off the find feature built into the Finder as well... Just don't use it.
That's exactly my point, I don't use it. However, I'm not saying it should be removed or turned off (BTW, why did you put "turn" in quotes?), that'd be insane - some people find it useful and it doesn't take up any space to store an index.

Or you can change it in the preferences that your entire disk is "Private" so it doesn't get indexed.
Right. Well, why didn't you just say so in the first place?! A simple "yes" to the original question could've saved this entire discussion!
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