I'll have to admit that when Apple was promoting the hell out of their new OS, I actually looked forward to getting to use Spotlight and completely revolutionize the way I access my data.

However, after trying it out for a while, it has become nothing more than another icon taking up space in my menubar. The way I see Spotlight is that it allows people to just throw their data around anywhere on their computer without worrying about organizing their data, and let Spotlight go through and index it to make it easier to find.

It makes me cringe to think that people actually just throw their stuff into one giant folder (my parents, sister are guilty of this) and go through and search through stuff. I am extremely anal about having an organizational hierarchy of folders that classifies nearly all situations where I would want my data. I've been doing this since middle school and it's worked out well. It's actually faster for me to navigate through my folders than it is to think of keywords to let Spotlight try and find what I'm looking for.

So, for those of you that keep your data organized and such, what useful purpose have you found for Spotlight? From all the hype I hear from friends and on the Web, it seems that I'm missing the big picture.

- Joe

8/24/2005 10:29:33 AM

well it's not just spotlight, but any archiving tool like google desktop or lookout for outlook, both of which i use

i organize my files very well too and can find any specific files i want.

but i have a lot of archive material as well and if I'm looking for specific words in this it's quicker to use the search. for example, some of this is OCRed text from long books. also, if i'm looking for an e-mail i know i have it's quicker to use search because i can't specifically remember the subject or who sent it sometimes.

8/24/2005 10:36:35 AM

You're right, I should have included Google Desktop, also. It's the same thing as Spotlight.

8/24/2005 10:38:50 AM

I found it underwhelming. Its a tool, definately nothing I'd go out and purchase 10.4 for. On the whole, it runs slower than 10.3 on my 400mhz G4 Powerbook, but primarily because its such a fossil of a computer. Dashboard is annoying too. Spotlight is definately not worth upgrading for but its not bad to have.

8/24/2005 10:53:00 AM

I have thousands of documents, powerpoints, old emails, saved config examples, and various other pieces of information relating to my job.

often times when i can't remember something off the top of my head, i spotlight it, and find the relevant document in a few seconds.

So for me, it's highly fucking useful.

but for those of you who use your computer as a glorified media player/etch-a-sketch, it's probably worthless.

8/24/2005 11:04:50 AM

I can see why it would be useful for you... I guess I haven't accumulated enough of the right "stuff" to make it useful for me. Everything I do fits into different categories, and is usually stuff that I have made (documents, diagrams, and presentations) that fits perfectly into those categories so its easy for me to remember where these files are.

Interestingly enough, about 75% of the stuff I make is in LaTeX and Spotlight tends to incorrectly index them, making it difficult for me to try to use keyword searches. Similarly, any PDFs I generate from LaTeX don't get indexed, even though the text is "editable" through programs like Acrobat and even Preview.

Quote :

"but for those of you who use your computer as a glorified media player/etch-a-sketch, it's probably worthless."

You mean Spotlight doesn't index videos?! No wonder why its worthless for me . Actually I don't use this computer for music/video/pics, so all those folders are completely empty. Unfortnunately, my documents folder is filled with about 25 gigs of research crap I've done over the past year and a half.

8/24/2005 11:32:04 AM

Spotlight has proven to be very useful to me as well. Over the summer I took over 2000 photos while I was in Florida. I used spotlight to create smart folders with different search requirements to locate specific photos easily when i need to. I would really have over 4000 photos b/c i shoot in RAW and then convert them to jpg so it was also nice to be able to filter them out when needed.

Even if i know where something is on my computer i've found spotlight a lazy way to just look it up a bit quicker than to search through several folders.

8/24/2005 11:45:08 AM

Quote :

"BobbyDigital: I have thousands of documents, powerpoints, old emails, saved config examples, and various other pieces of information relating to my job. often times when i can't remember something off the top of my head, i spotlight it, and find the relevant document in a few seconds. So for me, it's highly fucking useful. but for those of you who use your computer as a glorified media player/etch-a-sketch, it's probably worthless."

[/thread]

8/24/2005 11:47:51 AM

um, ok.

8/24/2005 2:10:05 PM

Spotlight is awesome for searching massive numbers of files quickly.

It is one of those features that I didn't appreciate at first. I saw it in Tiger and eventually started using it for my typical searching needs.

It wasn't until I had to use a PC more that I really started to miss it. Spotlight is one of those things that you slowly get used to using but don't know how awesome it is until you don't have it anymore.

8/24/2005 8:50:27 PM

It's great for networks...

8/24/2005 9:18:37 PM

Quote :

"joe17669: um, ok."

It was partly in jest, I'm trying to learn how to be a l33t TT @$$hole

8/24/2005 9:44:12 PM

I use it to launch apps... I know it sounds lazy, but it's much easier and faster to launch an app using Spotlight than going through Finder to find the icon I want. It's also nice for class notes, pics, etc.

8/24/2005 9:45:03 PM

I don't use it all that much, but in those rare cases I need to find something by its content, it's invaluable.

8/24/2005 9:49:39 PM

Spotlight could breed seriously unorganized storage habits.

You don't need to organize things, you just lump everything together and then search for it when you need it.

I am not sure how I feel about that.

8/24/2005 10:06:28 PM

launching applications

8/25/2005 12:07:13 AM

--> it actually helped me find what i was looking for on my hard drive.

it was the first time i've used it since install.

8/25/2005 2:05:44 AM

spotlight's also useful for people who are new to the mac. if you have something like the system preference window open, but have never used a mac before, you likely don't know where exactly certain settings are. if you search using spotlight, it'll actually "spotlight" relevent icons in the window.

8/25/2005 12:05:53 PM

*as seen in windows in a year or two*

8/25/2005 7:02:10 PM

^ pretty much.

"If you want to see what next year's PCs will look like, look at a Mac today."

8/25/2005 7:07:31 PM