Simple searches in the Finder

[deanburchell]

Searching the forums for instances of "Find" or "Search" was a bit unwieldy so I apologize for my laziness if this is a duplicate post.

In OS 10.4, it was easy to do a "Find" (Command-F) to bring up a Find window and then to simultaneously search more than one disparate location for a file name. At the top row of the Find Window were the possible locations e.g. This Mac, Username and of interest to me, "Other" was in that list. If you chose Other you could check off various locations like hard drives or server mounts and there was an add/remove function at the bottom so that you could navigate through and Open/Save dialog and add specific locations. I'm sure I am missing something but that seems to be gone. Now in 10.5 the only options are This Mac, "User" (current user's home) and Shared, "Other" is missing.

This makes searches focussed on a couple drives or server mounts (instead of all of them) impossible.

What am I doing wrong? Is this a "de-feature" of 10.5?

[deanburchell]

It is my use of quotes?

[Hal Itosis]

Quote: Is this a "de-feature" of 10.5?

That is "correct".

-HI-

[mclbruce]

Here is a workaround of sorts. Below the location bar you'll see a place to add criteria, "Kind is Any" that sort of thing. Where it says "Kind" scroll down to "Other..." Eventually you will see a long list of criteria which includes System Files. Check the In Menu box, and select System Files. You will have two choices: include and don't include.

This doesn't give you the option of specific locations but it does give you the ability to search everywhere.

[deanburchell]

Without the ability to search in specific locations searches now have to done for an entire server mount. Multiple simultaneously searches from a couple co-workers will bring the server performance down considerably. We were also using a workflow where Saved Searches would find specific color labels for example the last 3 weeks of work. Awkward.

[Hal Itosis]

Quote: Without the ability to search in specific locations searches now have to done for an entire server mount.

Isn't there a subfolder somewhere lower down that could be used,
instead of starting all the way at the top?

[deanburchell]

I guess my usage was pretty specific. To simplify"

Every week I wanted to search two distinct areas with one search. One folder was, let's say, "Final versions", the other was "Work in progress for the week of Dec. 10" (obviously not a real folder name!).

With the previous version of the Find command and the Saved Searches function I could search both of those locations with the same Saved Search. (In my case I was searching for label colors). Next week I could edit the Saved Search to "Work in progress for the week of Dec. 17" and keep the "Final versions" folder there as well.

The work-around is the create 2 Saved Searches one for the "final versions" and one for the week's work in progress. No big deal. Just seems to be weird.

Also for less experienced users it was more reliable to manually add a folder with a dialog box from the "Other" option in a Find window. I find performing a Find to be counter-intuitive to some users. Selecting a folder in the Finder, then performing a Find creates a Find window with "My Mac" chosen, instead of the selected folder which becomes the second choice for the search area. Most people expect the Find to search the folder or drive that was selected. This holds true for the search field in the Finder window toolbar as well.