In DOS if you type at the curser
*.* all files in the current directory will be listed
*.doc all files with a .doc extension will be listed
dumb*.wav all files with dumb in the beginning of the name (no genre implied)
Is there an equivalent for searching on a MAC, in finder? some other place?
Thanks
Geoff Shapland’s iMac 27"
Finder is completely ignorant of the wildcard concept, and as you have been directed, you need to use the Terminal application to expose the modern UNIX operating system command-line and its wildcard support.
Apple's Spotlight does not allow literal (*) wildcards, but does permit implicit wildcarding based on how one uses the reserved, name keyword:
kind:pdf name:abc
will find every PDF whose filename has the string "abc" in it.
name:.pdf
will find every filename whose extension is pdf.
kind:pdf (name:out OR name:impose)
will find every PDF filename whose filename contains the case-insensitive strings of out or impose.
kind:pdf keyword:processed
Find any PDF that contains the case-insensitive keyword processed.
Apple has an article, Narrow your search results on Mac, that discusses using Spotlight key words.
Finder is completely ignorant of the wildcard concept, and as you have been directed, you need to use the Terminal application to expose the modern UNIX operating system command-line and its wildcard support.
Apple's Spotlight does not allow literal (*) wildcards, but does permit implicit wildcarding based on how one uses the reserved, name keyword:
kind:pdf name:abc
will find every PDF whose filename has the string "abc" in it.
name:.pdf
will find every filename whose extension is pdf.
kind:pdf (name:out OR name:impose)
will find every PDF filename whose filename contains the case-insensitive strings of out or impose.
kind:pdf keyword:processed
Find any PDF that contains the case-insensitive keyword processed.
Apple has an article, Narrow your search results on Mac, that discusses using Spotlight key words.
There is an entire Unix operating system hiding under that GUI. Pick up just about any introductory book on using the 'bash' shell and you will get a primer on using things like wildcards.
Here is a link that should get you started
Thank you
Cheers, I had suspected there was away in finder. I used to programme in DOS in the 80"s hobby but when PC came mainstream I didn't have the time. Thank you.
Use of Wild Card on a MAC
