Q: Turn off email search in finder search

For those using Outlook (my sympathies!), with the one fix of -kind:mail in searches, I then tried my search and added this:

NOT .emlx

...and that ALSO worked to avoid Mail results!  So, try adding "NOT .olk" and there's the Outlook fix.

Wow  So easy, yet years to uncover.  Pathetic how easy Apple could have just used the +/- equivalents for existing options.  That's not asking for the moon or even half as insane as their OS rapid release schedule, but a simple and logical request (polishing existing work, which is a dead art it seems).  Thank goodness for Google-esque search term hacks and SG_OND's post!

Not an ideal solution but since I use dropbox for all my work  , limiting the search to dropbox eliminates the mail which is not on dropbox

It is clickable at the top of the menu but has to be done for each search

Glad to see others still on the SL forum.  I have several up to date macs out in the lab but my own machines in my office are still on SL.  Why?  Because its faster.  What a bummer that the old system is faster than the new one. Even worse, the new versions of iPhoto really suck and you cant run the SL version on the new machines.

It is clickable at the top of the menu but has to be done for each search

I assume you mean selecting Dropbox folder. Just set up your Finder preferences to search the current folder when you initiate a search.

The best work around I've found is to simply use Spotlight for all searches but first uncheck "search mail" in Spotlight prefs. At least you can narrow down pretty quickly what you're looking for with less clicking around. For instance, when I wanted to find only .png extension images in Finder I had to select only images after the search, to clear the Mail BS, but Spotlight offers that choice to you and auto opens the correct Finder window once you click on it.

Open a finder window and search for a term, such as "invoice". A new bar will appear below the search bar with "Search:" and a few options - on the far right will be a plus icon. Hold the alt/option button and mouse over the plus icon, it will become 3 dots - now click on it.

Change the rule to say "None of the following are true".

Then add a rule that says "Kind is Other [insert whatever your mail type is]" for instance I was constantly seeing mail from outlook so my rule was "olk14_message" because of the file type.

Save your search (I named mine "Search - No Mail"). Now when you search you can click the button to filter out your mail results.

That is the best solution I can remember hearing for this old problem that some (but not all) users experienced.