Spotlight no longer shows the path?

agreed. but i don't use win7 enough to really take advantage of that feature. there is an app that provides a copy link for finder, but i forgot what that was. it's not totalfinder, which i am using now. but there is one...somewhere in the ether...

You will see some of the path only if it is longer than what fits in the space Apple provided. And you cannot scroll back any to see what isn't displayed.

So the process is: type words into the Spotlight search, find the file you think you want, select view in finder, find it again and you'll see the complete path.

I'll say flat-out that Apple is wrong in this one.

The purpose of Spotlite is to find files, not to view them.

The default should be the path. That's how you find a file.

Everything else is either gravy or window-dressing.

Besides, when you hold down the keys to see the path (and I don't see the difference between hodling down cmd alone and holding down alt-cmd as suggested previously) it just adds the path to the bottom of the file viewer. Why not make that the default?

However, I DO like the previous suggestion of check boxes in the Advanced pane of Finder Preferences.

My $0.02

Michael Paisner wrote:

...I don't see the difference between hodling down cmd alone and holding down alt-cmd as suggested previously) it just adds the path to the bottom of the file viewer.

I see the difference: Cmd alone displays, when possible, some information about the contents, e.g., part of the first sentence, at the bottom of the little view window. Pressing Option while still holding down Cmd, or pressing Cmd and Option together, gives the path at the bottom of that window.

Another possibility -- albeit much inferior to having Spotlite showing the path by default -- is to use Cmd + Ctrl as you mouse over the item in the Spotlite list. That opens the item's containing folder in Finder. And if you've enabled it in Finder preferences, you will then see the complete path in the title bar and/or the status bar. I find the latter the most convenient, as you can then click anywhere on the displayed path sequence and immediately get to that folder.

Aah. The document I used as my guinea pig was fancy (graphics and text) and holding down the two keys vs. one didn't show the "contents." It did for other docs.

However, as mentioned previously, long paths aren't shown in their entirety. THAT'S what Spotlight is for!!!

Who thought this out? Did Steve J. know about this? Did he approve it? If so, maybe we should have Tim C. look into it. Heads should roll. 😮

Don't have time to get flamed but I've never had high regard for Spotlight. I've read that it's powerful but to me, it's a PITA. Someday I'll spend more time messing with it to find tweaks for the stuff that makes me a hater but a very short list of what I don't like includes:

Doesn't default to Name Contains (I've used File Contains once in 10 years)

Won't search system folders

Version and Size not available in List View (I hacked around this)

Preferences for the menu bar Spotlight don't apply to the Finder Spotlight.

Please don't give answers here as I don't want to hijack the thread. If you have a url to point me to, that would be great.

And BTW - my personal choice is Easy Find. It does it all. Been using it for years. It's just not as convenient as it's a stand-alone app so you have to Launch/Wait/Type instead of "Click/Type."

Thanks again.

m

Thanks for the tip about Easy Find. Great program.

Finder > View > Show Path Bar

Is that what you're talking about?

Nope. We're talking about Spotlight in the menu bar - the pop-down version in the top-right corner of your screen, not the finder version (cmd-f).

An Apple commercial from back in 1998 gave the following explaination for the acronym PC: "perpetually complicated, purposely confusing....."

14 years later that is, what I would say about Lion and it's apps:

iCal: Date is unreadable, I changed it for a third party product;

Mail: to get rid of the threads you have to uncheck this default feature for every single Mail Account; aside of that, the option "bounce" has disappeared and the GUI is grey and atrocious, no way to change it;

like the grey and horrible images in the finder's side bar;

Spotlight, which used to be wonderful tool urges me to use the cmd key to see the path for one second untill it shifts back to the name of the object.

The two button mouse was the only good thing Apple adopted from the PC world. Are we going back to to the time before the Mighty Mouse, do Apple's resposibles really think it is a step forward, that we users need the left hand to hit a key, to get, what we have learned to be understood?

There are many, many more examples for incredible vices of Apples new GUI.

And users complain.....

And the responsibles remain silent!

Nero used to fiddle while Rome burned.....

What a shame...........!

While I don't agree with this rant at all, the jury is just going in (windows 8 vs. ML) and they will decide which design philosphy works best for the masses... it will be an interesting decision

😉

Jesus, coocooforcocoapuff, did you read anywhere in my post, that I thought Windows was the solution?

I am devotet user of the Mac OS since 1987 but things are turning wrong, maybe because Steve is away, maybe because the hand held devices have become the cash cow, anyway one should never forget one's roots.

I love my iPhone and my iPad but my working horse is my Mac Pro and my steady travelling companion my Mac Book Pro. I need them for work.

And there are zillions of features in 10.7 that are simply silly, unergonomical and obstructive :(

No, I am not accusing you of that 😁 this is totally my thought of the day, while we debate colored icons in the sidebars of finder, Windows 8 will be a test of what users love or adore more - what we have, or what Metro UI brings to the table. Of course the question is broad in scope, but will surely influence what comes after ML. cheers!

I suppose there isn't a fix for this in Terminal? I suppose if there was there would be something posted in this thread, but you never know.

And it gets worse. When you press option-cmd it opens a window that shows the front page of the document and THEN a second or two later shows the path at the bottom in small grey letters! No, no no! I just want the path. Why do they get it wrong so often?

This change is such a big fail, almost as big as the #NBCfail...haha. It's been driving me mad, thanks for writing that Option-Command together will bring up the mysteriously hidden path. How such a basic thing was overlooked as an easy option is beyond me. I do like that you can plop a folder to your desktop if you want, but I can't understand what they were thinking from a user's standpoint. Many people who use Macs are creatives and we create a lot of things and finding it at a later date should be easy.

This is very annoying, so I hope you all went to Apple's Feedback page and reported it. Hopefully if enough people ask, Apple will address this oversight eventually. Or at least give us the option to have it on by default.