Spotlight used to show the location of document when I hovered the mouse over an item in its list. It no longer does this. Now it tells me that a document exists and allows me to open the document, but doesn't tell me where to find the document. How do I use Spotlight to find the location of a document?
Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.7.1)
Spotlight should tell you the name of the folder it is in. This should appear right next to the document name. If it doesn't, your best bet would probably be to do the search in Finder.
Hi Thomas ...
Open System Preferences > Spotlight then select the Search Results tab.
Select the all the categories for the search results you want.
Restart your Mac.
If that didn't help the Spotlight preferences may be corrupted.
Go to ~/LIbrary/Preferences
Move the com.apple.spotlight.plist file from the Preferences folder to the Trash.
Try Spotlight.
edited by: cs
Do your searches in the Finder if you want that information.
Using a Finder search is often more useful, but you can still get an item's location from a Spotlight menu search. Hold down both the option and command keys while hovering over the item, and look at the bottom of the adjacent QuickLook preview window.
How do I do a Finder search? I looked in the Finder help screens but it says that Spotlight is the Finder search.
It's true that the various built-in search methods utilize the same Spotlight index, and in that sense they are all Spotlight searches. By "Finder Search" people generally mean the search window that you see when you either press command-F from Finder or start typing something into the box at the upper right of a Finder window, and when people use the term "Spotlight search" they often mean a "Spotlight menu search" - the use of the search icon on the far right of the menu bar at the top of the screen. The operational difference is mainly in the user interface - searching from a search window uses the same underlying Spotlight Index as searching from the Spotlight menu bar, but the input criteria can be more detailed, and the output is presented differently.
Here is another trick I found when doing an online search at the TAUW web site.
Use your up and down arrows to navigate through the Spotlight results list. (Do not click on items, that will open them). When the highlight is over the item you want, press Command-Enter (or Return).
This will actually open the enclosing folder and highlight the file you are looking for.
How do I use Spotlight to find the location of a document?
