what is the wildcard for apple (like "*" is for windows)?, what is the wildcard for apple (like "*" is for windows)?

what if you don't care what the file name is, instead you want to see every file in a certain directory tree? Say, I want to see all files that are in directory A and all of its subdirectories?

Hi,

If you want to use a wildcard behavior in Finder :

For this example lets say you are searching for all files *_modif*.PNG

1. In the finder search box enter .PNG, press ENTER
2. Now appears just below the search box a Save button and [+] button
3. Click the [+] button, then towards your left click on the combo box that says [Kind]
4. In the [Kind] list select "Other" at the bottom
5. Scroll down to "File extension"
6. Now type in "PNG" in the box after the text [File extension] is, then press ENTER
7. Click the [+] button again
8. In the [Kind] list select "Name" (which is the same as Filename if you went into "Other..."
9. After the [Name] combo, open the next combo box and select "contains", then enter _modif and press ENTER

You can now save this search, and apply it to the folder you started from or the entire Mac

Note most wildcard behaviors can be obtained by selecting the other options from the same place you selected "contains", ie "begins with"...

There

Use EasyFind or hold command and spacebar for Spotlight, howver Easy Find finds everything and wildcards can be used there.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2531

http://www.devontechnologies.com/products/freeware.html

It's the same, but it is mostly usable only in the Terminal and RegEx applications.

Use Spotlight. You can enter text into the Finder's search field without using wildcards. Or create more sophisticated searchs by using COMMAND-F to open the search window in the Finder. For example, to find all the jpegs on your drive (or in a folder) just enter ".jpg". Below is a way to use Spotlight to search for system files, but many other options are available from which to select.

Get Spotlight to search system files (and more)

1. Enter the search term in the Finder window's search field.
2. Click the [+] button in the search bar to add a search option.
3. In the first drop down menu choose Other.
4. Choose “System Files” from the list that pops up (and check the box to place in drop down menu to avoid this step later,) click on the OK button.
5. Now back in the Finder choose Include from the second drop down menu.

However, if you want to perform command-line like searching you can use the Terminal in the Utilities folder. Download Man Viewer 3.2 for a complete access to the set of Terminal commands. Since OS X is a variant of Unix much of what is "under the hood" is Unix in origin.

An excellent third-party tool is EasyFind 4.9.1. It is a RegEx based tool so it accepts standard wildcards used in Unix.

I found the answer. command+F wasn't working for me, but if you click on File->Find you get access to the advanced search options. If you do not specify file name criteria, it will not filter on file names.