How to use the new Spotlight Search in OS X Yosemite

BY Jason

Published 19 Oct 2014

Spotlight in OS X Yosemite comes with an all-new design, that covers up the middle rather than the corner of the screen. It also adds a number of new capabilities like unit conversion, place suggestions and more.

So here’s how you use Spotlight in OS X Yosemite:

  • You can open the Spotlight search bar by clicking the search icon at the top right of the screen, or by pressing ⌘ + Space.

spotlight search 1

  • Once the bar appears, you can start typing your query, and Spotlight will intelligently show you the best type of results, based on your query.

Screenshot 2014-10-19 20.35.26

  • The results also show you a preview for files, mails, messages, bookmarks, and other file types in the right panel.

Spotlight searches a lot of types of content, including applications, definitions, files and folders, mail, messages, places, and more. You can customise this from System Preferences > Spotlight. You can uncheck result types you don’t care about, and you can also set their priority by changing their order.

Screenshot 2014-10-19 20.43.11

Let us know what you think about the new Spotlight in the comments below.