Spotlight
A search window over your other apps. Open apps and files, convert units and times, search the web, and open extensions such as Clipboard and Processes.
Spotlight is a search window that opens in the middle of your screen, over whatever you're working in. Type to find an app, a file, a calculation, or an extension. The last row always searches the web. To jump to a settings screen, use the command palette.
Requirements
Spotlight works on Mac, Windows and Linux.
Set a shortcut
Spotlight has no shortcut until you set one. Open Settings > Hotkeys, find Spotlight under Commands, and press the keys you want. If a dictation hotkey or an extension already uses them, Spotlight stays off and Settings says which one.
Press the shortcut again, press Escape, or click away to close it.
When it opens
Before you type, Spotlight lists the apps you open most, and the views of the extensions you have turned on, such as Clipboard history.
Apps and files
| You type | You get |
|---|---|
| An app name | The app. Enter opens it. Command Return on a Mac, or Ctrl Return on Windows and Linux, shows it in its folder. |
| Part of a file or folder name | Files and folders from your home folder whose names match. Enter opens one. Command Return on a Mac, or Ctrl Return on Windows and Linux, shows it in its folder. |
The match is on the name. A document, an image, or a folder comes up. Source code stays out, and so do files that live inside a project. On a Mac, iCloud Drive is included once a Spotlight shortcut is set.
For a file you can only describe, such as "the contract I saved last month", ask in Commands. That search reads the files. Spotlight looks up the name.
Calculator
Type the whole phrase. Enter copies the result, and the window stays open. Currency needs a live rate, so Spotlight leaves it out.
| You type | You get |
|---|---|
24*7 or (3+5)*2 | The result. +, -, *, /, parentheses, and % all work. |
52% of 900 or 20% off 80 | The percentage, or the price after a discount. |
square root of 625 or 2^10 | The root or the power. 2 power 10 works too. |
10ft in m, 70kg in lb, or 20c in f | A length, a weight, or a temperature. |
2rem in px | Pixels, at 16 pixels to a rem. 2 inches in px at 72 ppi uses the resolution you name. |
145 mins to timespan | Hours and minutes. |
today, tomorrow, or monday in 3 weeks | The date. august 5 + 5 and days until 31 mar work too. |
time, time in tokyo, or time in 4 hours | The clock, here or in a city, or later today. 12pm here in london converts a time you name. |
2024-03-15T14:30:00Z | That moment in your time zone. |
Web
| You type | You get |
|---|---|
g, yt, or gh, then a space and your words | A search on Google, YouTube, or GitHub. |
| Anything else | A web search, on the last row. |
Type g, yt, or gh on its own and Spotlight offers that keyword. Enter fills it in, then you add the search.
Press Up on the first row to step back through your last 30 searches, and Down to return to what you were typing. They're kept on this computer.
Extensions
Some extensions open a view in Spotlight: Clipboard history, Processes, Keep Awake, recent colors from Color Picker, and your snippets from Text Snippet Expansion. Type a short name for the view, or give the command its own shortcut on the extension's page.
| You type | What opens |
|---|---|
clipboard | Clipboard history |
kill | Processes |
colors | Recent colors |
snippets | Your snippets |
awake | Keep Awake |
pick | Pick a Color, which starts the sampler |
Inside a view, the search field filters the list. Click a row to highlight it; double-click or press Enter to run it. Escape goes back to the main search, and a second Escape closes the window.
Dictate and ask
If you dictate while Spotlight is open, your words go into the search field. If you start a Commands request, Glaido sees what Spotlight shows: the search and the rows at the main search, or the highlighted row inside a view. So you can highlight a copied paragraph and say "rewrite this".