Spotlight Search in Yosemite has a big update. It has gone from a small search widget in the corner of the screen to a floating window in the center of the screen with rich previews. Apparently it was inspired by keyboard launchers like Alfred, Quicksilver, and Launchbar. However, while Spotlight Search looks like a keyboard launcher, it doesn’t.
Sure, the new spotlight can do math, convert units, or find movies that are playing nearby, but it can’t do advanced things like turn off your Mac, search web pages, or reply. questions like Siri.
If you’ve used Spotlight Search in Yosemite, you’ll probably want to learn more. After all, there is a lot of potential for the preview area. Thankfully, a developer decided to explore this area and came up with plugins to extend Spotlight functionality that allows it to do all of the above and more.
But before we get to that, let’s answer a very important question, why do you even need Flashlight?
For productivity. The reason keyboard launchers are so popular (my favorite is Alfred on Mac and Launchy on Windows) is that they let you complete small tasks faster using your keyboard instead of using the mouse and GUI.
For example, if you needed to search for a product on Amazon, you would normally go to the website and enter the product name in the search field. Or if smart, you have a custom search set up in Chrome for the site. But to do that requires 3-4 steps and a considerable amount of time.
Doing this with the keyboard launcher means pressing a keyboard combination to bring up the text field (for Spotlight it’s Cmd + Space), enter the operator name (in this case Amazon) followed by the product name. That’s it. Hit enter and the search page will open in your default browser just like that.
And there’s so much more where this comes from.
Related: Check out some more useful keyboard shortcuts for your Mac.
How to install and set up flashlight for Spotlight search
First, download Flashlight. When you click Download on the site, you will be taken to the Github page. Download the latest version here .zip document. The installation process is similar to other apps. Extract the file, Flashlight.app will appear, drag it to the Applications folder and launch.
Once the app is up and running, you’ll see a little toggle next to “Enable the Spotlight plugin“. That’s your suggestion. Below you will see different categories. The right side lists all the actual plugins.
Each plugin has an operator. Think of it as a prefix or command that you will need to write to perform the action. For example, in the case of searching using IMBD, you need to type first imdb followed by your query. The operators for each action are different, but don’t worry, you’ll see them all listed in the right pane.
Now that we’re all set, let’s talk about all the cool things Flashlight can do for Spotlight Search.
Shutdown, restart, lock your Mac
Want to quickly shutdown or restart your Mac? Just press Cmd + Space, write turn off or the first letters in that word, press enter and your system will shut down.
Search in sites like Twitter, IMDB, Amazon, DuckDuckGo, etc.
Operators like imdb, yt, Amazon, netflixAnd Google allows you to search in different web pages without going to the said website and searching the search bar.
Wolfram Alpha is your text-based Siri
On iOS, you can ask Siri questions like “What is the capital of Brazil” or “What is 68 times 34?” and it will tell you. Siri gets this information from Wolfram Alpha. And thanks to Flashlight, it’s also built into Spotlight Search. So first, just use the Wolfram operator, type your query, and the answer will show up right in the Spotlight preview pane.
Look up weather and stocks
Easily look up the weather for any city or the stock of any listed company right from the Spotlight window.
Shorten URLs
To create a short link with Spotlight, all you need to do is type shortenpaste in the original link, and in a second or two, the shortened link will be copied to the clipboard, ready for you to paste where you want.
Make Your Mac Speak
Too lazy to read messages or want to clarify the pronunciation of a word? Type only speak in Spotlight, paste the text and your Mac will read it aloud.
Execute terminal commands
If you’re the type who likes to use Terminal, this should make things a little easier. Flashlight will let you execute Terminal commands right from the Spotlight window.
What’s your favorite thing about flashlights?
Can you feel your productivity skyrocket? Would you like a feature in Flashlight that makes life so much easier? Let us know in the comments below.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
