HoudahSpot 6

User Guide

houdah.com/houdahSpot
 1. Introduction 5
2. What’s New in HoudahSpot 6 5
2.1. Apple Mail Plug-in 5
2.2. Tag Cloud 6
2.3. Powerful Filters 6
2.4. Top Level Files 6
2.5. Grouped Results 7
2.6. Files Having or Missing a Property 7
2.7. Recent Searches 7
2.8. Share a Search 7
2.9. Further Enhancements 7
3. What’s New in HoudahSpot 5 8
3.1. Folding Text Preview 8
3.2. Recent Search Attributes & Values, Locations, and Columns 8
3.3. Quicker Criteria Setup 9
3.4. Arrange Search Results by Kind, Date, File Size, or Application 9
3.5. Compact Mode 9
3.6. Vertical Layout 10
3.7. Enhanced Grid View 10
3.8. Faster File Tagging 10
3.9. Fewer Windows 10
4. HoudahSpot and the Spotlight Index 10
4.1. Files vs. Shoeboxes 11
5. Work ow 12
5.1. The Search Field 12
5.2. Re ne Search 13
5.2.1. Criteria Attributes 14
5.2.2. Using the Asterisk (*) Wildcard 18
5.2.3. Combining Criteria: ALL / ANY / NONE Groups 19
5.2.4. Find by Example 20
5.2.5. Snippets 20
5.2.6. Temporarily Disable Criteria Rows 21

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 5.3. Search Locations 22
5.3.1. Apple Mail Messages 24
5.3.2. Exclude Locations 24
5.4. Tag Cloud 25
5.5. Limit 25
5.6. Start / Stop Button 26
5.7. Results 26
5.7.1. Filters 28
5.7.2. File Actions 29
5.7.3. Details: File Info, Quick Look, Text Preview 31
5.7.4. Saving Search Results as Text Files 33
6. Customizing Default & Using Templates 33
6.1. Saving Searches 33
6.2. Save as Default 33
6.3. Templates 34
6.4. Export as Finder Smart Folder 34
7. View Options 34
7.1. Search, Results & Details Pane 34
7.2. The Sidebar 35
7.3. Compact Mode 36
8. HoudahSpot Preferences 37
8.1. General 37
8.2. Tags 37
8.3. Templates 38
8.4. Snippets 38
8.5. Shortcuts 39
8.6. Privacy 40
8.7. Extensions 40
9. Automate HoudahSpot 41
9.1. URL scheme and third-party tools 41
9.2. AppleScript 42
9.3. MacOS Services 43

HoudahSpot 6: User Guide 3

10. Advanced Features 43
10.1. Raw Query 43
10.2. Advanced Uses of the Search Field 43
11. Appendix: List of Short Search Field Attributes 47
12. Appendix: List of Search Field Kinds 48
13. Further Information 48

HoudahSpot 6: User Guide 4

 1. Introduction
HoudahSpot is a powerful le search utility. It builds upon the existing Spotlight engine. It
can thus perform fast searches without the need for another index. HoudahSpot works
both as an everyday replacement to the default Spotlight interface and as an advanced
search tool.

HoudahSpot makes it easy to create queries and narrow down the search to get to the
les you are looking for: Find les by name, text, kind, date, tags, pixel count, author,
recipient, etc. There is a myriad of criteria, which can be combined into groups (“NONE/
ALL/ANY of the following are true”). You can search in several locations at once, as well
as exclude others.

HoudahSpot works at your pace: Set up your search. Click the start button. Only then
will HoudahSpot get busy gathering results.

Exploring results is easy: You can add any number of columns to the results list and sort
results by these columns. Examine the result les by previewing text content, le
metadata, or by using the Quick Look feature.

With HoudahSpot, you can nd les you forgot you had. For example, pictures that pre-
date Apple Photos and iPhoto, MP3 les you never put into iTunes, or data you carried
over from your previous Mac and that you never bothered to sort into your new folder
structure. By combining modi cation date, le type, and location criteria, such les are
nally within reach.

2. What’s New in HoudahSpot 6

macOS 11.0 Big Sur has introduced a dramatic new look representing a signi cant
aesthetic departure from previous macOS versions. HoudahSpot 6.0 adopts this
refreshed Mac user interface with a ne-tuned new look, a new icon, and a redesigned
toolbar.

Moreover, HoudahSpot 6 adds support for Macs with Apple Silicon processors. It gives
you the best performance on the latest Mac hardware.

Of course, HoudahSpot 6.0 has much more to offer than good looks. It comes packed
with features and enhancements that will improve your productivity.

2.1. Apple Mail Plug-in

HoudahSpot 6.0 can again search Apple Mail messages.

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 Starting with macOS 10.15 Catalina, Apple Mail messages are no longer available
through the Spotlight index used by HoudahSpot.

HoudahSpot 6.0 can nonetheless nd your Apple Mail messages. HoudahSpot installs a
plug-in that runs within the Mail application. This plug-in allows HoudahSpot to include
Mail message les in your search results.

Apple Mail on macOS 14 Sonoma no longer accepts plug-ins. HoudahSpot will not
be able to search your Apple Mail messages.

2.2. Tag Cloud

The Tag Cloud lists your favorite le tags as well as all the tags found in the current
search results. It also shows the number of occurrences of each tag.

The Tag Cloud is yet another way to incrementally re ne your search to nd only the
most relevant les. Click a tag to restrict your search to les having that tag. Command-
click a tag to exclude les. Hold the shift key while clicking to clear a previous selection
and select only the last clicked tag.

2.3. Powerful Filters

Filters help you focus on relevant les by only showing you a subset of your search
results. HoudahSpot can lter les to show only those that share a common property.
E.g., les modi ed the same day.

HoudahSpot can also lter les by name, path, and folder names. These lters also
support regular expressions. You can thus show or hide results by matching their names
or paths to a pattern. Filters can narrow down result lists in ways that are not possible
with a plain search.

In HoudahSpot 6.0, you can now apply multiple lters at the same time.

2.4. Top Level Files

You can also use a lter to see only les from a speci c folder. Thus, you can choose to
see only les from the top level of the folder structure where you are searching. Files
nested deeper in the folder structure are hidden.

The option to lter by folder can also help you break up a lengthy list of search results:
explore search results folder by folder.

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 2.5. Grouped Results
HoudahSpot can group search results by application, date, size, and kind. This option is
another way HoudahSpot can help break up search results into manageable chunks.

Version 6.0 can now also arrange results by le tags or volume/drive.

2.6. Files Having or Missing a Property

In the Re ne pane, many attributes now offer the “is set” operator. This matches les
that have - to the knowledge of the Spotlight index - a value for the selected attribute.

You can, for example, use this to nd les that have at least one tag. Their “Tags”
attribute is set. This criterion can be nested in a “none of the following is true” group to
nd les that lack tags.

Similarly, you can use the “is set” operator to nd PDF les that lack “Text Content”.
These les may need OCR processing.

2.7. Recent Searches

HoudahSpot now remembers recent searches. You can resume an earlier search by
selecting it from the list in the File menu.

2.8. Share a Search

HoudahSpot 6.0 makes it easy to share your current search con guration with a friend
or colleague. Just select File > Share Search from the menu.

2.9. Further Enhancements

■ Enhanced le path display: HoudahSpot now highlights differences in le path when
navigating search results
■ New columns in search results: parent folder and volume/drive names
■ A quicker way of using Snippets: option-click a snippet in the sidebar to add it to the
current search
■ Improved support for VoiceOver
■ Option to automatically start searching as soon as you enter a query

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 3. What’s New in HoudahSpot 5
With the HoudahSpot 5 upgrade, we re ned just about every aspect of the le search
experience. Lots of small improvements will have you nd les faster. Many operations
now need fewer clicks. HoudahSpot has more customization options so it can adapt to
your work ow.

It is now easier than ever to personalize your default search setup. To customize the
way new HoudahSpot windows are set up, you just need to set up a search with its
criteria, locations, and results display options and then select File > Save as Default.
New in HoudahSpot 5, you can now make incremental adjustments to the default set up.
For example, when you manage search locations, you will have the option to apply your
changes to the default setup.

HoudahSpot 5 adds support for modern macOS features like Dark Mode, Touch Bar,
Finder extensions, and Quick Actions.

3.1. Folding Text Preview

Quick Look and Text Preview let you peek inside found les without having to open
them. HoudahSpot’s Text Preview has the unique ability to highlight text that you
searched for.

You can now “fold” the preview to show only text close to highlighted matches. This
feature makes it easier to see the context in which the text was found. You may even be
able to pick up the information you are looking for right from the preview.

3.2. Recent Search Attributes & Values, Locations, and

Columns
HoudahSpot now remembers which search criteria and columns you recently used. It
will include these in the respective menus without you having to customize your search
setup explicitly.

HoudahSpot also considers it likely that you will want to use the same attributes in
search criteria and results columns. E.g., when you search for photos by “ISO Speed,”
you will probably want to see the ISO speed values in search results. HoudahSpot thus
automatically includes “ISO Speed” in the menu of available search result columns.

Similarly, HoudahSpot remembers which locations (folder and drives) you have recently
searched and includes these in the search and exclusion location menus.

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 For search criteria where HoudahSpot can offer a list of possible values, it now lists
recently used values rst.

3.3. Quicker Criteria Setup

While entering criteria values in the Re ne pane, you can press Command-Option-
Return to add another criterion for the same attribute. For example, when searching for
le names that contain both “Houdah” and “Software”: Fill in the “Name” criterion by
typing “Houdah”. Then press command-option-Return to get a new row. Then type
“Software”.

Hold the Shift key to duplicate the current criterion and keep its value. This shortcut is
useful when searching for the same text in different attributes. To search for a mail
message where either the “Authors” or the “Recipients” contain “Houdah”, create an
“Any of the following is true” group with an “Authors” criterion. Fill it in by typing
“Houdah”. Then press Command-Option-Shift-Return to duplicate the row. Change the
attribute of the new criterion to “Recipients”.

3.4. Arrange Search Results by Kind, Date, File Size, or

Application
HoudahSpot can now arrange search results in groups by kind, date, le size, or
application. For example, les that will open in Microsoft Word in one group, and les
that will open in Apple Pages in another.

The “Arrange By” option is available from the View menu. Like the column con guration
and sort options, this setting is saved when creating a default setup or search template.

3.5. Compact Mode

When dragging les from HoudahSpot to other applications, the HoudahSpot window
may get in the way and obscure the location where you want to use the les. Compact
Mode shrinks the HoudahSpot window to show just the search results and free up as
much screen space as possible.

Compact mode can be activated from the View menu or using the “Compact Mode”
button in the window toolbar. HoudahSpot automatically exits compact mode when you
open the Search or Details panes.

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 3.6. Vertical Layout
HoudahSpot uses a three-pane layout: Search, Results, and Details. By default, these
show next to each other. If you need to save horizontal screen space, you can have
HoudahSpot show Details below Results. This vertical layout is particularly handy when
using the macOS split-screen feature to show two applications side-by-side.

You can select this layout from the View > Details menu.

3.7. Enhanced Grid View

Grid view not only looks nicer, but it can also show pertinent le information alongside
le icons or previews. Two lines of text below the le names show the most relevant
properties of the le. What information is shown depends on the le type. E.g., for mail
messages, this will be the sender and recipient.

The “File Info” option can be enabled from the View > Grid menu.

3.8. Faster File Tagging

The le tagging window now lists favorite and recently used tags.

In HoudahSpot > Preferences > Tags you can now set up keyboard shortcuts to add or
remove tags from selected search results.

3.9. Fewer Windows

When you start a new search, you may want to close previous searches that you no
longer need. The new File > Revert lets you start over with a fresh search within the
same window. The new search will use the same search template as the original search.

4. HoudahSpot and the Spotlight Index

HoudahSpot builds upon Spotlight, which comes pre-installed with macOS. With
HoudahSpot, there is no need to maintain an additional index.

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 The Spotlight index gets its information from Spotlight importer plug-ins. For standard le
formats, these plug-ins are provided by Apple. Third-party developers need to provide
Spotlight plug-ins if they want Spotlight to process their proprietary le formats.
Developers are free to decide what information to share with Spotlight and how to label
it; e.g., one mail client may store the sender’s name as “author” while the other labels it
“sender”.

Therefore, which les HoudahSpot can nd and what information it can display
depends on the applications you have installed and their respective Spotlight plug-
ins.

You can use the Info pane in HoudahSpot to see which metadata has been recorded for
a given le. You can, for example, check what information is available for messages
from your mail client.

4.1. Files vs. Shoeboxes

Recent versions of macOS rely on two technologies to perform local searches in the
Spotlight window: Spotlight and Core Spotlight. File searches use the traditional
Spotlight. The newer Core Spotlight serves to search databases and “shoebox”
applications like Apple Notes.
HoudahSpot is a le search tool. For HoudahSpot to be able to nd a piece of
information, it must exist as a le on your Mac. This excludes data that you have in
cloud accounts. It also excludes data stored in “shoebox” databases.

The Apple Notes application, for example, stores all your notes in a single le. Even if
HoudahSpot were to point you at that le, you would still need to use the Notes
application to nd an individual note.

Staring with macOS 10.15 Catalina, indexing of Apple Mail messages was moved to
Core Spotlight even though messages still exist as individual les. Unfortunately, Apple
does not allow third-party applications to search Core Spotlight. HoudahSpot can
nonetheless nd Apple Mail messages. For this purpose, it installs a plug-in that runs
within the Apple Mail application and works with the HoudahSpot application to nd Mail
message les.

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 5. Work ow

The descriptions and instructions in this chapter assume that you have not made any
adjustments to the default setup.

HoudahSpot opens to a new search document consisting of three panes: Search,

Results, and Details.

The Search and the Details panes can be hidden using commands from the View menu.
Also, the panes can be rearranged so that the Details show below the Results.

5.1. The Search Field

You can start a search by entering search terms into the search eld in the window’s
toolbar.

HoudahSpot will search for les where all the search terms entered can be found
anywhere in name, text content, or other metadata. The menu on the loupe icon lets you
decide if HoudahSpot should search by “Any Text” (the default behavior), “Name”, or
“Text Content”.

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 You can start the search by clicking the start button to the right. Alternatively, you may
continue to re ne your search by adding criteria in the Search pane and by specifying
search locations before you hit the start button.

You can also use the search eld to express more complex searches.

5.2. Re ne Search
Below the search eld, you will nd the “re ne search” area with criteria rows. This
section allows you to narrow down the search. Criteria rows are typically made of three
items:

• To the left is the criterion attribute pop-up menu (like Name, Text Content)
• This is usually followed by an operator pop-up menu (like contains, is)
• Last is the criterion value. This can show as text eld, pop-up menu, or date picker

The “–” and “+” buttons to the right will add or delete criteria rows. The last button
creates a criteria group.

Criteria rows can be rearranged by drag-and-drop. Hold the Option key while you click to
grab the criteria rows more easily.

The Search pane may be hidden by clicking the respective view

selector button in the toolbar or by using commands from the View
menu. In that menu, you can also opt for the Search pane to hide
automatically after clicking the Start button and to show automatically after clicking the
Stop button.

Click and hold on the Results or Details buttons to see a menu with options for the
respective panes.

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 5.2.1. Criteria Attributes
The Re ne section is precon gured with the following criteria attributes:

■ Name: Matches les by Display Names and Alternate Display Names

■ Text Content: Matches les by indexed text content
■ File Extension: Matches the le name extension
■ Content Kind: Matches les by kind category

Use the pop-up menu to get access to additional attributes.

You can con gure HoudahSpot to list your preferred attributes. HoudahSpot will
automatically list recently used attributes.

Choose “Other…” to get a list of all criteria attributes available.

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 To add an attribute from the list to the pop-up menu, double click the row. Or tick the “In
Menu” checkbox to add an attribute without immediately using it. The attribute will be
added to every pop-up menu of your current search document. To delete an attribute
from the list, untick the checkbox.

If you want your selection of menu items to apply to every new search window, click the
“Update Menu in Default Setup.” To further customize the default setup, use the “Save
as Default” command from the File menu.

HoudahSpot relies on Spotlight to nd les by properties and metadata. The values of

these attributes are provided by the le system and by third-party Spotlight plug-ins.

Criteria affect the search only when they have been given a value. Thus, you may
safely do a search on le name by only lling in the appropriate eld. Other criteria
are ignored. There is no harm in leaving blank criteria in place.

5.2.1.1. “Name”
HoudahSpot’s “Name” attribute is a combination of two Spotlight attributes: It searches
both “Display Name” and “Alternate Display Names”.

The “Display Name” is typically the same as the le’s name or name without extension.

But: “Display Names” may differ from actual le names. One notable example is Apple
Mail. It saves messages in numbered .emlx les. The message subject is recorded as
“Display Name” with Spotlight. For example, the le name of a speci c mail message le
is ”396936.emlx”, while its “Display Name” will be the mail subject “Re: Try HoudahSpot
to nd les.”

The “Name” criterion can have different operators, of which is / is not will only nd exact
matches of the search terms entered. It does however ignore case differences and
umlauts. For example, a search for “Name is tree house” will return les like “tree
house.jpg”, “tree house.pdf” etc., but NOT “my tree house.jpg”.

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 When the search operator is set to contains, it will return all les which include the
exact search term entered. Again case differences and umlauts are ignored. E.g. a
search for “Name contains tree house” will return les like “tree house.jpg”, “my tree
house.pdf” or “tree houses.jpg”, but NOT “tree.jpg” or “house.pdf” (because the exact
phrase “tree house” has to be present in the le name for it to be included in the results
list.)

5.2.1.2. “Text Content” and “Any Text”

The “Text Content” attribute allows you to search les by indexed text content. As such,
it applies only to les that contain text. E.g., word processing documents, presentations,
etc.

The “Any Text” attribute matches any attribute containing text. E.g., author, location,
tags, comments, etc. This also includes “text content.”

The available operators apply as follows to a search string of “tree house”:

■ “contains pre xes” searches for starts of words. The example matches “tree
house”, “TreeHouse” and also “treetop house”
■ “contains words” searches for words in the text content. The example matches
“tree house”, “TreeHouse”, but not “treetop house”
■ “contains phrase” searches for the exact string. The example matches only
“tree house”
■ “contains all” searches for individual string elements anywhere in the text. The
example matches les that contain both the words “tree” and “house”, including
word combinations such as “houseboat” and “appletree”
■ “is set” matches les for which the attribute has a value in the Spotlight index.
E.g., the Spotlight importer for the le has made “Text Content” available for
indexing

The “is set” operator is available for many attributes. You can, for example, use it to nd
les that have at least one tag. It can – provided the relevant Spotlight importer extracts
the values – also be used to nd image les that have GPS coordinates. To nd les that
lack a value, nest the criterion in a “none of the following is true” group.

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 5.2.1.3. “Content Kind” and “Content Type”
The “Content Kind” attribute matches les by general kind. HoudahSpot provides a list of
pre-de ned types.

Switch to “Kind” or “Content Type” (via “Other…” in the attribute pop-up menu) for ner
control.

“Kind” is a plain language description of the le type (e.g., “Microsoft Word document”)

“Content Type” matches les by Uniform Type Identi er UTI (“com.microsoft.word.doc”)

Find UTIs hard to remember? Try “Find by Example”:

Drag a le of the content type desired from the Finder or from the HoudahSpot
results list and drop it onto the “Content Kind” criterion. It will adapt to match the le.

5.2.1.4. “File Extension”

The “File Extension” searches le names for the speci ed extension. For example, “txt”,
“docx”, etc. It is a convenience criterion equivalent to searching for le names ending
with a dot followed by the speci ed extension.

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 5.2.1.5. “Keywords & Tags”
The “Keywords & Tags” attribute is a combination of existing attributes. It searches
Finder Tags, OpenMeta Tags, and Keywords.

5.2.1.6. “Created”, “Modi ed”, and “Last Opened”

These attributes match les created, modi ed, or last opened “before”, “on”, or “after” a
given date. Using the “within last” operator, it searches for les where the date on the le
falls during a period of time ending today. You can also search by dates that fall in a
speci c year or month.

5.2.1.7. “File Size”

This attribute allows you to search for les of a size equal to, larger, or smaller than a
value you specify in KB, MB, or GB.

To the Spotlight index, folders have no le size. I.e., Spotlight does not keep track of the
compound size of all les within a folder. Thus, it is not possible to search for folders by
size.

HoudahSpot can, however, compute the “Total Size” of folders and show that in the list
of results. Since HoudahSpot has to explore the contents of each folder and its sub-
folders, these values may take a moment to appear. You can then sort search results by
“Total Size” to single out the larger folders.

5.2.2. Using the Asterisk (*) Wildcard

You can use the asterisk symbol * as a wildcard. The asterisk * matches any number of
characters.

Examples:

• A search for the name criterion “*houdah” matches all les beginning with any number
of unspeci ed characters followed by “houdah”.
• A search for the name criterion “houdah*” matches all les beginning with houdah
followed by any number of unspeci ed characters.
• A search for the name criterion “*.txt” will nd all les ending in .txt

The use of the asterisk symbol as a wildcard means that you can not search directly for
it, therefore:

• If you want to search for *, type \*

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 • If you want to search for \*, type \\*
• If you want to search for \, type \

5.2.3. Combining Criteria: ALL / ANY / NONE Groups

The last button in each criterion row creates a criteria group. Groups combine
several criteria using boolean operators: “ALL / ANY / NONE of the following are
true”.

By default, les have to match all criteria listed to show up in the results list. The same is
true for criteria wrapped in an ALL group. When using an ANY group, a le will be found
as long as at least one of the listed criteria match. Use a NONE group to exclude les
that match any of the criteria in the group.

Criteria rows can be dragged and dropped into a group. Hold the option key while you
click to grab the criteria rows more easily.

Examples:

If you want to nd les that contain “house” in the name,

• that have been modi ed within the

last 3 days AND are word
processor les, wrap “Modi ed
within last 3 days” and “Content
Kind is Word Processing” in an
ALL group (default).

• and are either image OR video

les, wrap “Content Kind is Image”
and “Content Kind is Video” in an
ANY group.

• but you want to EXCLUDE folders

from the results list, wrap “Content
Kind is folder” in a NONE group.
(For this example, you would get
the same result if you simply set
“Content Kind” to “IS NOT folder”
instead of using a group.)

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 5.2.4. Find by Example
You can drag les from the HoudahSpot results list or from the Finder onto a criterion:
the criterion is then updated to match the le’s properties. This comes in handy when
looking for les that in one way or another resemble a le you have at hand.

Alternatively, you can use the “Match Selected Result” option from the context menu on
a criterion.

Example:
To nd Microsoft Word les, drag a Word le onto a “Content type” criterion. The query
will update to match all les of the Microsoft Word type.

HoudahSpot relies on the Spotlight index to get le properties. For les not indexed
by Spotlight, it can extract basic attributes only: name, date created, etc.

5.2.5. Snippets
Snippets hold either a single search criterion or a group of criteria that serve a certain
purpose. A set of useful sample snippets is pre-installed.

Insert a snippet by selecting it from the “Insert Snippet” item in the Search menu. You
may also use the context menu (Control-click or right-click) in the Search pane.

Option-click a Snippet to add it to the current search. Alternatively, you can drag a
Snippet from the Sidebar or from the Snippet preferences tab and drop it onto the Re ne
pane.

Click a Snippet to open a new tab. The new search is modeled after your saved default
search. It also includes the search criteria from the selected Snippet.

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To create a new snippet, select the criteria rows that make up your snippet, then either
use the “Save as Snippet” command from the Search menu or make use of the context
menu. To select the criteria rows more easily, hold the option key while you click.

The preferences tab allows for creating, deleting, exporting or importing snippets.

5.2.6. Temporarily Disable Criteria Rows

To disable criteria rows, select them, then either choose Search > “Disable Selected
Criteria” from the menu or select “Disable” from the row’s context menu. To enable,
select the respective rows and choose “Enable” from the context menu or from
HoudahSpot’s Search menu.

HoudahSpot 6: User Guide 21

 5.3. Search Locations
In this section, you can con gure the locations - folders or volumes - HoudahSpot is to
search. By default, this will be your home directory and “Apple Mail messages”.

Apple Mail on macOS 14 Sonoma no longer accepts plug-ins. HoudahSpot will not be
able to search your Apple Mail messages. HoudahSpot will not offer the “Apple Mail
messages” search location.

The “–” and “+” buttons to the right will add or delete location rows. You may also see a
yellow triangle warning sign. It indicates a problem with the location. Click the triangle to
get details on the problem.

Use the pop-up menu to choose from a selection of locations. Go to “Other...” to choose
any other location.

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 You can also con gure the search scope by dragging les or folders onto rows in the
locations section.

HoudahSpot relies on the Spotlight index to nd les and show le properties. As a

rule of thumb, HoudahSpot can only nd les in locations indexed by Spotlight.

In some cases, HoudahSpot may be able to nd les in folders excluded from

Spotlight if you point HoudahSpot directly to such a folder. E.g., searching the folder
~/Library/Preferences may nd les that are not found when searching the parent
folder ~/Library. In these directories, only searches by basic le properties - like name
and modi cation date - will work.

To organize the “Locations” and “Exclude Locations” pop-up menus, choose “Manage
Locations...” from the Search Menu. In addition to your preferred locations, HoudahSpot
will automatically list connected volumes and recently used locations.

To add a new location to the list, click the “+” button. The location will be added to
“Locations” and “Exclude Locations” pop-up menus of your current search document. To
remove a location from the menus, untick the “In Menu” checkbox.

If you want locations to show up in the pop-up menu of every new search document,
click the “Update Menu in Default Setup”. To further customize the default setup, use the
“Save as Default” command from the File menu.

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 5.3.1. Apple Mail Messages

On macOS 10.15 through 13.6, HoudahSpot offers a “Apple Mail Messages” location.
This uses a plug-in for the Apple Mail application that allows HoudahSpot to nd Apple
Mail message les.

On prior versions of macOS this plug-in is not needed. HoudahSpot can nd message
les in the ~/Library/Mail folder.

The “Apple Mail Messages” search location requires the HoudahSpot Mail app plug-in to
be installed and enabled. It also needs the Mail application to be running. HoudahSpot
uses the yellow triangle warning sign to inform you of problems with the Mail plug-in.

Apple Mail on macOS 14 Sonoma no longer accepts plug-ins. HoudahSpot will not be
able to search your Apple Mail messages. HoudahSpot will not offer the “Apple Mail
messages” search location.

5.3.2. Exclude Locations

You can exclude certain locations from the search. For instance, you may want to
search all of your home folder, except for the Library folder. The setup would look like
this:

HoudahSpot respects the most speci c location listed.

Example:
A search within the User home folder and the folder ~/Music/iTunes with the whole
Music folder excluded will search in the home folder and exclude the Music folder except
for the iTunes folder within. Because ~/Music/iTunes is more speci c than ~/Music,
~/Music/iTunes takes priority over ~/Music.

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 5.4. Tag Cloud
The Tag Cloud shows your favorite le tags as well as all the tags found in the current
search results. It also shows the number of occurrences of each tag. Tags that appear
frequently are emphasized using a larger font.

The Tag Cloud is yet another way to incrementally re ne your search to nd only the
most relevant les.

Click a tag to restrict your search to les having that tag. Command-click a tag to
exclude les. Hold the shift key while clicking to clear a previous selection and select
only the last clicked tag.

The Tag Cloud, like the Sidebar, can also be used to tag les. Drag les from search
results or from Finder to a tag to assign that tag to the les.

5.5. Limit
You can choose to have HoudahSpot show only a limited number of results. You can, for
example, choose to see only the 10’000 most recently opened or the 1’000 most
recently modi ed les. Setting a limit keeps the results manageable and relevant.

Files may disappear from the list as the Spotlight engine nds “better matches”.

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 5.6. Start / Stop Button
With HoudahSpot, searches start only when you are ready. Set up your query, then click
the start button in the toolbar. Only now will HoudahSpot get busy gathering results.

There is an option in HoudahSpot > Preferences > General to start searches

automatically. This option is disabled by default so as not to waste computing resources
on a search you have not nished spelling out.

Once a HoudahSpot search is started, it remains live even after gathering is completed.
The results are updated as les are changed, added, or removed from the system. You
can still change the criteria to re ne your search. As new les match the criteria, they
appear in the results list.

5.7. Results
While the search is active, HoudahSpot shows found les on the right-hand side of the
window. Results can be displayed as a list or as a grid.

Control-click or right-click on the title row or use the Columns item in the View menu to
add columns for other metadata attributes. You can sort results by any of these columns.

Choose “More Columns…” to get the list of all column attributes available. Double click
the row to add a column. Check the “In Menu” option to add a column without
immediately using it.

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If you want your selection of menu items to apply to every new search window, click the
“Update Menu in Default Setup”. To further customize the default setup, use the “Save
as Default” command from the File menu.

HoudahSpot 6: User Guide 27

 You can also arrange search results in groups by kind, date, le size, application,
volume (drive), or tags. For example, les that will open in Microsoft Word in one group,
and les that will open in Apple Pages in another. The “Arrange By” option is available
from the View menu. Like the column con guration and sort options, this setting is saved
when creating a default setup or search template.

Select a le to see the path to its location at the bottom of the window. Command-
clicking a folder in the path narrows down your search to focus on the selected folder
location. Command-Option clicking a folder adds its location to the excluded section.
Double-clicking a folder in the path will open it in the Finder.

To see a le preview, select the le, then use the Quick Look menu item from the
Results menu. To see a slideshow of previews from several result les, select these
les and use the Slideshow menu item from the Results menu.

5.7.1. Filters
Filters help to narrow down search results. Use lters to see only a subset of the found
les. Use lters to apply conditions that are not as easy to express as search criteria.

Click the Filter button at the top of the Results pane to show the Filters pop-over window.
This list lters that you have applied to the current search results.

Text lters allow you to lter – show or exclude – les where the name, path, le name,
parent folder, or any folder in the path matches text or a regular expression you enter in
the lter eld.

For example, when you want to nd all photos from various folders all named “vacation”,
it is quicker to use lters than to list all of these folders as search locations. Just run a
search for photos in your home folder. Then lter the results to see only photos where a
parent folder is named “vacation”.

Regular expressions can be especially useful when ltering search results. Such lters
allow, for example, to see only les whose name begins with IMG_ and is followed by a
four-digit number and then the le extension: ^IMG_\d{4}\.\w* . For case-insensitive
matching use: (?i)^IMG_\d{4}\.\w* .

Filters can also be used to see only les from a speci c folder. They allow you, for
example, to see only les from the top level of the folder structure where you are
searching. Files nested deeper in the folder structure are hidden.

You can use such a lter when, for example, you want to list all image les at the top
level of a given folder. You start with a search for images les in that folder. Results
include les from nested folders. Add a “folder” lter to see only les from the selected
folder.

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 A quick way to clear all lters is to click the text above search results where HoudahSpot
shows the number of les found and number of les shown.

5.7.2. File Actions

Once you have located the les you are looking for, you can:

• Double-click to open

HoudahSpot will pass the rst “text content” or “any text” search strings on to the next
application. In many applications, you can then proceed to nd the text in the
document by hitting command-G.

• Drag les to a Finder window to move or copy

This can be a powerful technique for housekeeping.

Examples:
• You want to search for music les that are somewhere on your computer but not in
the Music Folder. Set up a search for Music les and exclude the Music Folder
location. Drag the les from the results list to your Music folder.
• Should you want to organize your les by date, e.g. one folder for each month:
create a search to match the les from a given month. In the Finder, locate or
create the folder. Then drag all les from the results to that folder.

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 • Drag les onto the Trash icon to delete them.

• Drag les to an application in the Dock to open them with the application selected.

• Rename les or assign Finder le tags by calling up the respective commands in

the Results menu, from the Actions toolbar button or in the context menu (Control-click
or right-click).

In the le tagging window you can edit tags for the selected les. Tags you add are
added to all selected les. Tags you remove are removed where present. Tags you
don’t touch are left unchanged. Files which had the tag keep it, les which didn’t have
the tag still don’t have it.

• Apply actions from the Actions and from the Share toolbar buttons.

• Copy the list of results as text to use in another application.

You can copy a list of selected les as text by selecting the “Copy as Tab Delimited”
command from the Edit Menu. The copied text includes all columns currently displayed
in HoudahSpot. You may also choose to copy File Names or File Paths only. The
copied information can be pasted into text editors or spreadsheets.

Example:
You may want to create a list of all your music titles. Create a search to match audio
les from the “Music” folder. Enable the columns as desired: Title, Composer, Length,
Size, etc. Now select rows from the results list and hit Command-Shift-C to copy.
Paste to a text editor or spreadsheet.

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 5.7.3. Details: File Info, Quick Look, Text Preview
To the right of the Results pane, you will nd the Details pane. Use the buttons on the
top right of this pane to switch between Info, Quick Look, and Text Preview.

The Info window shows all the metadata

registered with the Spotlight index. These are
the attributes you can use for searching.

Tick the checkbox next to an attribute to lter

your search results by this attribute.

For example, you can have HoudahSpot

show only les that were last modi ed on the
selected date.

These attribute lters also show in the Filters

pop-over window.

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The Info window is copy-paste enabled. Select a single attribute and hit Command-C to
copy its value to the pasteboard. Select a range of attributes by holding the shift-key
while clicking or select several attributes by Command-clicking, then copy them using
Command-C. A tab-separated list of the attributes selected will be created in the
pasteboard.

If you choose “File Info” from the Window menu, the File Info will open in a separate
window.

Text Preview shows the le’s text

content as submitted to the Spotlight
index. Search terms are highlighted.

Arrows in the small toolbar above

the text let you navigate between
matches.

The fold / unfold button in the top

right corner toggles between
showing the full text and only
showing text close to matched
search terms.

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If you choose “Text Preview” from the Window menu, the Text Preview will open in a
separate window.

The Details pane may be hidden by clicking the respective view

selector button in the toolbar or by using commands from the View
menu.

5.7.4. Saving Search Results as Text Files

You may save the search results list as tab delimited text le to be used in other
applications like spreadsheets etc. Go to File > “Save Results to Text File”.

6. Customizing Default & Using Templates

6.1. Saving Searches

HoudahSpot searches are documents. You can create or open as many such
documents as you like. You may want to save HoudahSpot search documents for later
use or for sharing with coworkers and friends.

HoudahSpot will not suggest to save untitled searches nor will it automatically save
documents when you quit the application. It assumes that searches are disposable
unless you tell it otherwise.

HoudahSpot documents save every piece of information you entered: search criteria,
search terms, view options, result columns, sort order, etc. HoudahSpot also remembers
whether your search was active when you saved the document. If it was, the search will
start immediately upon opening the document.

When a saved search document has been edited, HoudahSpot will ask on quit if you
would like to save the changes or discard them.

6.2. Save as Default

“Save as Default” allows you to con gure HoudahSpot to match your personal
preferences regarding the setup of search criteria, locations, sort order, column, etc.

You can change the HoudahSpot default window layout by saving the current layout
using the “Save as Default” command from the File menu. Your new default layout will
then be used as the starting point for all new documents.

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To switch between your saved default and the factory default, go to the General tab in
the Preferences pane.

6.3. Templates
Templates serve as starting points. Opening a template creates a new search. The
actual template will not be affected by any changes you make to that document. A
search created from a template is – just like a normal search – considered to be
disposable.

Templates are available from both the “Templates” menu or the Sidebar. HoudahSpot
comes precon gured with a set of sample templates.

To save the setup of your current search window as a template, use the “Save as
Template” command in the le menu. If a template was saved while the search was
active, the search starts immediately when you open the template.

6.4. Export as Finder Smart Folder

You can save HoudahSpot searches as Finder smart folders. Set up your query, then go
to File > Export as Smart Folder. HoudahSpot saves your search criteria and locations
as a smart folder. However, Finder does not support some of HoudahSpot’s options.
Therefore, values for locations exclusion, lters, custom columns, etc. are dropped. If
you want to retain these values, you may choose HoudahSpot’s “Save as Template”
option.

7. View Options

7.1. Search, Results & Details Pane

A HoudahSpot window can show one or more search documents. When multiple
documents are open in a single window, the window shows a tab bar.

The HoudahSpot window has a toolbar with the following items:

compact mode toggle, sidebar toggle, search eld, start/stop button, view selector,
action button, and share button.

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The view selector contains the following buttons:

• Hide/Show Search
• Show Results as List / as Grid
• Show/Hide Details

The View options can also be found in the View menu. You will also nd some additional
options there:

• Search > “Show Automatically”: Search pane automatically appears when the stop
button is clicked.
• Search > “Hide Automatically”: Search pane automatically disappears when the start
button is clicked.
• Date format: choose between different date and time formats for the list view.
• Grid: Switch between Icons and Previews (where available) in Grid view.

The grid can also show relevant le information below the names. What information is
shown depends on the le type. For mail messages, for example, HoudahSpot will show
the sender and recipient. For photos, it will show resolution and EXIF info. The “File Info”
option can be enabled from the View > Grid menu.

The Toolbar can be hidden using the “Hide Toolbar” command in the View menu.

7.2. The Sidebar

Along the left edge of the window, you can choose to have a sidebar displayed. This
sidebar lists your search templates, snippets, and favorite tags. The sidebar is hidden by
default and can be revealed using the “Show Sidebar” item from the View menu.

If you click on a template in the sidebar, a new search tab will open, set up as de ned in
the template chosen.

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You can drag snippets or tags from the sidebar into the Re ne section. When you click
on a snippet or on a tag in the sidebar, a new search tab will open, containing the default
search layout plus a search criterion for the tag selected or the snippet search criteria
respectively.

You can choose to add the Snippet to the current search by holding the option key as
you click.

You can tag a le by dragging it onto the respective tag. Drag it onto “All Tagged Files” to
tag it manually.

7.3. Compact Mode

Compact Mode shrinks the window to show just the search results. This frees up screen
space and makes it easier to drag les from HoudahSpot to other applications.

To enter Compact Mode, click the icon in the toolbar. To exit, click the button
again or reveal the Search or Details pane.

While in Compact Mode, you can resize and reposition the HoudahSpot window. Next
time you return to Compact Mode, the window will be positioned as you left it.

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 8. HoudahSpot Preferences
The HoudahSpot Preferences can be accessed from the HoudahSpot menu.

8.1. General
The top set radio buttons allow you to switch between Factory Default and Saved
Default. This option is grayed out as long as no default has been saved.

The next set of radio buttons lets you de ne where the insertion point should appear
when opening a new search window.

Enable “Start searches automatically” if you want searches to start as soon as you type
in a query or add search criteria.

Enable “Quit HoudahSpot when last window closes” if you want the application to close
when you close its last window.

When “Check for updates on startup” is enabled, HoudahSpot will check for a new
version when it is launched. Press “Check for Updates” to check manually for a new
version of HoudahSpot.

8.2. Tags
De ne a list of favorite tags that will show
up in the sidebar. Use the “+” and “–”
buttons to add or remove tags. Drag and
drop to reorder.

The rst 7 tags will be available for quick

le tagging from the context menu on
search results.

If you want to create a keyboard shortcut

to a tag, press “Record Shortcut” and
type the key combination, you would like
to associate with this tag. Use the
keyboard shortcut to assign or remove
the tag from selected search results
quickly.

Click the box if you want these favorite tags to show up rst in all tag drop-down menus
as well as in the tag cloud.

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 8.3. Templates
All installed templates are listed here. If
you want to create a keyboard shortcut to
open a speci c template, select the
template, press “Record Shortcut” and
type the key combination you would like to
associate with this template. The
Keyboard Shortcut will then show up next
to the template.

To locate a template le on your hard

drive, select the template and press
“Reveal in Finder”. “Open Templates
Folder in Finder” takes you to the
Templates folder in Finder. If not already
installed, “Install Sample Templates” will
copy a set of sample templates to your
templates folder.

To delete the selected template, click the “–“ button.

You can reorganize templates by dragging these to the desired position in the list. You
can add folders by clicking the “folder” button below the list. Folders show as sub-menus
in the Templates menu.

8.4. Snippets
Snippets are a single search criterion or a
group of criteria that serve a certain
purpose. A set of default snippets is pre-
installed. If they are missing or have been
deleted, you can reinstall them by pressing
“Restore Default Snippets”.

To use a snippet, simply drag it from this

snippet list to the Search pane.

To create a new snippet, select the criteria

rows that make up your snippet in the
Search pane, then either press the “+”
button or drag the criteria rows onto the
snippets list. Double-click a snippet to re-
name it.

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 You can discard snippets using the “–“ button (beware: cannot be undone!).

You may export or import snippets in order to share them with others. Double-clicking a
snippet le will automatically add it to your snippets list.

8.5. Shortcuts
You can con gure HoudahSpot to show an
icon in the menu bar or to open at the press
of a hotkey.

These features are provided by the “HoudahSpot

Helper” application. When you enable the
“HoudahSpot Helper”, it will keep running even after
you quit HoudahSpot.

The HoudahSpot Search Bar lets you quickly start a new search. Click the HoudahSpot
menu bar icon or press the assigned keyboard shortcut to open the Search Bar. Type
your query and press Return to open HoudahSpot. Optionally, you can select a search
template and specify if HoudahSpot should search Names, Text Content, or Any Text.
This latest option matches the con guration of your default setup or the selected search
template.

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 8.6. Privacy
For HoudahSpot to be able to nd and
display search results from Apple’s
Calendar, Reminders, Contacts,
applications or your Photos, you will
need to grant HoudahSpot access. To do
so, click the respective “Request Access”
button.

HoudahSpot will need “Full Disk Access”

to search certain folders that may contain
private data. These includes the folder
where Apple Mail keeps you messages.
To grant HoudahSpot access, click the
“Grant Full Disk Access” button and follow the instructions.

The “Open Privacy System Preferences” button takes you to the Security & Privacy
pane within System Preferences. Here, you can grant or revoke permissions.

8.7. Extensions
Enable the Finder Extension to add a
HoudahSpot button to Finder windows.
This allows you to open a HoudahSpot
window to search the current Finder
window.

Enable Quick Action to add a “Search with

HoudahSpot” option to the context menu
on folders in Finder.

On macOS 10.15 through 13.6,

HoudahSpot can install a plug-in for the
Apple Mail application. This allows it to
search Apple Mail messages.

Apple Mail on macOS 14 Sonoma no longer accepts plug-ins. HoudahSpot will not be
able to search your Apple Mail messages.

Install plug-ins for third-party applications. These allow you to start HoudahSpot
searches from these applications.

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9. Automate HoudahSpot
HoudahSpot integrates nicely with your automated work ows.

Use the custom URL scheme to start HoudahSpot searches from third-party tools like
Butler, LaunchBar, or Alfred. Use AppleScript to access search results and build more
advanced work ows.

9.1. URL scheme and third-party tools

The URL for starting a new search has the following format:

houdahspot4://search?q=QUERY&location=PATH&template=PATH&s=ATTRIBUTE

Spaces and special characters in the URL parameters need to be encoded (see
w3schools.com). The URL encoding for the space character is %20.

The parameters are:

1. q (or query): The search string. For example: “Houdah%20Software”, “name:*.txt”, or

“tag:orange”. This parameter is optional.
2. l (or location): The path of the folder to search. This parameter is optional and may
be repeated
3. t (or template). The path of the template to use. This parameter is optional. The path
to the template must include the .hstemplate extension. You may use a path relative
to your home directory by pre xing with a tilde: “~/Library/Application%20Support/
com.houdah.HoudahSpot4/Templates/Sample%20Templates/
Apple%20Mail%20Messages.hstemplate”
4. s (or search): The search attribute. Possible values are: “name”, “content”, and
“anytext”. This parameter is optional.

Note: HoudahSpot is also available through a SetApp subscription. That version installs
sample template at “~/Library/Application%20Support/com.houdah.HoudahSpot-setapp/
Templates/Sample%20Templates/”

You can use this URL scheme to start HoudahSpot searches from third-party tools like
Butler, LaunchBar, or Alfred.

Butler:
1. Open “Butler: Search Engines” preferences
2. Create and name a new “Search Engine”
3. Set the URL Pre x to “houdahspot4://search?q=” (without the quotes)

Note: No URL encoding needed for Butler 4.1 and newer.

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 LaunchBar:
1. In LaunchBar, select “Index” > “Show Index”
2. Create and name a new “Search Template (UTF-8)”
3. Set the Template URL to “houdahspot4://search?q=*” (without the quotes)

Alfred:
1. In Alfred, go to “Features” > “Web Search”
2. Create and name a new “Custom Search” (UTF-8)
3. Set the “Search URL” to “houdahspot4://search?q={query} ”(without the quotes)

9.2. AppleScript
HoudahSpot implements the following AppleScript commands:

search – start a new search

nder search – start a new search for the frontmost Finder window

You can access HoudahSpot search results after a search has completed. Please refer
to the AppleScript dictionary for details on available commands and properties.

Example:

tell application id "com.houdah.HoudahSpot4"

set myLocations to {"/Applications"}
set myDocument to search "HoudahSpot" locations myLocations

repeat until search completed of myDocument

end repeat

set myResults to results of myDocument

set myCount to count of myResults

display dialog "Found " & myCount & " files"

set mySelection to selection of myDocument

if mySelection is not {} then

set myPath to path of first item of mySelection

display dialog myPath

end if
end tell

Note: HoudahSpot is also available through a SetApp subscription. The application id of

that version is “com.houdah.HoudahSpot-setapp”

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 9.3. MacOS Services
HoudahSpot provides three system wide services. These show – where applicable – in
the Services submenu of all applications on your Mac.

• New HoudahSpot Search: Launches HoudahSpot and/or opens a new window

• Search in HoudahSpot: Starts a HoudahSpot search for the selected text
• Search Folders in HoudahSpot: Creates a new HoudahSpot search of the selected
folder

Services can be enabled and assigned keyboard shortcuts in System Preferences >
Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services.

10. Advanced Features

10.1. Raw Query

Select “Raw Query” from the Window menu to see the query created by HoudahSpot
and passed on to the Spotlight engine in a separate window.

10.2. Advanced Uses of the Search Field

The search eld at the top of a HoudahSpot window makes it easy to start a simple
search quickly. If needed, you can then use additional criteria to re ne your search.
Typically, you will use the Re ne pane below the search eld to assemble criteria to nd
the exact les you are looking for.

The search eld, however, can also be used to build more complex queries. It
understands a simple yet powerful syntax. The basic expression has the following
format:

attributeName:value

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 This will search for les where the named attribute contains words pre xed with the
provided value. You can add more expressions to re ne the query. If you omit the
attribute name, HoudahSpot will search all text attributes.

Examples:
• Houdah – Searches for les where any text attribute contains the pre x Houdah
• name:Houdah – Searches for les where any of the display names contains Houdah
• Houdah Software – Searches for les that contain both Houdah and Software

By default, HoudahSpot searches text attributes for word pre xes. You can do other
searches by using the “*” wildcard in the value.

Example:
• lename:*.txt – Searches for le names ending with .txt

By default, HoudahSpot searches are case insensitive and diacritics insensitive. You can
append the following modi ers to your search to change this:
• c = case insensitive
• d = diacritics insensitive
• w = search for words

Example:
• name:"houdah"cdw - Case & diacritics insensitive search for words starting with
“houdah” (= Default)

When you omit the modi er, HoudahSpot will use a default of cdw. You can force a
case-sensitive search by using an uppercase C modi er.

Examples:
• name:"houdah"cw - Case insensitive (BUT diacritics sensitive) search for words
starting with “houdah”
• name:"houdah"dw - Diacritics insensitive (BUT case sensitive) search for words
starting with “houdah”

Different criteria can be combined using the boolean operators AND, OR, NOT. If no
operator is speci ed, an AND operator is assumed: each criterion further restricts the
query.

Examples:
• name:Houdah OR lename:Houdah – Searches both display names and le name
• name:Houdah NOT lename:Houdah – Files where the display name contains
Houdah, but the le name does not
• lename:*.txt AND (Houdah NOT text:Houdah) – .txt les where any text attribute
contains Houdah, but the actual text content does not

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 When using numeric attributes, you can specify a comparison operator or a range of
values:

• pixelwidth:1000 – Searches for images exactly 1000 pixels wide

• pixelcount:>=7000000 – Searches for images with at least 7000000 pixels
• duration:60-240 – Searches for les with a duration in the range of 60 to 240 seconds.
Typically audio or video les

When working with date attributes, you can specify dates, date ranges, or one of the
prede ned ranges:
• dateadded:yesterday
• datemodi ed:"last month"

Possible values are:

lastmonth "last week" "next week" "this week"
today "last month" "next month" "this month"
tomorrow lastyear nextyear thisyear
yesterday "last year" "next year" "this year"
lastweek nextweek thisweek

Possible attribute names are:

• one of the short names listed below
• kind – a special short name with preset values listed below
• native Spotlight attribute names like kMDItemDisplayName, kMDItemContentType,
kMDItemKind, etc.

Short names: HoudahSpot de nes 150+ short names, so you don’t have to remember
native Spotlight attribute names. The most commonly used ones are:
• name – Searches display names
• lename – Searches le names
• date – Searches common date attributes: date created, date modi ed, date added,
date due, etc.
• * – matches any text attribute except for text content
• ** or anytext– matches any text attribute. E.g. author, recipient, etc.
• tag – Searches both Finder and Open Meta tags

The full list of short names can be found in the Appendix.

HoudahSpot de nes a number of kind values that help you search documents by kind
without having to know about Uniform Type Identi ers.

The most commonly used ones are:

• kind:application – Searches for applications
• kind:folder – Searches for folders, volumes and mount points
• kind:spreadsheet – Searches for common spreadsheet le formats
• kind:wordprocessing– Searches for common word processing le formats

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 The full list of kind values can be found in the Appendix.

Trying to memorize all of the above commands and shorthands is futile. It is usually
easier to set up and re ne a search by con guring criteria in the Re ne pane. If you
nd yourself repeatedly doing similar searches, you may want to remember the
shorthand for that (e.g., “name:Houdah date:thisWeek”). While learning the ropes of
the search eld, you may nd it useful to observe the raw query HoudahSpot builds.

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 11. Appendix: List of Short Search Field Attributes

* coverage instrumentname pixelwidth

** created intext platform
added creator invisible producer
album date isjunk pro le
alpha dateadded ismidi province
altitude delivery iso publisher
anytext description key purchasedate
aperture displayname keysignature recipient
appmanaged dpi keyword recordingdate
architectures duedate keywords redeye
audience duration kind rights
audiobitrate editor language samplerate
audioencodingappli email lastused security
cation encodedby latitude securitymethod
audiosamplerate encoder layer size
author encodingapplicatio location source
bitrate n longitude spotlightcomment
bitspersample exifversion lyricist starrating
bps exposure mail state
by exposuremode make stationery
categories exposureprogram maxaperture streamable
category exposuretime media subject
channels lename mediatype tag
chat ash metering tags
city fnumber meteringmode tempo
codec focallength model text
colorspace font modi ed theme
comment from musicalgenre time
composer fstop name timesignature
contact genre organization title
contactkeyword group orientation to
container headline owner totalbitrate
contains height pageheight tracknumber
content heightdpi pages url
contentcreated id pagewidth used
contentmodi ed imname phone version
contributor instructions phonenumber videobitrate
copyright instrument pixelcount wherefrom
country instrumentcategory pixelheight whitebalance

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12. Appendix: List of Search Field Kinds

alias directory mail text

application diskImage message todo
archive "disk image" movie vcard
audio document music video
bookmark email pdf webArchive
businessCard event presentation "web archive"
"business card" folder sourceCode wordProcessing
contact font "source code" "word processing"
compressed image spreadsheet

13. Further Information

For more information, check the HoudahSpot web site and sign up for our newsletter.

For tips & tricks, watch the Houdah Software blog at https://blog.houdah.com.

HoudahSpot 6: User Guide 48