That assumes you care about the speed more than the results. Quicksilver or Alfred completely replace Spotlight for anything frequent; I'd be happy if it took 5 minutes, if it could always find what I was looking for.
Would it be possible to make the text inside the Quicklook window selectable?
I often just want to quickly copy something from a file, and Quicklook would be the fastest way to do so.
I don't have XCode installed as of yet. I'm on Mountain Lion and I'm waiting for both the official release of ML and XCode on the App Store. Will XCode for ML still interfere with this plugin or is there any other plugin with similar functionality?
I'll take the opportunity to ask: Is there a way to make Spotlight index files in the Library folders? There are sometimes some obscure preference or cache-files that I need to find.
To my knowledge it does index those files, they are just not shown in the search results. You can ask Spotlight to show the system files, see this guide: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4355
On recent OS X versions (Lion at the very least), the problem isn't that /Library and ~/Library aren't indexed by default; they are.
Trouble is that if I search for a file named, say "com.apple.RemoteDesktop.plist", Finder appears to run a query akin to
which returns three results, one each in subdirectories of /System/Library, /Library, and ~/Library.
There's an option in the "full" Spotlight search window that lets you control this for any given search, under "Other..." in the drop-down you get when you click "+" to add criteria. It's called, logically enough, "System files".
Incidentally, the mdfind command line tool doesn't have this behavior by default.
If you want a nice GUI, try Tembo (http://www.houdah.com/tembo).
Tembo is a Spotlight front-end. Incidentally it searches all indexed locations, including Library folders.
This is 100% off-topic, but since this submission has 100+ upvotes and many might view the comment thread, and you mentioned Library/ folder, I think it's good to point out that you can easily make Library/ folder visible again in Lion.
You can also access hidden directories from Finder with Cmd-Shift-G and manually typing their path.
Personally, I infrequently access my ~/Library and I know it's there and what it contains and I can hop over to it quickly if needed that I prefer it hidden for visual simplicity.
On mobile device right now, but earlier today Alfred prompted for a beta update which included some Spotlight features. Not sure about the details or if it's only part of the paid Powerpack
Sadly what it does and does not preview seems to be pretty random. For me with Lion it will preview Rakefiles and .txt files for example, but not .js files.
This is fantastic. Always wondered why quick look wasn't set up to parse plain text files just because they had a different extension. Especially Markdown.
That's up to the application. You can crack open the app packages for Sublime Text and MacVim and see how their Info.plist files differ. It's also worth looking at the Info.plist for TextEdit, which has a catch-all for all non-executable files.
- Select a filetype you'd want to change the default application for and open the File Info (Cmd+I)
- In the "Open with" section, select the app you want to be the default app for the filetype
- To persist the default app along the whole filetype, also click the "Change All" button right below it.
No. It has to be sent as text/plain for Chrome to view the file if it is on a remote server. The MIME types that are opened in the browser instead of downloaded are hardcoded within the Chrome source.
Numerous feature requests have been submitted[1] to update this functionality and to provide a preferences pane for users to decide how they want different file types handled, but they have been ignored as this behavior is a design decision.
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[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 133 ms ] threadhttp://www.qlplugins.com
http://www.quicklookplugins.com
This one is my favorite: http://macitbetter.com/BetterZip-Quick-Look-Generator/
http://www.macmation.com/blog/2011/10/quicklook-plugin-for-m...
Scroll at the way to "Make Spotlight index source code" here. http://www.macosxtips.co.uk/index_files/terminal-commands-fo...
Pro tip: Instead of restarting finder run `qlmanage -r`
defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool true
Then restart the Finder by typing in this into the Terminal:
killall Finder
To save you some time, add a folder as follows:
mdimport -f /Library
There's an option in the "full" Spotlight search window that lets you control this for any given search, under "Other..." in the drop-down you get when you click "+" to add criteria. It's called, logically enough, "System files".
Incidentally, the mdfind command line tool doesn't have this behavior by default.
Just type:
in the Terminal.Personally, I infrequently access my ~/Library and I know it's there and what it contains and I can hop over to it quickly if needed that I prefer it hidden for visual simplicity.
Source: http://www.macstories.net/mac/all-you-need-to-know-about-qui...
I didn't realise Quicklook plugins were a thing...
[1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4226539
PS, just like clicking "More" on HN front page after reading a few articles results in a "cutting edge" error.
- Select a filetype you'd want to change the default application for and open the File Info (Cmd+I) - In the "Open with" section, select the app you want to be the default app for the filetype - To persist the default app along the whole filetype, also click the "Change All" button right below it.
http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/
Numerous feature requests have been submitted[1] to update this functionality and to provide a preferences pane for users to decide how they want different file types handled, but they have been ignored as this behavior is a design decision.
[1] http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=118204...