Search settings - default to current folder and "file name" ?

Question

99.9% of the time, when I enter something in the search bar of the Finder window, what I want to do is:
1. search is the folder that I'm in
2. search for the "file name", and
3. then sort the results by "date modified".
Currently, problem is:
1. I can only change the search area (which defalts to "This Mac") after the search has begun.
2. Likewise, the default is "content"
3. There's not even an OPTION for "date modified". The "Last Opened" option is rarely useful.
Please help!
Thanks
ip
Message was edited by: ideapower

Answer 1

Francine Schwieder wrote:
The only one who can help us is Apple. Obviously you find this just as ridiculous as everyone else does who actually uses their computer to do things.
While I usually think this kind of sweeping generalization is unjustified, here I do not. Spotlight has great potential, but "ridiculous" describes the implementation perfectly. I'm not terribly upset by the default to search "This Mac" -- it really isn't much of a hassle to have to click the folder button -- but the loss of the ability to choose any folder or group of folders is exactly the kind of "regressive functionality" that should have people flooding feedback with complaints.
Just as ridiculous is the inability to show & sort on any of the metadata columns a normal Finder window offers. And if "Last Opened" is so useful in searches that it is the (unchangeable) default, why isn't it available in any other Finder view?
Plus, does anybody really understand how the "File Name" option works? It rarely seems to make a difference -- I often enter a search phrase, look at the results, then switch to the File Name option & still see files that clearly do not have the search phrase or any part of it in their names.
More: Try a search on Kind "Other" & enter the "Kind" info from a file's Get Info Box. Try "Application (Classic)" & note that it finds any you might have. But try "Application (Universal)" or "Application (PowerPC)" & you get ... nothing. Try just "Application (" & you get all apps. Try "Classic" & once again, any Classic apps show up, but try "Universal" or "PowerPC" & you get nothing. It's the same with many other file kinds -- sometimes the "Get Info" file kind string or some part of it works, sometimes not. Worse, the same is true for the "Kind" info taken directly from Finder windows. Try entering "Plain Text" in the Kind-Other search. I have hundreds of these but the search turns up exactly one, & it isn't even in my Documents folder.
(Before anybody suggests it, yes I have rebuilt the Spotlight index repeatedly, using both the Privacy pane method & Terminal commands, & it makes no difference.)
The point is not to rant but to demonstrate how poorly thought out & unreliable the app remains. I feel the problems are so obvious & widespread that we should not have to use the feedback page to tell Apple about them, but apparently we do. It really is as if it was designed by people that don't have a clue about what a search engine should do or how to integrate it into a user friendly environment.