| Spotlight (software) |
Article Index for Spotlight |
Information AboutSpotlight (software) |
Spotlight is an As-you-type , system-wide Desktop Search feature found in Mac OS X V10.4 . Using a Metadata Search Engine , Spotlight is designed to locate a wide variety of items on the Computer , including Document s, Picture s, Music , Applications , System Preference panes, as well as specific words in documents and PDF s. It allows the user to narrow down searches with creation dates, modification dates, sizes, types and other Attributes . Spotlight builds a database of metadata keywords in files on the user's Hard Drive when a user logs in for the first time, as well as when devices such as external hard drives are connected to a system. This initial cataloguing may take some time, but the database is updated continuously in the background as files are modified. The cataloguing process also takes place when the system discovers that files on an external drive have been modified on a system not running 10.4, and the system will re-catalogue the volume from scratch. Spotlight features a developer API (application program interface) that allows the creation of plug-ins, meaning that developers can add Spotlight search capabilities to their own programs, as well as enable Spotlight to index their own Proprietary data file formats. FEATURES Spotlight features the following functionality:
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