Your Mac’s Finder Has a Hidden Advanced Search Mode
The humble Finder’s search feature is pretty simple at first glance, but it has a few advanced features that are more useful than you might think . When you enable these options, you will be able to find files with much greater accuracy than usual.
If you use the search box to search for files in the Finder, you’ll see a list of results and options that allow you to narrow your search to specific folders or specific file types. Here’s how you can improve your search game with Finder.
How to turn on Finder’s hidden advanced search mode
After you search for something in the Finder, a + button appears below the search field. When you click this button, the Finder will open a drop-down menu with the name as the first option. This menu allows you to add additional search options such as file type, date created, date modified, etc.
The last option on this list is Other… . Here you will see a huge list of useful search options such as file extension, author name, audio bitrate and more.
You must go through the entire list and check the box next to any option to add it to the drop-down menu in Finder. Click OK when you have finished choosing the options you want. I often use the search option for file extensions because it helps me quickly find all files of a particular type on my Mac.
Once you’ve added the options you want, you can use the small search box next to the drop-down menu to enter advanced search terms. For example, if you want to find all PDF documents with the term “Lifehacker”, you can select the file extension as the advanced search option and enter pdf in the field next to the drop-down menu. You can then type Lifehacker into the search field at the top right of the Finder window.