I discover myself commonly needing to restrict a search to a specific form of file, like photos or mail messages. Or I do know that I’ve a restricted variety of recordsdata on my Mac of a sure variety, like these created by OmniGraffle, and I can’t bear in mind the file identify—simply that I created it in OmniGraffle!

You should use Highlight within the Finder or create a wise folder for repeated makes use of that can match this want. Within the Finder, press Command-F to carry up a brand new window with the main focus within the Search subject.

From right here, you may sort freeform, coming into one thing like variety:omnigraffle or variety:picture statue if you happen to’re in search of all picture recordsdata in any format with statue within the title or metadata.

You’ll be able to refine this additional by, as an alternative of utilizing the Search subject, utilizing the factors fields just under. By default, macOS prefills the search window with “Variety” and “Any.” From the primary popup menu, you may select completely different standards, however Variety is an efficient place to start out. From the second menu, which reads Any, you may select completely different common classes, like Picture, Doc, or Textual content. The Finder teams all of the completely different identified file sorts for these classes into that search.

What if you happen to’re in search of one thing extra specific, like each video within the .mov file format in your Mac? I’d say begin with Variety set to Film, in any other case, you’ll get matches in different recordsdata that finish with .mov that aren’t film recordsdata, as I did!

Then click on the + signal on the proper of the Variety line and select Title, Ends with, and enter .mov.

If it’s worthwhile to repeat this search, click on Save and it can save you the question as good folder to entry once more with out rebuilding your request.

This Mac 911 article is in response to a query submitted by Macworld reader Leonie.

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