When you’re using Spotlight to search for something in an app, macOS Tahoe lets you add filters directly in the search bar.
Open up Spotlight, type in a search term, and then click on a filter at the top to narrow down the results. If you want to find PDFs you’ve been sent in the Mail app, for example, you can type in PDF and then click on Mail.
You can also add Spotlight filers by sing search modifiers like / or kind: when you search, clicking filters that appear below the search bar, or by using the new “Actions” tab to find and use shortcut-based filters. You can also customize which categories appear in Spotlight settings to control what gets filtered by default.
Method 1: Use search modifiers
- Use a forward slash (/): Type / followed by a file type (like /PDF) or an app name (like /Numbers) to filter results, as shown in MacMost.com.
- Use kind:: Type kind: followed by the item type to filter results. For example, to find photos of New York City, enter kind:images New York City.
Method 2: Use the new Spotlight tabs and filters
- Use the Files tab: Open Spotlight with Command-Space and press Command-2 or hover over the search field to reveal the “Files” tab. This focused view allows you to search and filter files.
- Click category filters: As you type, dynamic category filters like “Screenshot,” “System Settings,” or “Folders” will appear below the search bar. Click one to filter your results, explains Apple Support.
