Boolean filters in Leopard Spotlight

The Mac OS X Leopard version of Spotlight supports Boolean logic. This doesn’t mean you’re limited to creating complicated AND/NOT/OR queries in the Spotlight search field. You can open the Spotlight window and build a Boolean search using as many of the 145 predefined search attributes as you wish. Here’s how.

the spotlight scope bar

Open a Spotlight window by pressing Command+F. You’ll see a horizontal strip below the Finder toolbar, labeled Search. The Apple Human Interface Guidelines call this a scope bar.

Beneath the scope bar should be a filter row with default scope buttons for Kind and Any. If you don’t see this filter row, press the + button on the scope bar.

spotlight boolean filter rows

When you have the filter row visible beneath the scope bar visible, press and hold the Option key and the + button on the filter row will change to an … (ellipsis). Click the ellipsis button and a new filter row will appear.

This new filter will allow you to set multiple Any/All/None filter rules (Boolean) to any of the predefined search attributes provided by Apple. If it’s a search you use often, save it for future use.

spotlight keyboard shortcuts

Command+F → This opens an empty Spotlight window.

Option+Command+Spacebar → This opens a full Spotlight window that filters as you type your search query.

Or just open the Finder and go to File → Find.