I regularly have to limit searches to a certain type of file, such as images or email messages. Or I know that I have a limited number of files of a certain type on my Mac, such as those created by OmniGraffle, and I can’t remember the name of the file – only that I created it in OmniGraffle!

You can use Spotlight in the Finder or create a reusable Smart Folder that suits this need. In the Finder, press Command-F to open a new window with the focus in the search box.

From here you can enter a free form by typing something like kind:omnigraffle or kind:image statue if you are looking for all image files in any format with statue in the header or metadata.

You can refine this, instead of using the search field, using the criteria fields below. By default, macOS prepopulates the “View” and “Any” search box. In the first pop-up menu, you can choose from various criteria, but Kind is a good place to start. In the second menu, which reads “Any”, you can choose from various general categories such as “Image”, “Document”, or “Text”. The Finder groups all the various known file types for those categories into this search.

Use targeted search to narrow down your Finder results.

What if you’re looking for something more specific, like every video in .mov file format on your Mac? I’d say start with Kind set to Movie, otherwise you’ll get matches in other files that end in .mov that aren’t movie files like I did!

Then click the + sign to the right of the “View” line, select “Name”, “Ends with” and enter .mov.

If you need to repeat this search, click “Save” and you can save the query as a smart folder for re-access without rebuilding your query.

This Mac 911 article is in response to a question posed by Macworld reader Leonie.

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