macmacossettingsspotlight
Is it possible to increase window width of the Spotlight search results under Mac OS X 10.6.6? I mean the semi-transparent "instant search result" window appearing at the top right corner under magnifying glass, not the Finder window.
The standard window is too narrow: longer file names or Dictionary word translations just don't fit there. Why not using more screen space for the search result?
It turns out that the problem was that I had the Finder window list set to sort by the Kind column. Spotlight apparently does not like that arrangement, and refuses to display results. I had to sort by Name, close the window, and reopen it. Now Spotlight works perfectly.
This problem was originally with Snow Leopard, and persisted on Lion 10.7.0, but seems to have been fixed at some point before Mountain Lion 10.8.4.
Find the importer used to import that type of file.
mdimport -d 4 -n /path/to/file 2>&1 | grep Imported
mdimport -d 4 -n ~/Desktop/avatar.png 2>&1 | grep Imported
2014-06-19 11:17:04.929 mdimport[30911:412893] Imported '/Users/grgarside/Desktop/avatar.png' of type 'public.png' with plugIn /System/Library/Spotlight/Image.mdimporter.
The above example shows the type as public.png in the Image.mdimporter importer.
Open /path/to/importer/Contents/Info.plist in an editor.
Find the item of the same type as the type of the file that you found from the above command and delete it.
Reimport the importer.
mdimport -r /path/to/importer
mdimport -r /System/Library/Spotlight/Image.mdimporter
Don't forget to have backups and note this procedure may be overridden on OS X updates.
Best Answer
Have you looked at using 'Alfred' as search tool - It's free on the App Store and very flexible, and has a wider results view. If you try it, take a little time to get familiar with the options - I find it a fantastic time saver.