Macos – Make search by file name default in Finder

findermacososx-snow-leopard

In Finder when I type something in the textbox the default is to search the whole mac in the contents of the files. I was able to change the default to search the current directory, but didn't see an option to change search for contents to search for file name. How can that be changed?

Best Answer

On 10.6 you can either add <key>SearchNameOnly</key><true/> to the SearchCriteria dictionary in /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/Resources/default_smart.plist or replace default_smart.plist with a normal saved search file. (And reopen Finder.) Neither option seems to work on Lion though.

You can also press ⌃⌘F (or ⇧⌘F on 10.6) to open a Spotlight window that is set to search by name by default.

Related Question