06-16-2008, 03:56 PM

I was wondering if there was a way in spotlight to search by color label. I label my favorite stuff blue, and would like to find anything (documents, pictures, movies etc) that I have flagged blue, kind of similar to the 'top rated' playlist in iTunes.

any ideas?

06-16-2008, 04:46 PM

Eon,

There certainly is a way to search by color label. You can't search for the color within spotlight (for example, Command-Space and then "yellow" will not return you any results that you want). You can however search from within a finder window (or "Spotlight window"- Option-Command-Space).

Once you have a search window open, you will want to click on the "Kind" option and select "Other..." (If "Kind" is not visible, click on the plus sign next to "Save".)
Scroll down and search for "File Label" and then press OK. You can now select the color of your choice and reap the benefits of a successful search!

EDIT: A Spotlightable way to get the same results: http://www.macosxhints.com/article.p...71231063704505

06-16-2008, 06:49 PM

I guess that I was kind of confusing with all of that, I made a video showing the process instead.

06-16-2008, 09:07 PM

Originally Posted by walmartconnect

There certainly is a way to search by color label ... Once you have a search window open, you will want to click on the "Kind" option and select "Other..."

Excellent response Walmart, including the link, but just for clarification, I found there was no need to select 'Other'. Rather, 'File Label' was right there in the list under Kind.

PS. Cool dog in your movie clip!

06-16-2008, 09:31 PM

thank you for the response and video walmart, but I noticed in your video you are using Leopard but I'm on Tiger :/ I don't think I have the same option in my finder spotlight window unfortunately.

06-17-2008, 05:01 AM

Eon,

Hmm, Tiger huh? You still have the ability to specify other search parameters right? Check for things like "label" instead of file label. Also, did you attempt the spotlight version of the search?

Just search for "label:x", x corresponding to a number below.

0 - None
1 - Gray
2 - Green
3 - Purple
4 - Blue
5 - Yellow
6 - Red
7 - Orange

06-17-2008, 03:53 PM

Originally Posted by eon.

thank you for the response and video walmart, but I noticed in your video you are using Leopard but I'm on Tiger :/ I don't think I have the same option in my finder spotlight window unfortunately.

Eon, I have Tiger as well (see my response to Walmart). To get the Search by Label, in Finder (or Desktop) press Cmd-F, which will bring up a New Search window. Click the Kind button and in the drop down list you should see Color Label. When you select that, you should see an array of color buttons appear to the right. When you click one of those colors, the Search begins. HTH

06-17-2008, 05:37 PM

Well done, hughvane. Sorry for the inconsistencies with OS's. Does the spotlight search still work the same in 10.4 as my example does in 10.5?

06-18-2008, 12:52 AM

Originally Posted by walmartconnect

Well done, hughvane. Sorry for the inconsistencies with OS's. Does the spotlight search still work the same in 10.4 as my example does in 10.5?

No apologies necessary
No, Spotlight doesn't work in Tiger as you suggest (but I haven't revisited your movie). With 'Other' selected, File Label is not provided in the long list of options. I wonder why Apple changed the Label search function in the move from Tiger to Leopard.