This program looks pretty cool. I'm getting my Mac in 2 weeks, so I won't be able to try it out just yet. I'm looking for something just like this (pref for free... if not I am definately buying it ... and I'll see if the University I go to can get an academic volume licence for everyone )

I've been reading some Mac Blogs and apparently you can also index PDFs with iTunes .

The reason I need a program like this: I have hundreds of PDF articles downloaded on my computer indexing all kinds of humanities articles I need for school (sociology, criminology, mass communications, philosophy....)

I guess my questions are: is there a similar, dedicated, PDF indexing/displaying program AND what other programs do you use to streamline your school work on the Mac?

Overall, the programs on the Mac are f'ing cool! There is no way Windows even comes close to matching the diversity and usefullness of Mac programs. Definately can't wait for the iMac G5 I'm going to order.

What you are looking for is spotlight. Comes with Tiger, or rather, is a part of Tiger!! Isn't dedicated, but will do exactly what you want.

Dougal.

So it will index keywords and/or all the text within a PDF file? Is there anyway to control what directories it searches and what keywords it uses?

Searching for "Larry McVoy" found the PDF copy of [u]Practical Filesystem Design[/url] by D. Giampaolo in my documents directory. Double clicking on the spotlight results opened the PDF in preview and highlighted the first instance of his name on page 141. The "search drawer" had a list of all references in the document, in this case the only other one was on page 146.

I printed this page to PDF, opened it in preview and added the keyword "Findmeplease" using preview. After saving the file I used spotlight to search for "Findmeplease": it was the first result.

Searching for a few other choice phrases I was able to get spotlight to find data on page 1,200 of of a 1,500 PDF file so I don't think you'll have any trouble finding what you're looking for.


By default spotlight searches everything (when activated from the menu bar) but it still returns results in less than a second. so there is typically little need. Search in spotlight and then just look in the "PDF Documents" group.

You can use the standard finder "search box" in a window to show results that are only from a given directory, only of a certain type, etc. if you want to. Looks something like this:
[attachmentid=123920]
You can also exclude specific directories from spotlight indexing in case you want to hide some prevent some personal writing or your porn collection from showing up in spotlight search results.

OMFG! Your post made me happy and "excited" at the same time. (Yes, I'm a little concerned too! )

I know, you can get the MS search, Google and a few others for Windows. They slow down the system. Its seems so well integrated with OS X.

Spotlight really is amazing, none of the windows imitations even come close to what spotlight does, and they probably wont for several years.

Not only does it search the contents of PDF files, but also the contents of Office/iWork files. Another huge feature for me is the ability to search Keywords I add to photos. Not only do I get a list of photos, but good quality previews and the ability to create an instant slideshow. I had some fun with this feature last night at a party, some people wanted to see photos I had taken of some specific things. I plugged my iBook into the TV, searched for some keywords in spotlight and clicked the slideshow button. People were amazed how fast I did everything and how nice it was.