Finder, Dock & Spotlight

Three built-in tools you'll touch hundreds of times a day. Finder is more capable than its reputation; the Dock is best minimised; and Spotlight, since macOS 26, is a genuine launcher that changes the calculus on Raycast and Alfred.

Finder#

Views and navigation#

• List view (⌘2) is the developer default: sortable columns, expandable folders (→/← expand/collapse; ⌥→ expands recursively). Set it as the default in View → Show View Options → Use as Defaults after enabling Calculate all sizes and adding the Date Modified and Kind columns.
• Column view (⌘3) is fastest for drilling into deep trees; the resize bug from 26.0 was fixed in 26.3.
• Gallery view (⌘4) for photos/PDFs with the Preview pane (⌘⇧P) showing metadata.
• Go to folder: ⌘⇧G, type a path (~/Library/Application Support, /opt/homebrew/etc). Tab completes. It accepts ~ and ...
• Go menu shortcuts: ⌘⇧H Home, ⌘⇧D Desktop, ⌘⇧O Documents, ⌘⌥L Downloads, ⌘⇧A Applications, ⌘⇧U Utilities, ⌘↑ enclosing folder, ⌘↓ or ⌘O open.
• Path bar (View → Show Path Bar): right-click any segment → Copy "…" as Pathname or drag a folder from it into a Terminal window to paste its path. ⌘-click the window title for the same hierarchy.
• Copy a path: select an item, ⌘⌥C. Or right-click while holding ⌥ → Copy … as Pathname.
• Hidden files: ⌘⇧. toggles.
• Rename: select, press Return. Batch rename: select several → right-click → Rename… (replace text, add sequence, add date).
• Tabs: ⌘T; merge windows with Window → Merge All Windows. Drag files onto a tab to move them there.
• Move instead of copy between volumes: ⌘-drag. Duplicate: ⌘D. Make alias: ⌘⌃A. Cut and paste files: copy with ⌘C, then ⌘⌥V to move.
• Delete immediately (skip Trash): ⌘⌥⌫. Empty Trash without confirmation: ⌘⌥⇧⌫.
• New folder with selection: select files → right-click → New Folder with Selection (N items).
• Open in Terminal: right-click a folder → Services → New Terminal at Folder (enable in System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → Services → Files and Folders). Ghostty/iTerm2 install their own equivalents. Reverse direction: open . in a terminal opens Finder there.
• Get Info (⌘I) for permissions, Open with default app (click Change All…), lock, and the hidden Comments field that Spotlight indexes. ⌘⌥I is the Inspector that updates as you change selection.
• Tags: right-click → Tags. Useful for urgent/todo/course-xyz. Search tag:urgent in Spotlight.
• Folder customisation (Tahoe+): right-click → Customize Folder… — colour, emoji, or SF Symbol. Cheap visual structure for ~/Developer/school/*.

Sidebar, toolbar and favourites#

• Drag your project folders, ~/Developer, and ~/Library (after chflags nohidden ~/Library) into the sidebar's Favorites. Remove Recents and AirDrop.
• Right-click the toolbar → Customize Toolbar…: add Path, New Folder, Get Info, Delete, Connect, and a Quick Actions button. Drag any app or script onto the toolbar while holding ⌘ to get a one-click launcher (e.g. your terminal or editor: drop VS Code there and drag folders onto it).
• Connect to Server (⌘K): smb://nas.local/share, nfs://, ftp://, vnc://. Tick Remember and add to Favorites. Golden Gate speeds up SMB browsing noticeably.

Quick Look#

Select a file and press Space. It previews images, PDFs, video, Office docs, and — with plugins — code, Markdown, JSON, archives and more. ⌘Y also works. Arrow keys move through the selection; ⌥Space opens full screen. Quick Look supports Markup (annotate PDFs/images) and Trim (video) directly.

Essential Quick Look extensions for developers (all via Homebrew, all free):

brew install --cask qlmarkdown syntax-highlight   # Markdown preview; syntax-highlighted source for 100+ languages
brew install --cask quicklook-json qlstephen      # pretty JSON; plain-text files without extensions (README, Makefile, LICENSE)
brew install --cask quicklook-csv qlvideo         # CSV as table; thumbnails for more video codecs
brew install --cask betterzip                     # peek inside zip/tar without extracting (paid, but the QL plugin works in trial)

After installing, run qlmanage -r to reload, and approve each extension in System Settings → General → Login Items & Extensions → Quick Look.

Smart Folders and Spotlight queries#

File → New Smart Folder builds a saved search. Examples worth saving to the sidebar:

• Kind is Source Code, Modified within last 7 days → "This week's code".
• Name contains .env in ~/Developer → occasional audit of secrets on disk.
• Size > 500 MB → what's eating the disk (also see ncdu, Chapter 18).

Raw query syntax works in the Finder search field and Spotlight: kind:pdf date:this week, name:report kind:document, tag:urgent, modified:>2026-09-01. In the search field, click the + to add criteria and Other… to pick from hundreds of metadata attributes (e.g. Pixel width, Codec).

Archive and disk images#

• Right-click → Compress makes a .zip (Archive Utility handles zip, tar.gz, bz2, xz; not rar or 7z — use brew install --cask keka or brew install sevenzip).
• Disk images: double-click a .dmg to mount; drag the app to /Applications; eject the image from the sidebar afterwards. Since Tahoe, new images default to ASIF (Apple Sparse Image Format), which is dramatically faster and near-native SSD speed — the right format for VM disks and encrypted vaults: Disk Utility → File → New Image → Blank Image → Format: APFS, Encryption: 256-bit AES, Image Format: sparse gives you an encrypted folder that mounts with a password.

Things Finder still doesn't do well (and fixes)#

The Dock#

The Dock is a launcher and a window switcher; with Spotlight and ⌘Tab doing both jobs, most developers shrink it and hide it (Chapter 3 has the settings). What's left to know:

• Keep only the apps you run daily. Drag everything else out (drop it on the desktop until it says Remove). A tidy Dock is a faster ⌘Tab.
• Stacks: drag ~/Downloads, ~/Pictures/Screenshots and your current project folder to the right side (next to Trash). Right-click → Display as Folder, View content as Grid or Fan. Sort by Date Added makes Downloads a reverse-chronological list.
• Option-click the Dock icon of an app for Force Quit. Option-⌘-drag a file onto a Dock icon that refuses it to force that app to open it.
• Spacers: defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-apps -array-add '{tile-type="spacer-tile";}'; killall Dock adds a blank separator; drag it where you want it. Use small-spacer-tile for a half-width one.
• Show only running apps (turn the Dock into a pure task switcher): defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool true; killall Dock.
• Scroll on a Dock icon to show its windows: defaults write com.apple.dock scroll-to-open -bool true; killall Dock.
• Hidden apps translucent: defaults write com.apple.dock showhidden -bool true; killall Dock.
• Reset the Dock: defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock.

And the switcher: ⌘Tab cycles apps (hold ⌘, tap Tab repeatedly; ⌘` cycles windows within an app; while the switcher is up, press Q to quit or H to hide the highlighted app, ↓ to see its windows). If you want windows rather than apps in the switcher (Windows-style AltTab), install AltTab (free, open source).

Spotlight (macOS 26+)#

Spotlight was rebuilt in Tahoe and became a real launcher, then got Siri AI inside it in Golden Gate. If you last used it in Sonoma, relearn it.

The four views#

Press ⌘Space, then:

Other shortcuts inside Spotlight: ↑ recalls previous searches (like shell history); ⌘Return reveals the selected file in Finder; ⌘C copies the result's path; Tab or ⌘I shows a preview/info pane; ⌘L jumps to the dictionary definition; ⌘B searches the web. Type maths (2^32-1, 15% of 84, 120 usd in eur, 3pm PST in London) and get answers inline.

Quick Keys#

Spotlight assigns short abbreviations to your most-used actions: type sm → Send Message, cr → Create Reminder, nn → New Note, then Return and fill in the parameters inline without opening the app. They're auto-assigned by usage; see and reset them in System Settings → Spotlight. Any Shortcut you build (Chapter 21) becomes an action and can get a Quick Key — this is how you run "Start Deep Work Focus + open project + start timer" from four keystrokes.

Clipboard history#

Enable it once (Spotlight → ⌘4 → Turn On, or System Settings → Spotlight → Clipboard History). It records text, images, files and URLs with source app and timestamp. Return pastes as plain text at the cursor (so it also replaces the old ⌘⌥⇧V paste-and-match-style habit); the small button to the right of an item makes it the current clipboard instead.

Limits you should know: items expire after 8 hours, nothing can be pinned, and there's no single-key shortcut to open the clipboard view — it's ⌘Space then ⌘4. Passwords copied from Apple's Passwords app are excluded, but third-party managers' copies may appear — copy something else right after pasting a secret. For persistent, pinnable history, add Maccy (free, open source, brew install --cask maccy) or use Raycast's clipboard manager.

Search settings#

System Settings → Spotlight: turn off categories you never want in results (Siri Suggestions, Websites, Movies, Fonts), and Search Privacy… to exclude folders — add your node_modules-heavy monorepo, VM disk folders, and Time Machine drives if indexing them slows things. Golden Gate rebuilt the search index (26.6 pre-optimised it); if search is wrong or slow, rebuild with sudo mdutil -E / and give it an hour.

For developers, note that Spotlight indexes file contents for text, code, PDFs and Office docs; mdfind "kind:source 'TODO'" uses the same index from the CLI, and mdls file shows the metadata it extracted.

Siri AI in Spotlight (Golden Gate)#

In macOS 27, ⌘Space is labelled Search or Ask. Plain queries search as before; questions ("what's the door code Sarah texted me", "summarise this PDF", "convert this table to CSV") are routed to Siri AI, which can read your local index (Mail, Messages, Notes, Files) and take actions in apps. Attach files with the +. Visual Intelligence is ⌘⇧Space: drag a rectangle on screen and ask about it (great for "what does this compiler error mean" without copying text). Siri AI is opt-in (System Settings → Apple Intelligence & Siri) and English-only at launch; requests that leave the device go to Private Cloud Compute. If you'd rather Spotlight only searched, turn Siri AI off there.

Raycast, Alfred, LaunchBar: do you still need one?#

Honest 2026 answer: Spotlight is enough for launching, files, actions and light clipboard use. A third-party launcher is worth it if you want any of:

Recommendation: install Raycast (brew install --cask raycast), bind it to ⌥Space (leave ⌘Space for Spotlight — the two coexist well), and use it for clipboard history, snippets, window management and the extensions you actually adopt (Homebrew search, GitHub, "Open project in editor"). Skip Raycast Pro unless the AI features replace a subscription you'd otherwise pay for. Choose Alfred if you dislike accounts and Electron-ish apps, or already own the Powerpack. Choose LaunchBar if you've used it for 15 years. Skip all three if Spotlight plus Maccy covers you — many people are surprised that it does now.