REVIEW · BUILT-IN SEARCH
Verdict: Finder search is better than most people think: add criteria, type keywords such as kind:pdf or author:, combine words with AND, OR and NOT, and save the result as a Smart Folder. It still works from words and facts you can name, so it struggles with a document you can only describe.
19 October 2026 · By Ishtiaque Hossain · 5 minute read
Looking for a file you can describe but not name? Try Shlexball. The first 30 searches are free and need no account.
macOS 15 or later. Apple silicon. 16 GB memory. On a phone? Email yourself the link.
This review is based on Finder search's own pages, read on 14 October 2026. Every claim links to the page it came from. We are the makers of Shlexball, so we say plainly where Finder search does better.
| Where it lives | The search field in every Finder window |
| What it searches | Your Mac by name, kind, date, metadata and more |
| Advanced options | Criteria rows, kind: and author: keywords, AND, OR, NOT and the minus sign |
| Saved searches | Smart Folders that update automatically |
| Best for | Narrowing down files when you know their type, date or a word in the name |
Open a Finder window, type a word in the search field and press Return. That is the basic search most people stop at.
To narrow it, click the Add button below the search field and choose criteria from the pop-up menus: Kind to limit results to documents or images, Name to match words in file names, or Other to pick from a long list of attributes such as Copyright.
Every criterion you add must be met for a file to appear. If one rule says the name begins with S and another says the file was created today, you only see files created today whose names begin with S.
Hold the Option key and click the More button to build groups where Any, All or None of the rules must match.
Most files carry metadata, details stored with the file such as its author, the camera that took a photo, or when it was created. You can see it with File, Get Info, and you can search it directly from the search field.
Add kind: and a type to the end of your search: kind:pdf, kind:presentation, kind:images, kind:email and many more. Typing trip kind:document looks for the word trip in documents only.
Other keywords include author:, from:, to:, tag:, title:, name: and contains:. For example, author:tom lists documents written by Tom.
You can also use AND, OR and NOT, or a minus sign to exclude a word. Apple's example, trip -france, finds items that mention a trip but not France.
A Smart Folder is a saved search that looks like a folder. You set the rules, such as file type, the date a file was opened or what it contains, and the list updates automatically as files change.
Apple's example is a Smart Folder of every Pages document you opened in the past year that contains the words cookie and recipe.
To make one, choose File, New Smart Folder, set the first rule in the search field, add more rules with the Add button, then click Save. You can also click Save on any Finder search, and keep it in the sidebar with Add To Sidebar.
Each of these tools asks you for something concrete: a word in the name, a kind, a date, an author. That works well for a recent invoice and poorly for a document you only remember by its subject.
Apple's own advice when you cannot find a file goes the same way. It suggests Spotlight with the file's name, the Recents view grouped by Date Last Opened, the Recent Items list in the Apple menu, or File, Open Recent inside an app.
If a whole folder seems invisible to search, Apple's Finder search page points to Spotlight's settings, where you can exclude files and folders from search, so check whether the folder was excluded there.
Anyone who files things carefully will get a lot out of it, especially with kind: keywords and Smart Folders for recurring searches such as this year's receipts.
It costs nothing extra and is already in every Finder window, so learning three keywords is the cheapest search upgrade on a Mac.
Shlexball takes a sentence instead of filter rows: you describe the file the way you remember it, and it searches file and folder names and the text inside files, including PDFs and Word documents.
It searches your folders directly, not only through the Spotlight index, and it is read-only, so it never changes, moves or deletes files. The first 30 searches are free with no account.
One sentence instead of filter rows: describe the file to Shlexball, 30 free searches.
▶ DOWNLOAD SHLEXBALLType your word followed by a kind: keyword, for example budget kind:pdf or kind:presentation. You can also click the Add button and choose Kind from the pop-up menu.
Yes. A Smart Folder can use the contents of a file as a rule, and the contains: keyword is one of the search keywords Apple lists.
Click Save below the search field. The search is saved as a Smart Folder, and Add To Sidebar keeps it in the Finder sidebar.
Check the spelling of names and keywords, remove criteria one at a time, and see whether the folder was excluded from search in Spotlight settings. Apple also suggests Recents, grouped by Date Last Opened.