HoudahSpot 3.3

HoudahSpot is a very advanced file search utility for the Mac. It is a Spotlight replacement utility, but it does things quite differently.

You can either start a search from the menu bar icon, or by launching the application and using the actual graphical user interface to do it. Whenever, you start a search from the menu bar, the graphical user interface will be launched anyways. I like the menu bar search to start a search better than launching the app. But that is just personal preference.

From the actual app, you will be able to set an array of different filters to let you find the file or files that you are looking for. The search filters are grouped into What, Where, Exclude and Limit. Under each category, you can tell the app to show you files if any of the criteria is met, only if all the criteria is met, or if no criteria is met. With the number of filters available, I know you will be able to find the files that you are looking for.

In my personal case, the file searches that I commonly run require nothing fancier than Spotlight or LaunchBar. So I don't need another file search utility. Give it a try though, if you usually can't find your files using Spotlight.