Being a new Spotlight user, thanks to Leopard’s heavy improvement in speed and overall performance, there are a lot of features that I am growing to like. I figured I would compile a list of three that I have grown very fond of. I have noticed that most of the features that I do enjoy are actually done and presented in a form that is not only more in-depth but also far easier to use than previous launchers that I have used. With other launchers there are plugins and other tools to install to get functionality but Spotlight keeps it simple and does just enough for me to be very happy using it.

Browse for Mail

Since I hadn’t written in a while, I just updated MarsEdit and needed to enter my registration code. As if I know where that is. Well, I know that I save all of my email receipts and serial numbers so that if I do need them, I can access them quickly and easily. I quickly did a Spotlight search for “marsedit” and quickly was given this response…

Furthermore, you can search for a sender or when you search “mail” you will get your most recent mail.

Calculator

How many times do you need to do a quick little bit of addition or need to get a quick percentage to calculate an online discount or sale? It happens all too frequently to me so one of the features I use fairly often is the built in calculator of Spotlight…

An incredibly useful tool that increases productivity and just makes things easier.

Dictionary

I’ll be honest, I am not a very good speller. Often I pop open dictionary, not just for a definition but to double check the spelling of a word. Not anymore, I just type it into Spotlight and get my result followed by the part of speech and then the definition.

From there, if I need more I can select the result and launch dictionary

As I have preached since the release of Leopard, the new Spotlight is spectacular and the added functionality continues to impress me. If you still haven’t explored Spotlight, check it out. I’m betting you will be impressed. Is there a Spotlight feature that you enjoy or use everyday? Do share.