-->
About Basics4Mac The Backup Plan View Recent Tips choices
Celebrating 5 years of Mac Tips!
Performing Math Functions with Spotlight
A little quick math
Spotlight math
Click to see a larger image
Yes, Spotlight is normally used to find results on your hard drive that match the query you type, but it turns out the Spotlight also has an affinity for math problems and can be used as a quick calculator.

Activate Spotlight by clicking on the magnifying glass icon on the far right of the Menu Bar. In the search field, enter an arithmetic problem such as 5 + 5. In the results, you will see 5 + 5 = 10. Sure, there is a calculator application, and there is also a calculator on the Dashboard, but if all you need is a quick answer, give Spotlight a shot.

Spotlight even understands order of operations (you remember those from 9th grade algebra, right?) If you enter 2 + 3 * 5 you get 17 as the result. (Hint: use * for multiplication and / for division) It can even convert fractions to decimals. Entering 5/16 gives the result 0.3125.

Related Items: Spotlight | Calculator

 


Is your Mac backed up?

Take a peek inside the book      More info...


Comments

Performing Math Functions with Spotlight | 2 comments |
The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
Performing Math Functions with Spotlight
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, August 10 2010
Hi

This tip doesn't work with my iMac G5
Performing Math Functions with Spotlight
Authored by: chrisb on Tuesday, August 10 2010
I can verify that it works with Snow Leopard. I don't know how far it goes back because I don't have any older versions of OS X loaded anymore.

 Copyright © 2012 Basics4Mac
 All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Privacy Statement      To the crazy ones
    Geo Visitors Map