Espresso The main window
The Espresso window works like a Finder window: a sidebar on the left, the results in the middle, an optional preview on the right, and a status bar at the bottom.
Sidebar
- Your Usual — your saved searches (shown once you save one).
- Disks — All Disks first, then every connected disk that Espresso has indexed. A spinning indicator next to a disk means it is being indexed.
- Offline Disks — indexed disks that aren't connected, in grey with an offline badge and the date of their last update. You can search and browse them normally.
Right-click a disk or a saved search for more actions (see Disks and indexing). Hide the sidebar with View › Show Sidebar (⌃⌘S) or the button at its top.
Toolbar
| Item | Use |
|---|---|
| Back / Forward | Go back to previous searches and folders (⌘[ ⌘]). |
| Search field | Type to search. Its menu holds your Past Orders. ⌘F puts the cursor there. |
| Blends | Filter by kind: Images, Documents, Folders… |
| Options | Match Case, Whole Words, Path, Diacritics, Barista mode, Lungo, hidden files. |
| Preview | Show or hide the preview on the right. |
Right-click the toolbar and choose Customize Toolbar… to rearrange it.
Results
Each row is a file or folder: its name (with icon), the folder that contains it, and details. Files on offline disks are shown in grey.
Columns
- Sort: click a column header; click again to reverse. Size and dates start with the largest and newest.
- Resize and reorder: drag the header edges, or drag a header left or right.
- Show or hide columns: right-click any column header and pick from Path, Disk, Size, Kind, Date Modified, Date Created, Dimensions, Duration, Pages, Author, Tags.
The Disk column appears on its own as soon as you index a second disk. Dimensions, Duration, Pages and Author come from extended details (see Settings › Metadata).
Your column layout is remembered.
Moving around
Use the arrow keys to move through the results, ↓ from the search field to jump to the first result, and start typing at any time to search again. Select several items with ⌘-click or ⇧-click.
Browsing folders
Select a disk in the sidebar and leave the search field empty: Espresso lists the disk's top level, like Finder. Double-click (or press ↩ on) a folder to open it, and use Go › Enclosing Folder (⌘↑) or Back to go up. This works for offline disks too.
The path bar at the bottom shows where the selected item — or the folder you are browsing — is. Click any folder in it to browse there.
While browsing a folder, typing searches inside it (including subfolders).
Preview
Click Preview in the toolbar (or View › Show Preview, ⌥⌘P) to show the selected file on the right, with its kind, size and date. Documents, images, videos and more can be read or played right there. Files on offline disks show their details and which disk to connect.
Status bar
On the left: the number of items and how long the search took. On the right: what the index is doing — Grinding (first indexing, with a count of files found so far), Catching up (applying changes made while Espresso was closed) or Espresso is brewing: index up to date. If some folders need Full Disk Access, it says so here.
The small cup at the far right opens the page where you can buy us a coffee — that's all it does.
Tabs and windows
Open more searches side by side: File › New Tab (⌘T) or File › New Window (⌘N). Each tab has its own search, options, Blend and history. Drag tabs out to make windows, like in Finder.
New disks
When you connect a disk Espresso doesn't know, a discreet banner at the top of the results asks Index “Disk name”? Click Index to start, or Not Now to hide the banner for that disk. You can always index it later from Settings › Disks.