Searching

Start typing in the search field at the top of the window — or anywhere in the window: when the results list has the focus, typing goes straight to the search field. Results update on every keystroke; there is no Return to press.

By default Espresso looks for your text inside file and folder names, ignoring upper and lower case and accents: cafe finds Café.png, REPORT finds annual report.pdf.

The status bar shows how many items match and how long the search took, for example 1,284 items · 8 ms.

Combining words

The words that matched are shown in bold in the Name column (and in the Path column for path searches). Everything else — sizes, dates, kinds, disks, tags, regular expressions — is in the Search syntax reference.

If part of a search can't be understood (for example size:lots), Espresso underlines it in the search field — hover over the search field to read why — and still runs the rest.

Search options

Click Options (the sliders button in the toolbar), or use View › Search Options:

Options apply to the current window. To change the defaults for new windows, see Settings › Search.

Blends: filter by kind

Blends narrow the results to one kind of file. Pick one from the Blends button in the toolbar, from View › Blends, or with ⌘1 … ⌘9:

A blend combines with what you type: Images + holiday finds pictures named “holiday”.

Where to search

The sidebar decides where Espresso looks:

• All Disks searches every indexed disk at once, connected or not.
• Select a disk to search only that disk. With an empty search field, you browse its folders instead (see The main window).
• While browsing a folder, typing searches inside that folder and its subfolders.

Your usual: saved searches

Found a search you'll need again — say “invoices from this year”? Choose File › Save Search… (⌘S), give it a name, and it appears in the sidebar under Your Usual, together with the Blend that was active.

Click a saved search to run it; typing then narrows its results further. Right-click it to Edit… its name and search, or Delete it. You can also edit them all in Settings › Search.

Past orders: recent searches

Espresso remembers the searches you settle on. Click the magnifying glass at the left of the search field to see your Past Orders and run one again, or Clear Past Orders.

Macros

A macro is a shortcut for a search you type often. In Settings › Search › Macros, add one:

Then type projects: in any search, alone or with more words: projects: invoice. Text right after the colon is added to the search too: projects:invoice.

Duplicates (Double shot)

Type dupe: to see only items whose name appears more than once, or sizedupe: for files with the same size. Combine with anything: dupe: ext:pdf, sizedupe: size:>100mb.