Spotlight is a great tool for searching for documents and files on your Mac, but did you know that Spotlight can also be used to quickly find and launch applications with only a few keyboard shortcuts? It's true, and in this how to, we'll show you exactly how it's done.

Setting the Preferences

To begin, you just need to have a Mac with OS X 10.4 (Tiger) or newer. Let's start by opening up System Preferences > Spotlight.

Once you've opened Spotlight's preferences, click on the Search Results tab. This will open a view that shows all of the categories that Spotlight can currently search for and display. Ensure that the Applications item is checked and dragged to position 1. This will ensure that the application search results comes up at the top of the list.

Underneath that view, ensure that the checkbox for "Spotlight menu keyboard shortcut" is checked. Also, make note of the keyboard shortcut that is listed in the drop-down box beside of this checkbox. This is the keyboard shortcut that you will press to open the Spotlight menu bar search. By default it will be Command + Spacebar.

Launching Apps using Spotlight

To use Spotlight as an app launcher, simply press Command + Spacebar (or the other keyboard shortcut you may have set in the Spotlight preferences) no matter where you're at on your Mac. When you do, the Spotlight menu bar will open up and allow you to type in anything, but in this instance we will type the name of the application we're searching for. For instance, I'll type "Microsoft Word."

Spotlight will automatically highlight the Top Hit, which should be the application you're searching for. If it's not, the Applications section directly below it should list all of the matching Application search results. Once the Top Hit result has been highlighted, you can simply hit the Enter key to launch the application.

So, to recap, the steps to launch an app in Spotlight is:

1. Open Spotlight with Command + Spacebar (or another keyboard shortcut you've set)

2. Type in an app name

3. Press enter when the search result shows in the Top Hit

This method of launching applications can greatly improve your computing experience on the Mac. Try it, and you'll soon wonder how you ever lived without it.

Follow this article's author, Cory Bohon on Twitter.