SPOTLIGHT AND SIRI
Get essential info more easily
1 Let Siri suggest
Siri can make your life easier by using Siri Suggestions to bring intelligence to many of your Mac apps. For example, when you address an email it will suggest recent contacts as you type the name; it can tell you who’s calling in FaceTime; and in one of our favorite scenarios, it can tell you when it’s time to leave for a Calendar appointment based on local traffic data. If you don’t want these in all apps you can turn them off on a per–app basis in System Preferences > Siri.
2 Get Siri to do sums
How many times do you need to do a quick sum, convert inches into centimeters, know what a US dollar price would be in Euro or similar quick asks? Siri can answer all of these and more, as well as controlling key system features, setting reminders, creating calendar events and even dictating notes.
3 Drag results from Siri searches
Siri can search the web for images — “Hey Siri, find me a picture of a monkey” — and you can then drag the thumbnail from the results panel into your current app window or to your Mac’s desktop.
4 Keep Siri awake
You can use Siri even when your Mac is locked: just make sure that both “Listen for ‘Hey Siri’” and “Allow Siri when locked” are enabled in System Preferences > Siri. That means your Mac can continue to listen for smart home or other key commands when you’re not using it.
5 Focus your Spotlight
If you find your Spotlight searches bring up too many irrelevant results, for example by showing your contacts or calendar events when all you want are files, you can limit the scope of Spotlight’s index in System Preferences > Spotlight. Here, simply uncheck the items you don’t want to receive results for. Spotlight will do the rest.