Spotlight search provides quick access to information and files on your Mac. Activated using Command+Spacebar, it instantly searches across your applications, documents, emails, system settings, contacts, calendar events, and even web results and movie showtimes. Unlike manually browsing through folders or the Finder search bar, Spotlight comprehensively indexes content ahead of time, offering fast results matching both filenames and text within documents as you type.

For practical use, Spotlight excels at rapid tasks: type "Excel" to launch Microsoft Excel instantly without navigating the Applications folder, or search for a specific invoice name like "Q3 Report" to find the document regardless of its location in your Downloads folder or iCloud Drive. You can also find settings ("Bluetooth") or calculate quick sums ("450 * 1.1").

Spotlight offers significant time savings and centralized search capabilities. However, its limitations include dependence on a completed system index for accuracy and potential difficulty locating deeply nested files by content alone. Results prioritize local files but can integrate web suggestions. Spotlight searches are performed locally for privacy, with macOS handling the data indexing. Its convenience makes it a fundamental macOS workflow tool.