Throughout the day I often use the Find command. I encourage you to incorporate it into your daily habits. I use it most frequently within documents to find a particular word or phrase. Here are some examples of how I use the Find command.
- In Apple’s Mail application, I’ll typically type in a word or phrase in the Search field to quickly locate a handful of emails. Then I’ll select one of the email messages and press Command-F. This brings up the Find command. I can type in a new word or phrase to locate those words within the email message. This can be really helpful if the email is lengthy or includes a number of back and forth replies.
- Using Safari, I search within web pages all the time. The other day I was reading a Wikipedia page about Frida Kahlo. I wanted to find all mentions of Leon Trotsky within the article so I pressed Command-F and typed in the word Trotsky. Immediately Safari highlighted all such occurrences so I could locate them quickly. This technique can be used if you’re reading through any lengthy web page such as a news story or medical-related article.
- I search the content of PDFs frequently. I often download manuals for products I own or that I’m setting up. To quickly find information about setting up a particular feature, I’ll open the PDF file using either Apple’s Preview or Adobe Reader. Then I’ll press Command-F and type in a phrase to quickly see a list of pages containing that phrase within the PDF document.
As you’ve learned, most applications let you invoke the Find command by simply pressing Command-F, but you can also select it from the menu. It’s most commonly listed in the Edit menu. I use the Find command frequently since it can be a great time-saver.