Use Spotlight for Quick Calculations

Reader Simon sent in a cool tip that I’ll definitely be using in the future. Spotlight can be used to perform simple calculations, such as 190*42. Just type it in, and it spits out the answer. For those who may be unfamiliar with keyboard mathematical symbols, here’s a quick rundown:

* is multiplication, / is division, ^ is to the power of (exponents), ! is factorial, and then of course there’s + and - for addition and subtraction, respectively.

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I Like This Tip!

Written by Michael Zhao on June 6, 2008 at 10:18 pm - Use Spotlight for Quick Calculations has 9 comments - Categorized in Easy Tips, OS X Tips, Speed Tips

9 Responses to “Use Spotlight for Quick Calculations”

1. 
   Matthew
   Ya, he probably originally heard about this in either Macworld or Maclife comparing it to the calculator widget. (which is terrible)
   Nice tip! June 7th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
   
   
2. 
   Omer Zach
   I believe this feature was introduced in Leopard, can any pre-10.5 users confirm this? June 8th, 2008 at 12:38 am
   
   
3. 
   David Amies
   Does not work with 10.4!
   
   David June 8th, 2008 at 1:49 am
   
   
4. 
   Lee Bouma
   I can't make it work on Tiger. June 8th, 2008 at 7:03 am
   
   
5. 
   Wendy
   Unfortunate for Tiger user, this feature is brought by Leopard.
   Anyway, x^y cannot be used for performing x to the power of y, pow(x,y) is used instead :) June 8th, 2008 at 7:45 am
   
   
6. 
   iCrater
   @ OZ, Believe you are correct - see here:http://tinyurl.com/4bpe68 Tiger folks (myself included) are Spotlight Quick Calc-less. Any thoughts at MacTips on the rumor that Apple will drop support for PPC? Are you all Intel & Leopard users? Any thoughts on possible
   10.6 Snow Leopard release? June 8th, 2008 at 9:58 am
   
   
7. 
   Omer Zach
   I don't think that 10.6 being released and dropping PPC is too unbelievable, but if it is, I don't think it would be a huge release that added a lot of features and such.
   I've been an Intel user since I got my first Mac, a MacBook in 2006, and using Leopard since it launched, so I guess I don't have much to worry about. :) June 8th, 2008 at 11:28 am
   
   
8. 
   Brad Jasper
   I see it happening. 10.6 will be a bug-fix and performance only release--no new features. It will also be $29 as a mini-update.
   
   The new iPhone will also be released. The iPhone shares some core components with OS X, so it makes sense that they would strip it down for efficiency and speed (dropping PPC). June 8th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
   
   
9. 
   Jash Sayani
   Thanks for the tip ! :) July 28th, 2008 at 9:41 am
   
   

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