Search the Web from Mac OS X Finder, TextEdit, and Preview

Dec 13, 2011 - 5 Comments

Search Google from TextEdit

Mac OS X and many default apps have a built-in ability to quickly search the web.

To quickly search the web, just highlight any text in the Finder, Preview, or TextEdit, and then hit Command+Shift+L to launch Safari with a Google search for the highlighted text selection.


The web browser will be set to Safari regardless of your default browser settings and doesn’t appear to be customizable.

You can also access the “Search for” option from right-click menus throughout OS X.

Additionally, if you feel like changing the search engine used, you can select either Google, Bing, or Yahoo as the default search engine for that quick search keyboard shortcut by going into Safari’s Preferences:

Search default options in Safari

Other apps beyond the three mentioned likely have the same ability, but the Command+Shift+L keyboard shortcut in Safari opens Reading List rather than searching the web.

.

Related articles:

Posted by: William Pearson in Mac OS, Tips & Tricks

5 Comments

» Comments RSS Feed

  1. theOak says:

    Oh yeah?… How do you use a non-Apple provided search engine, one that doesn’t track you? Like duckduckgo.com ixqucksearch.com

    @Tom, your tip is appreciated, but the info on that page in your posted link doesn’t seem to work.

  2. thanx
    its very useful

  3. Tom says:

    Very handy hotkey combo ✨❕

  4. Tom says:

    For those who have done their best to move away from Safari should check out this post. This will use your default browser.
    http://rentzsch.tumblr.com/post/5794765921/search-with-google-using-chrome

Leave a Reply

 

Shop on Amazon.com and help support OSXDaily!

Subscribe to OSXDaily

Subscribe to RSS Subscribe to Twitter Feed Follow on Facebook Subscribe to eMail Updates

Tips & Tricks

News

iPhone / iPad

Mac

Troubleshooting

Shop on Amazon to help support this site