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Quick Math Calculations From Any Mac App

Quick Scan

Click the Spotlight icon in the far right of your menu.

Start typing. Your result will appear as you type.

Hit Enter to launch the Calculator app to keep doing more calcs.

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Quick Math Calculations From Any Mac App

By: Chris Kerins
Published: Friday, May 8, 2009
Categories: Favorite Things

One of the reasons My First Mac has started the Favorite Things tips is so little gems that make using a Mac great are discovered by everyone. Instant calculations is one of those hidden gems that have been sitting there right before your eyes this whole time. And it's one click away…

So how do you get to pop in the math calc that you want some quick verification on? Just click the Spotlight icon in the upper right of the menu bar and start typing. As you type, you answer is displayed in real time, so it will adjust to the data you are putting in. Check it out:

Spotlight Calculations

And because it's in your menu bar all the time, you can access this function from any app.

This works for your basic run-of-the-mill calcs. I use it to be sure I get the right number when working on something else. For instance, If I'm laying out a web page and subtracting the width of one column from another, it really comes in handy to verify what I think the answer might be.

Another handy thing is that if you hit Enter with the Calculator line item highlighted, Spotlight will launch the Calculator app. Apple screwed up on launching it cleared rather than with your data from Spotlight, but oh well.

Hidden Calculator app tip #1: Choose Show Paper Tape from the Window menu to get another screen that tracks what you've input. I love this for adding many numbers together and checking that I entered it right.

Paper Tape

Hidden Calculator app tip #2: Need more power than a standard calculator? Get a Scientific Calculator from the View menu. You can also find a Programmer's Calculator there too.

Apple Scientific Calculator

Got any other Spotlight tips to share? Let us know in the Comments section below!


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Your Comments:

Nice!
It also understands things like "pow(16,2)" and "sqrt(pow(3,2)+pow(4,2))" so Pythagorus would be happy

timothy Bates
05/09/2009 at 04:37 AM

A more fluent way, since you'll be typing the calculation, is to use the Spotlight keyboard short cut (eg command-space or control-space) that you can set. No need to touch the mouse as well. You can exit the Spotlight menu by hitting escape twice.

THe keyboard shortcut i also the fastest way to launch applications. (e.g. for me, "cmd-space s return" launches Safari, m launches mail). No need to hunt and peck application icons with the mouse.

sleepy
05/09/2009 at 04:44 AM

I tried you suggestion in Safari, that opened a different window with the result. So I am not sure that this is much better that just opening "calculator".

lh
05/09/2009 at 06:05 AM