Default window sizes in Leopard

March 5, 2008 4:57 PM

How can I change the default size for the "show all" window of a spotlight search in Leopard (Mac OS 10.5.2)? It always opens a window that is way too small, and unlike Finder windows, it's so dynamic that I can't seem to retain any changes to size from one search to the next. Help!
posted by ericbop to computers & internet (9 comments total)

mine open pretty consistently at a decent size, but try this - open a window size it like you want it, hit cmd J and click on "Use as Defaults" at the bottom of the window. if it's greyed out, check then uncheck one of the options.

not sure it'll help. worth a try.

do you have "always show list view" selected?
posted by KenManiac at 8:42 PM on March 5, 2008

when I try command-j, it says, "there are no view options for 'searching 'this mac'' window"
posted by ericbop at 6:40 AM on March 6, 2008

while in the finder, try view menu, show view options.
posted by KenManiac at 6:16 PM on March 6, 2008

KenManiac - that's the same as Command + J, with the same result.

This has been doing my head in for ages, and as far as I can tell, there's no solution other than manually resizing the window every time. For whatever reason, that 'Show All' window doesn't work like all the others. (Also, try clicking the green button at top left: nothing happens, even after re-sizing).
posted by jack_mo at 4:49 AM on March 7, 2008

hmmm, don't know. you could try trashing finder prefs or spotlight prefs.

i remember something funky with terminal window, under jaguar, i think. it opened waaay too small to be useful, eventually found out it was because i had turned off font 'monaco'.

have you turned off any system fonts?
posted by KenManiac at 8:38 AM on March 7, 2008

So are you saying your 'show all' window does remember changes to its size between launches from Spotlight, KenManiac?

I just checked on three different Macs running Leopard, all pretty much clean installs (one of them completely clean, as in OS 10.5.2 installed yesterday, no third party apps installed at all) and they all behave as ericbop describes above, which makes me think it's the default behaviour.
posted by jack_mo at 9:58 AM on March 7, 2008

Looks like it's controlled by default_smart.plist inside Finder.app/Contents/Resources/. More info at macosxhints.
posted by SemiSophos at 4:05 PM on March 7, 2008

no, didn't say that.

what appears to happen is that it uses the size of the default finder window.

most anytime a window open on my current systems (leopard and tiger) it's a reasonable size. it has been doing this ever since system 7.01. not sure why yours isn't.

do you have many/any items in your sidebar? my system seems to open a window big enough to show all the items in there. 11 items total, 3 separators.

drag a bunch of stuff in there and see if it makes a any difference.
posted by KenManiac at 4:12 PM on March 7, 2008

just found this, don't know if it helps

http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20080229204517495

please post results!
posted by KenManiac at 4:14 PM on March 7, 2008