The Best Way to Search for Keywords on a Mac (That Actually Works in 2025)

Let’s be honest. Searching for specific keywords on a Mac in 2025 still feels like a coin toss. You remember the code. You remember the phrase. You’re sure it’s buried somewhere in that PDF or spreadsheet. But when you open Spotlight, it’s a dead end. Either you get nothing, or a list of unrelated files that only happen to share the word in a title.

This is the gap that Fenn was built to close. Because sometimes, you don’t need deep semantic search. You just want to find a specific string fast and know it’ll actually work.

Why Keyword Search Still Matters

Semantic search gets a lot of the spotlight right now. And for good reason. It’s powerful. It’s intuitive. But let’s not forget that keyword search is still the fastest way to track down something specific, especially when the thing you’re looking for is the keyword.

You’re looking for:

• An invoice with the number “INV1043”

• A spreadsheet with a specific customer ID

• A contract that mentions “Clause 3.1”

In cases like these, you want precision. Not interpretation. Fenn understands that and gives you the tools to search both ways semantic AND keyword depending on what your task needs.

Why Spotlight Falls Short

Spotlight’s keyword matching is shallow. It mostly looks at filenames, metadata, and basic file content if you’re lucky. But ask it to scan a long PDF, dig inside a PowerPoint slide, or search across transcribed voice memos? It chokes.

And if you're on macOS Sequoia, things have gotten worse. Indexing is buggy. Apps vanish from search results. Metadata disappears. We broke this down in our guide: Why Spotlight Is Failing on macOS Sequoia.

Fenn’s Keyword Engine: Built for Depth

Fenn’s keyword search is different. It crawls through:

• Full text inside PDFs and Word docs

• Cell values in Excel and CSVs

• Transcripts of audio and video files

• Text inside screenshots using OCR

• Layers inside PowerPoint and Keynote

You can search for exact phrases, numbers, IDs, tags, and file contents. And you’ll get a preview of the context—not just a list of filenames. That makes all the difference.

Looking for "EC10405"? Fenn finds the spreadsheet, the row, the sheet tab. Spotlight doesn’t even see it.

Pairing Keyword with Semantic: The Real Power Move

Fenn doesn’t force you to choose one mode forever. You can search semantically when you’re describing an idea and switch to keyword mode when you know exactly what you’re after.

Example: Let’s say you’re looking for a voice note where someone said the phrase “launch strategy.”

• In keyword mode, Fenn will look for that exact phrase in transcripts.

• In semantic mode, it will also find related concepts like "rollout plan" or "go-to-market."

Even better? You can combine both. Let Fenn show keyword results first, with semantic support beneath. It’s all adjustable in the search settings. Power users can even tweak search weights, as we explain in Semantic vs Keyword Search on Mac.

Built to Respect Privacy

Unlike cloud-based tools, Fenn does all this locally. No files are uploaded. No queries leave your device. It runs fast, thanks to Apple Silicon, and it stays private by design. For a deeper look at how this works, read Why Privacy Matters in File Search on Mac.

The Bottom Line

If you’ve ever typed a keyword into Spotlight and wondered why nothing came back, you’re not imagining it. The default tools just weren’t built for this kind of precision. Fenn was.

Whether you’re hunting for a project code, a contract clause, or a reference buried in a long document, Fenn finds it. Keyword search that’s actually built for content, not just filenames.

Ready to search like it’s 2025?

Try Fenn and find what you actually meant—not just what you typed.

For more comparisons, check out Find Any File vs Fenn or see how creatives use AI search to find inspiration.