Today’s Question: I just got a new MacBook Pro, which is my first Macintosh. I have gotten Photoshop installed correctly, but now when I use the “Command+Spacebar” keyboard shortcut to access the Zoom tool, a Spotlight search window shows up. Is there a way to disable this option so the shortcut only works in Photoshop?
Tim’s Quick Answer: You can disable the Spotlight search keyboard shortcut on the Macintosh. To do so, first choose System Preferences from the Apple menu on the menu bar. Then choose Spotlight in the System Preferences window, and click the Keyboard Shortcuts button at the bottom-left of the window. Turn off the checkbox for “Show Spotlight search”, and the keyboard shortcut will be disabled.
More Detail: In addition, you can change the keyboard shortcut for Spotlight search, so that it won’t conflict with Photoshop. To do so, instead of turning off the checkbox for “Show Spotlight search”, click on the keyboard shortcut to the right of that checkbox. Then press a key keyboard shortcut combination on the keyboard to assign a new keyboard shortcut. Of course, finding a keyboard shortcut that won’t conflict with the other applications you use may be a challenge!
Personally, I prefer to turn off the keyboard shortcut for Spotlight altogether. When I want to perform a search I can then simply use the search text field on any Finder window, or click the magnifying glass icon at the far right of the menu bar to bring up the Spotlight search window.