I trashed my Finder and LaunchServices Preferences today to see if that would resolve some ongoing weirdness I have been having. Plugin files have screwed up associations. Some think they're Final Cut Pro plugins (they're not). My contextual menu plugins think they belong to Canvas 8. I don't even use Canvas (but it _is_ on my disk).

Anyway, everything is working OK but it bugged me. I figured trashing some prefs would be worth a shot.

It didn't fix it but since trashing my Finder Preferences also trashed my customized toolbar, I was clicking and Command-clicking in the toolbar when I stumbled upon today's tip, which I dont' recall seeing elsewhere. So here is a world-premiere (I think) Dr. Mac tip:

Click on the word "Search" in a Finder window's Toolbar and the Find (Command-F) window magically appears!

Isn't that something?

By the way, if anyone knows how to cure my plug-in amnesia, I'll glorify you in a future tip-of-the-day and send you an autographed copy of my latest book, Dr. Mac: The OS X Files (How to Become a Mac OS X Power User).

I'll even throw in a rare "Dr. Mac: The OS X Files" temporary tattoo. :-)

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Bob LeVitus is a leading authority on Mac OS and the author of 39 books, including Mac OS X For Dummies and The Little iTunes Book.