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How do you remove auto highlighting on Spotlight Results (Ventura)?

On the new Ventura upgrade for Mac, there is now auto highlighting on Spotlight results.


The problem is that results on Spotlight are now automatically highlighted for no reason, and some genius at Apple thought it was a great idea to for highlighted Spotlight results to be in Faded White Text drowned in a Faded Blue / Yellow / Red etc. Background...


How is someone supposed to read that colour scheme? Oh, that's right, YOU CAN'T.


How do you disable the automatic highlighting in Spotlight results? This was a pointless and surprisingly poorly thought through addition to the Mac OS. Is there an Extension that can fix this mess up?


MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Nov 19, 2022 3:34 PM

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14 replies

Nov 19, 2022 4:43 PM in response to Barney-15E

Yes it is readable when it is close up, but from a distance it's barely readable. Faded text on faded accent was a terrible idea.


It's actually very rare that I've needed to copy accented calculation results, especially since spreadsheets can calculate for me, hence why I believe it was a pointless thing to do.


A copy button can be triggered with Command C, of course.

Nov 19, 2022 4:12 PM in response to Barney-15E

Yes being able to copy is fine, but having the highlight (or Accent as I've realised from the Appearance settings) drown out already faded text makes it unreadable.


I would like to properly and comfortably see the results, before copying said results.


Surely they should have just removed the auto Accent on results, then added a Copy button on the side!

Nov 19, 2022 4:50 PM in response to HarSar17

There is a compromise by setting the Accent to Graphite, as Faded White on Faded Grey is still unreadable, but a bit more manageable...


However the Accent actually colours ALL the buttons on Ventura in Graphite, leading to a depressing grey on everything.


And there is no way to change the Accent to make it different on Notes and Finder for some reason.


This makes no sense because surely the "Accent" on Spotlight results is actually a "Highlight", but no, changing the "Highlight" colour to something better won't change the highlighting on Spotlight results. This is objectively bad.

Nov 19, 2022 5:02 PM in response to underscorer

The need for the Spotlight Results to be readable is a higher priority than being able to copy Results -

I have no problem reading the results.

The only time I have ever needed to copy Spotlight Results was literally to test why Results are suddenly being drowned in Accent. The irony!

I don't know why you want to take away my ability to copy the results. I used to have to select the results in the secondary display. Took way too much time. Now it is great.

Nov 20, 2022 6:21 AM in response to Barney-15E

I have pressed the Space Bar but it just moves the Accented Results to the right.


Pressing the Tab button sort of helps, as it fully highlights the answer in the Accent colour chosen in the smaller calculator box below, which is more readable but still not good.


I think copying results easily is a good idea even if I never do that, but where Apple messed up is making the Accent drown out the Spotlight Results so it's unreadable. This is not acceptable from a multi trillion dollar company.

Nov 20, 2022 8:00 AM in response to Barney-15E

Yes that works to make it bigger. Thank you - There was no way the average person would have quickly thought to press tab then space bar.


I have complained to Apple about this - It is unacceptable that they thought it was a great idea to have Spotlight Results in Faded White Text drowned in Faded Accent. It is unreadable, cannot be changed, and the only work around is to (inefficiently) press Tab to fully highlight, then Spacebar to make it bigger.


Unbelievable.

How do you remove auto highlighting on Spotlight Results (Ventura)?

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