fairly new MAC user.... spotlight indexes the file names, but not the file content.

In windows, it would call through the content of all my files (take a whole night), and all i needed to do was search for some words which i might remember i.e. Mexican Standoff ( a email fight with my sis 10 years back ... resolved 9.5 years back ) and voila.... can find the file...not based on the file name, but on text within the file.

questions is - how to do on a Mac ?

check email in your spotlight preferences .. and make sure mail.app has a local copy of the whole mailbox .

thats it .. it will find it no matter how old it is

Thx.... just tested, and your right.

I did like some of the old apps on windows i.e. x1 or google desktop which showed highlighted text...made it easier to find the thing u were looking for ( file on disk or email )