How to make Spotlight show the enclosing folder of the search result instead of opening the actual search result file?

@graystate, sad to hear... at least I am not alone! Was literally today looking for the issue again. On Sonoma now, and it is still experiencing the issue on/off, cannot work out why. Please post if you figure out what to do about it, will do the same.

@graystate, at least I am not alone! Was literally today looking at the issue again. On Sonoma now, and it is still experiencing the issue on/off, cannot work out why. Please post if you figure out what to do about it, will do the same.

@VikingOSX – Thanks, yes, this is the behaviour I am looking for, but the issue is, instead of Command+click or Command-R opening Finder with the file selected, as I want, the system opens the actual file (in Word or Preview etc.). Getting the path when just hovering over the search result and then holding Command (not Command+click), which I think is what you meant, is useful and I did not know that function! Of course, knowing the folder is not as useful as just going there.

The issue makes it cumbersome to, say, find 10 PDFs to attach to an email that are 'somewhere' in my folder structure. I used to just Spotlight-search for them, go directly to the folder via Command-click on the search result, and then drag into email. Now, I have to literally click through the folder structure for each file, provided I can remember where it is.

My pragmatic solution is to use a combination of 'remembering where the file is located' and opening Finder, then searching in Finder and right-clicking 'Open in Enclosing Folder' on search results. The old Command-click directly in Spotlight (by which I mean the magnifying glass icon in the menu bar or by pressing Command+Space) was much better.