From the course: Help Yourself: Tech Tips Weekly

Finding recently opened files

From the course: Help Yourself: Tech Tips Weekly

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Finding recently opened files

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- [Instructor] It's happened to me and I'm sure it's happened to you as well. You've just saved a file, now you can't find it. What can you do? Well, the first thing I do, usually because I'm still working in the same program such as Excel here, is to use the Save As command. You can also choose Save a copy. When you choose Save As or Save a copy, it shows the current folder where the last file was saved. Here it's my OneDrive - Personal folder. This is where I would look for the file that was recently saved. You can also use a traditional Save As dialogue box in any Office application, you just press the F12 key to see the traditional Save As dialogue box. And here you can see that it's the work folder where files would be saved. This again is your clue where to look for the file you recently saved and perhaps have lost. From here, you can open a File Explorer window, browse to the work folder, then you can cut and paste the file to wherever it is supposed to be. Another method is to check the recently opened file list. In Microsoft Office apps, you click the File tab, and here you see the list of files that I recently opened. The file's location where it was saved is listed right under the file name. So here, this file was saved in the work folder in my Documents folder. Once again, you can open a File Explorer window to move or manage the no longer lost file. Another way to get at a recently open file, especially if it's program icon appears on the taskbar, is to use a jump list. This feature may be disabled, so to confirm that it's active, press the Windows + I keyboard shortcut to bring up the Settings app. Choose Personalization, and Start. Activate this item, show recently opened items in Start, Jump Lists, and File Explorer. Jump lists are built over time, so you won't see them if you've just turned on this feature. Otherwise, they appear on the taskbar program icons. Right click on the program icon to see a list of recently opened files and you can open one to access it. This technique doesn't help you locate the file's folder, but it does give you access to what was once a long lost file. Finally, you can search for the file, press the Windows + E keyboard shortcut to bring up a File Explorer window. Go to your personal folder. On my computer, this is named Dan Gookin, and in the search text box type, "date:today." Here you see those files that were created today. They appear in the list, and their folder is listed here. The other place you can look is the Recycle Bin, which is your last resort. Here you can search for deleted files and restore them, but hopefully you've met with success before now. To restore a deleted file, you would right click on it, and choose Restore. It's placed back into the folder from which it was deleted. These are the techniques I use to find lost files, hopefully they work for you as well.

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