Help me find a file on my computer
October 11, 2016 6:33 PM Subscribe
I need to find a Word file from 8 years ago and I don't have much to go on.
Here's what I know:
MS Word, created in 2009
Not modified since then
Contains only images, no text
Used Word's template "Avery 8371"
Filename probably includes: bc OR card OR enterprose OR "business card"
Here's what I know:
MS Word, created in 2009
Not modified since then
Contains only images, no text
Used Word's template "Avery 8371"
Filename probably includes: bc OR card OR enterprose OR "business card"
I agree with solarion, only I happen to use Agent Ransack. FWIW.
posted by forthright at 7:17 PM on October 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by forthright at 7:17 PM on October 11, 2016 [1 favorite]
If you're on Windows, left click on the start menu icon and a text box should appear [search programs and files]. Type one of your search terms and click on the magnifying glass to search. Once you start getting search results, you can click on "Documents" to narrow down your search to just documents.
I just did a search on my computer for "avery" and even though none of my documents have that word in the name, lots of my documents came up because I used the templates where "Avery Dennison" was the creator, hence those documents showing up in my results.
posted by NoraCharles at 9:22 PM on October 11, 2016
I just did a search on my computer for "avery" and even though none of my documents have that word in the name, lots of my documents came up because I used the templates where "Avery Dennison" was the creator, hence those documents showing up in my results.
posted by NoraCharles at 9:22 PM on October 11, 2016
So, do you have a lot of Word files? Because I do, tens of thousands of them, and I would be completely unafraid of doing a search using the plain old WIndows search interface for all .doc and .docx and .rtf files that were created in 2009, and just looking at all of the filenames. I do this a few times a year. I sort the whole year by date, then scan the filenames looking for one that has a plausible looking filename. Takes me maybe two to three minutes to scan a year, this way.
If I still don't find it, I do a search for all of the files called "Untitled.docx" and etc., and open them all up. Word will warn me that this is a bad idea - yes, opening up fifty Word files will certainly have a performance impact - and then I'll just whack control-w until I've either found my lost file or looked at them all.
posted by BrunoLatourFanclub at 10:48 PM on October 11, 2016 [4 favorites]
If I still don't find it, I do a search for all of the files called "Untitled.docx" and etc., and open them all up. Word will warn me that this is a bad idea - yes, opening up fifty Word files will certainly have a performance impact - and then I'll just whack control-w until I've either found my lost file or looked at them all.
posted by BrunoLatourFanclub at 10:48 PM on October 11, 2016 [4 favorites]
On Mac: EasyFind
On Windows: Agent Ransack
On Mac you might also try Finder's built in All My Files view. Use the search from there to filter the file list.
posted by Awfki at 5:39 AM on October 12, 2016
On Windows: Agent Ransack
On Mac you might also try Finder's built in All My Files view. Use the search from there to filter the file list.
posted by Awfki at 5:39 AM on October 12, 2016
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posted by solarion at 6:39 PM on October 11, 2016