Finding recent documents

As we move to the modern organization we want to be, we are moving ever more of our data away from our laptops and isolated legacy solutions into the cloud. It would be easy to go back to unorganized piles of data, but luckily, there are more than enough ways to keep anything from falling through the cracks.

Here are a few - perhaps you will find a new trick to add to your repertoire the next time you scratch your head.

Remember that document you edited last week? There were so many - luckily, it is very easy to find again.

Cloud Search

Cloud Search is one of Google Workspace's competitive advantages if used properly - which is not always the case. Too few people know and use it. It allows to search everything you own in the blink of an eye. It will also provide a helpful view of your day, including what you last worked on - which may be what you are looking for.

Cloud Search's big advantage is that you do not have to know exactly what you are searching for. It will find documents, email, attachments, related files. Search will sometimes turn out different results than the other methods described on this page, making it a great complement.

Advantages

Fuzzy search, much like Google search
Supports filtering across services, including service-specific filters
Results are ordered by relevance

Disadvantages

Results can be overwhelming
Results are ordered by magic

Drive

Drive is more than your storage workhorse - it is the backbone of secure, modern collaboration. If digitization starts with collaboration, our digitization starts with Drive. Drive holds staggering amounts of data securely and has several ways of surfacing your data to you.

Drive search will search all places (folders, shared drives) at once. If you need to, you can specify where to search in advanced search or by starting your search in a folder or shared drive.

Advantages

Priority and Recent are simple lists of everything you have been doing recently
Powerful search with many advanced operators, like Gmail

Priority

Recent

Search

Editor homepages

The major editors (Docs, Sheets and Slides) and the minor ones have homepages that list all recent documents. If you know it's a Doc you are looking for, you can find it more easily here.

To access, just type docs.google.com, or click one of the editors' icons throughout Google Workspace. The editor views and their search are a simpler version of Drive.

Advantages

Has a list view (arrow in the screenshot)
Supports filtering (1 in the screenshot)
Supports sorting (2 in the screenshot)
Lists non-native files, such as Word files.

Disadvantages

Does not list related file types (Docs will only list Google and Office docs, but not text files)

Gmail

If you got the file by email, you can use Gmail's search.
Cloud Search will include Gmail results, but Gmail has much more detailed search options.

Chrome

Try typing the file name in Chrome, it may just pop up.
Chrome's history (Control-H) may still have a record of the file you opened. Files are just web sites!

This post has been about jogging your mind - "where did I put that file?" As you see, there are plenty of ways to find what you are looking for, hopefully you found a tip or two.

There is a bigger question underneath. All of this will work only as long as your data resides safely in Drive. When your data is taken out or deleted from the Google Workspace ecosystem, old questions and insecurities return. Can you not find what you are looking for because it was already "archived", purged, petrified somewhere else? Do you only have access when you get back to your computer? Your ears should prick up when the talk is about moving data out of the ecosystem. It means losing access and all the smarts that are making your team function on a higher level and being unable to trust the system. Thank you for reading!

#drivePublished 2020-10-08 by Holger Matthies.Modified 2020-10-08 by Holger Matthies.

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