Tips & Tricks

Faster File Access

Here's a trick I use on a daily, if not hourly, basis.

Have you ever been trying to find a specific file in a folder that had hundreds of files? You have to scroll down to where the file should be, then slowly hunt for it until you come across it. There has to be a better way, right?

Right!

Instead of scrolling, click a blank area in the folder to give that pane focus then type the first letter of the file you're looking for. Windows will jump to the first file that has that letter. Continue hitting the letter to jump from one file to the next.

If you type fast enough, you can type in a partial name and the first file with those letters will be highlighted. In the example below, I opened Windows Explorer and went to my Windows folder. I clicked on a blank area in the right hand pane and typed "note" (no quotes). You have to type it kind of quick for it to work.

Note that this little trick works on Open dialog boxes too. I don't know about you, but I have folders filled with lots of different documents. If I need to get at one that starts with the letter "T", I click on the document list area and type the letter "T". Just like that I'm zipped to the first file that starts with "T" or "t".

Oh, once you locate your file, hit the Enter key to open it.

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