How Do I Find Past Text Documents Now?

[stolpioni]

Hi,

I am trying to locate some past text documents that I don't remember the names for. But inside the text editor when I click on "Open", these documents won't show up anymore like they did in past OS X versions. Now I will just the main Macintosh HD folder.

Please help. These are very important documents. Thanks!

 

[ricede]

Do you remember what type of file endings they had.
Was it .txt or .doc etc etc ?

Try using spotlight & searching for .txt or .doc & it should bring up a list of all text files with that file type.

Or download Easyfind - its free & a bit more comprehensive than spotlight.
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11076/easyfind

 

[stolpioni]

Do you remember what type of file endings they had.
Was it .txt or .doc etc etc ?

Try using spotlight & searching for .txt or .doc & it should bring up a list of all text files with that file type.

Or download Easyfind - its free & a bit more comprehensive than spotlight.
http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/11076/easyfind

I tried that but I have tens of thousands of text files when I do a search with EasyFind. Impossible to find.

 

[jbarley]

If you need to locate these documents surely you have some idea of their contents.
Spotlight (alt+cmd+space) in Yosemite does an excellent job of finding words within a documents body, you just have to poke around a bit and pick the right words to search for.