Finding files

There are many ways to find files. You can sort, filter, switch between different display options, and search by using keywords or wildcards.

About this task

Before you log in, you can search for public files. After you log in, you can search for and view files you pinned, your own files, files that are shared with you, files that are shared by you, and community files to which you have access.

You can control how files appear in your Files views, by clicking one of the three Display style icons or by clicking Customize and selecting the columns to display in your file lists.

In some file lists, private files are marked with a private icon, shared files are marked with a shared icon, and public files are marked with a public icon. If a file is both public and shared with specific people, it is marked with a public icon.

Procedure

  1. Do any one of the following to find files:
    Option Description

    To find a file in any Files view

    Click the Thumbnails display option Thumbnail view to open a gallery of images that represent files.

    Hovering over a thumbnail image toggles the image to its reverse side where you can see file details and status.

    Click anywhere on the back of the thumbnail to select actions such as preview and download.

    To find files you pinned

    Click Pinned Files in the navigation box.

    To pin a file, click the thumbtack icon next to the file in a list, or open the file and click the pin icon.

    To find files you uploaded

    Click My Files in the navigation box.

    To find files that people shared with you

    Click Shared With Me in the navigation box.

    Files that are shared by other people specifically with you are displayed.

    Files that are shared with you might also be public.
    Note: External users do not have access to, nor can they upload to, public folders and files.

    To find files you shared with people

    Click Shared By Me in the navigation box.

    Files that you shared with specific people are displayed.

    Files that are shared by you might also be public.
    Note: External users do not have access to, nor can they upload to, public folders and files.

    To find community files that you have access to see

    Click Community Files in the navigation box.

    To find public files
    Click Public Files in the navigation box.
    Note: External users do not have access to, nor can they upload to, public folders and files.

    To search by string or by using a wildcard character

    Select a files search category, such as My Files or Shared With Me. Type characters into the search field such as a file name, or a string that contains the wildcard character *, and then click the search icon.

    See Advanced search options for more information.
  2. Do any of the following to further filter or access files:
    Option Description

    To show files by tag

    Expand the Tags or Public Tags section and click a tag in the tag cloud or type a tag in the field and click the search icon to return files with that tag. To learn more about searching for files by using tag filters, see Using file tags.

    You can also open a file to which you have access and see the assigned tags.

    To show files by how they are shared
    You can limit the display of files in a view by how the files are shared.
    1. Click Pinned Files or My Files.
    2. Expand the Sharing section.
    3. Click any of the following links to filter file display:
      • with everyone (public)
      • with one or more people
      • with no one (private)
    1. Click Shared With Me or Shared By Me.
    2. Expand the Sharing section.
    3. Click and public or and not public. Or find a specific person by typing their name in the search field.
    Note: External users do not have access to, nor can they upload to, public folders and files.

    To show files by date
    Expand the Date Updated section and click any of the following links:
    • Today
    • Last 7 days
    • Last 30 days
    • Last 365 days
    Expand the date section. It might be any of the following, depending on the file list you are viewing:
    • The Date Updated section is in the Pinned Files and My Files lists.
    • The Date Shared section is in the Shared With Me and Shared By Me lists.
    • The Date Created section is in the Public Files list.
      Note: External users do not have access to, nor can they upload to, public folders and files.

    File dates also appear in the various file list views.

    To show other people's files that you can edit

    In the Shared With Me view, expand the Role section, and then click editor.

    To show your files that other people can edit

    In the Shared By Me view, expand the Role section, and then click editor.

    To add columns to a view

    In any folder view, click Customize. Select data to display in columns in the view, and then click Show.

    To download all the files in a view

    Click Download All Files to download a compressed file that contains all of the files in the view, including files not on the current page. The compressed file can be a maximum of 4 GB.

    If any of the file names you are downloading to the compressed file contain non-English characters, you can use the Global (default) setting. This setting informs the compression program to use UTF-8 characters so that all file name characters can be properly processed during compression. If the file names inside the compressed file are not displayed correctly after you choose the Global (default) setting, click Global (default), specify a language value when prompted, and reprocess the download.

    Note: If you perform multiple compressed file downloads, the first is named files.zip. Subsequent downloads are named the same but with numbers appended, such as files(1).zip, files(2).zip.

    To receive feed notifications when changes are made to a view

    Click Feed for These Files and create a feed reader subscription as prompted.