Find Stuff Quickly on Using Natural Language

CJ Bondy
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If you know the name of a file you are looking for it's always been pretty easy to search for it if it was saved in another location but you can also look for documents by contents.  For instance if I know I wrote something in word last year about "Abiquiu Studio Tour 2018", I can search that and all the documents and emails that term was used in would appear.  (hint... it would be a long list) but you can also use natural language to search your PC or Mac contents.

Trying to find files tucked far away in folders across your Windows PC or Mac can be time-consuming. So, try using Windows Search/Cortana on Windows 10 or Spotlight/Siri on the Mac to find what you're looking for. Just type in your query. Before long, your PC or Mac will find what you need and you'll be off.

Cortana in Windows 10 and Spoplight (or Siri, if you want to talk) are both smart enough to understand natural language searches. So, for example, you can say "show me photos from last week" or "PDFs from December."   

On Windows 10, Cortana is that search bar in the lower left.  Type in what you want.  See those icons at the top,   You can search in apps, in documents or the web.  Once you find what you are looking for click on it and it will open.

In Spotlight click in the upper-right corner of the menu bar, or press Command-Space bar.  Enter what you want to find. You can search for something like “apple store” or “emails from emily”.  To open an item from the results list, double-click the item.