Ian, I assume you downloaded the old Excel files you refer to from the Internet. I do so because that is how files normally end up in the 'Downloads' folder.
If not, then the files are very likely in your 'Documents' folder. However, if you import files by means other that the Internet, and you don't think carefully about what you are doing, then the files could be anywhere. Are you confident that you know how you have structured all of the folders on your Mac, and that you know exactly in which folder you stored them? Too many computer users have a totally unstructured folder structure, and therefore have lots of trouble finding documents. Unfortunately, if your old Excel files were created on a Mac then they will not have a file extension. This is because before MacOS 10 the Macintosh OS did not need file extensions to work fully. If you are lucky, your old Excel files come from a Microsoft OS computer, in which case they will have file extensions that you can search for. In that case: 1 go to the Finder 2 press Command-F 3 choose to search for 'Name', then 'ends with' and enter '.xls' in the text box. 4 keep fingers crossed while all your Excel files appear in the search results 5 if in luck press the '+" and add a second search rule where 'Created date' is 'before' a certain date. 6 improve your filing sytem and move all the relevant files into a relevant, well-named folder. 7 if the above does not work because the files don't have an extension then at least search for old files and try to use Excel to open each one. On 14/03/2012, at 5:46 PM, Ian Reid wrote: > Hi Ronni and Daniel > > I have a current need to be going through and extracting data from old, > paper, share and dividend records, some as old as 40 years. I have some quite > extensive and useful printouts of Excel spreadsheets on file, dating up to > 1998. I had assumed that the originals would have disappeared at some change > of computer or would be unreadable. > > Purely by chance I discovered one by Spotlight which is readable but have > been unable to locate others. If there are any, I am sure they would be in > the same folder, in Downloads. Hence my interest in seeing a display of all > my Downloads again. > > I clearly recall thinking that this new facility would only be useful to > small users like me with a few 'screens-full' of documents, not heavy users > like you with acres of 'screens-full'. > > Kind regards > > Ian Regards, Ray Forma Mob +61 (0) 428 596938 -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml> Guidelines - <http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml> Settings & Unsubscribe - <http://lists.wamug.org.au/listinfo/wamug.org.au-wamug>
