Tech Tip of the Week: Use Search to Find Things Faster

Sometimes the quickest way to get where you need to go is to skip the menus, folders, and scrolling, and use search instead.

Many of the tools we use every day have a built-in search feature. You can search for an email in Outlook or Gmail, a file in OneDrive or Google Drive, a student document on your computer, a setting in an app, or even a specific word inside a long webpage or PDF.

One of the most useful shortcuts to know is:

Ctrl + F on Windows
Command + F on Mac

This shortcut opens a search box that lets you search within the page, document, PDF, spreadsheet, or email thread you are currently viewing. Instead of scrolling through several pages looking for one piece of information, you can type a keyword and jump straight to the part you need.

For example, if you are viewing a long staff handbook, policy document, meeting agenda, or instruction sheet, you could press Ctrl + F and search for words like “password,” “attendance,” “report card,” “printer,” or “deadline.” This is often much faster than reading or scrolling through the entire document.

This also works well when you are looking through long email conversations. Searching for a student name, form name, date, or key phrase can help you find the exact message you need without digging through your inbox manually.

A few search tips:

Try searching for the most unique word related to what you need. For example, searching for “permission” may work better than searching for “form.”

Check your spelling if nothing comes up. Search tools are helpful, but they usually need the word to be spelled the same way it appears in the document.

Use fewer words if your first search does not work. Instead of searching for “how to reset my password,” try searching for “password” or “reset.”

Try this:
The next time you are on a long webpage, PDF, spreadsheet, or email thread, press Ctrl + F or Command + F, type one keyword, and see how quickly you can jump to the information you need.

A small shortcut like this can save a surprising amount of time over the course of a busy school day.