One of the things we occasionally hear from users is that they can't find something that they or another teammate squirreled away somewhere deep inside OnePlace. OnePlace allows you to attach things to workplaces, projects and tasks, which is great from an organizational standpoint, however it also means there are lots of places where you can stash things. Finding something isn't always easy if you don't remember exactly where in your hierarchy you put it.

We're currently in the process of evaluating this and investigating ways to eliminate this issue or at least reduce it. In the meantime, here are some tips from my personal usage of OnePlace that hopefully will help you find things more quickly/efficiently.

Use Search

Using the OnePlace Search feature is most likely the easiest way to find something if you remember anything at all about the title or description of the thing you're looking for. For example, suppose you want to find a file that Bill uploaded which contains meeting notes from a recent status meeting your team held. Click on the Search icon in the toolbar at the top of the page (or use the "S" hot key), select "Files" in the drop down list, and type "Team Status" in the input box. OnePlace will find all files you have visibility to with "Team Status" anywhere within the file's title or description fields.

To learn more about using the Search feature, click the following link: http://help.oneplacehome.com/howtos/usingsearch

Check Team Activity

Sometimes you know that a teammate added something somewhere, but that's about all your caffeine-starved brain remembers at 8:00 in the morning. This happens to me a lot. When this is the case, I like to go to that teammate's "Person" page, and use the "Activity" panel to find what I'm looking for. More often than not, this technique works for me. To access someone's Person page, click on the People icon in the toolbar at the top of the page, and then click on that person's picture.

Check New Notifications

OnePlace does a good job of letting you know when a teammate adds something, by sending you a notification to your Inbasket. You can also view your new notifications via the "New Notifications" panel on your Home page. Often times I'll use this panel to help me quickly locate things that have been added recently.

Use View Settings

Many of the views in OnePlace allow you to customize your view of the data shown in that view. You can filter, sort and group the data in a view using something we call "View Settings". I like to use view settings to find things, by grouping the data in a certain way (most often by "Created by"), and sorting the data in a certain way (most often by "Created on"). I may also apply a filter to reduce the amount of data in the list. Using view settings can be an effective way to zero in on the thing you are looking for.

To learn more about view settings, click the following link: http://help.oneplacehome.com/introduction#view_settings

Use Recent Items

OnePlace keeps track of data as you access it, and provides a convenient way to quickly get back to something if you've used it recently. Just click on the Recent Items icon in the toolbar at the top of the page, and look at the items shown in the list. Perhaps what you are looking for it in the list. Note that you can increase the number of recent items that OnePlace will keep track of by editing your user preferences and changing the "Number of items to show in the Recent Items menu" preference.

Insert Data Links

This isn't necessarily a technique for finding data, however it's a technique you can use to allow others to easily find data you've created. A data link is a special syntax you can insert in various places in OnePlace that references a piece of data, which OnePlace turns into a hyperlink, making it easy for someone else to access that data.

To learn more about using data links, click the following link: http://help.oneplacehome.com/howtos/createdata_links.

Do you have any other techniques not listed above that you use to help you with this? If so, please share by leaving a comment below.