Any Mac experts - need help

[spock]

I have Word for Mac on my computer. Under File, instead of "Open Recent" I accidentally hit the "Clear Recent" that showed all of the documents I had been working on for the last few weeks. Is there some way to reverse this? Thanks

[TheGITM]

I consulted the great Google. This is the best answer I could find:

go to finder, create a new Smart Folder, with two search criterias:
kind = word document
last opened date is within last XXXX months

This should show you all of the documents you have recently opened.

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by spock

I have Word for Mac on my computer. Under File, instead of "Open Recent" I accidentally hit the "Clear Recent" that showed all of the documents I had been working on for the last few weeks. Is there some way to reverse this? Thanks

Do you use Time Machine for back ups?
If so, you could go back a day or two and call up your status before the inadvertent move happened. That's what I would try first.

[spock]

TheGITM, Thank you for the advice - unfortunately that didn't work. I do appreciate you chiming in though.

Andre, I do have Time Machine and an back-up external hard drive. So, if I go back and restore to a hour or so before my big screw up, would all of the cleared files return as if I had not done anything? I realize, anything I've done after the reset time would be gone, but that is very little.

[Gitfiddlemann]

Originally Posted by spock

Andre, I do have Time Machine and an back-up external hard drive. So, if I go back and restore to a hour or so before my big screw up, would all of the cleared files return as if I had not done anything? I realize, anything I've done after the reset time would be gone, but that is very little.

Try it. Just click on the clock icon on the top bar and select Enter Time Machine.
The little red line at the right should indicate when your last back up was. Call up that date and see if your files appear on that desktop. There is a "Recent" menu item on left that you can click on.
Hope it works for you!

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by spock

TheGITM, Thank you for the advice - unfortunately that didn't work. I do appreciate you chiming in though.

Andre, I do have Time Machine and an back-up external hard drive. So, if I go back and restore to a hour or so before my big screw up, would all of the cleared files return as if I had not done anything? I realize, anything I've done after the reset time would be gone, but that is very little.

I hesitate to say, but I sync all important files in Google or Microsoft tenants, and can use Time Machine in a way to still get my latest versions of files that way.

If you just know where you keep your files, a safe bet is navigate or path to them and let that recent items list rebuild. You want that basic skill of knowing where your stuff is anyway. You want matters where your Time Machine backup and data mirrored to your cloud tenant can let your computer be gone and you have no problems with a sure and fast setup of a replacement. Your important stuff should be backed up in two different ways and be in two different places.