Tips for Finding a File on Macs

That scary feeling when your student (or you!) can't find the file you have been working on.  
Here are a couple helpful tips: 

1.  When in her finder click on "all my files" and browse through them 
2.  Go to software program used to create file (word, keynote, pages, etc.) and try to "open recent items" from the file menu at the top 
3. Try searching for the file name using the spotlight.