Overview: Search trough recent files, sorted by applications like LO Writer etc
When working with files on my PC I often have to go back to recently used files. But I don't always remember exactly what I named them, so I search for something similar, and if I'm lucky it shows up in the Files search box, and if not I have to first open the application I used to work on that file, then open the list of recently used files and select the correct one.
I think it would enhance the productivity of Gnome if the search feature of Activities Overview could have a way to search trough recently opened/used files.
This could work in two ways:
- When searching for anything, if there's a recently used file with those letters in the file name then those files could be displayed in a box below the list of applications. Like the Files box it could be a Recently used box. This could be either one box for all recently used files, or separate boxes for "Recently used in application X" and "Recently used in application Y" boxes.
2a) When searching for the name of an application, again the regular list of applications should be at the top, but immediately beneath that there could be box showing your list of recent files from that application. This list would straight up be a chronological list of recent files, not sorted by any search. Such that if I search "Wri" and LO Writer is the first result, then underneath is a box with a list of my recently used files from LO Writer.
2b) Alternatively the list would not be in a regular looking search results box, but would be shown in some way upon right clicking the application icon. This would also need to be accessible trough keyboard, maybe with Alt+Down arrow? This list cold maybe look something like the dropdown under the new Quick settings pills?
- and 2) are not mutually exclusive.
The important thing is that this list of recently used files should be taken from the applications themselves, so that no matter if they are actually recently used or not, if they where the last files you used in those applications, they show up in the search.
I do have the Recent Items extension installed, but a) search is better, b) it does not register everything and c) things can quickly get pushed out of the list, especially if you look trough a lot of images for example. This last point is why the search results must be taken from the applications own list of recently used files.
I understand that this might be very tricky, and might even not be possible to do without all third party applications implementing some "recent files" API. I'm no programmer, so I don't know. I just wanted to throw the idea out there, and hope to hear what you think. For me it would be a great quality of life enhancer.
Thanks!