[HOWTO] Make it easy to find recent files using Avant Window Navigator applets

If you have no organized way of keeping your files, you will find it difficult to find the last file you viewed or last file you were working with. This can be overcome with two simple AWN applets, namely “Related Applet” and “Stacks”.

Add the Related Applet and when you launch an application, the latest and most used files related to the application are shown on clicking the applet icon. If you click the related applet without an active application, you will be able to view the files that were worked on or viewed by any application and if you click them, the file will be opened in respective application.

With Stacks applets, you can monitor changes to any folder (or multiple folders if you use multiple stacks) and open the files without having to open the folder and look for the contents there. If you have a Downloads folder or a “unorganized” folder (where you keep all your new unorganized files), you can add them to stacks. To add a folder to stacks, right click on the Stacks Applet icon and choose Preferences. Then, in the Backend tab, select a folder. You may want to change “Arrange items” settings to “By date, Descending” if you wish to monitor the latest files in the directory. Now, when you click the stacks icon, you will see the files in the directory and open them with a single click with the default application.