How to find a spreadsheet by describing it

Somewhere there’s a spreadsheet with the event budget broken down by vendor, and a column of quotes someone collected last fall. It might be called Budget FINAL.xlsx, or Book1.xlsx, or export_2025-09-14.csv because it came out of an accounting tool. You know what it tracks. You don’t know what it’s named or which of three drives it ended up in.

This guide looks at how people normally find a spreadsheet they can describe but can’t name, and then shows how to find it in Fabric by describing its contents and asking the AI to read it.

How people usually track down a spreadsheet

Excel’s recent files list and the Google Sheets home screen cover the files you’ve touched lately. For anything older, people search their file system or Google Drive by name. Spreadsheets are hard on that approach, because so many are exports with tool-generated names, or copies that picked up “(1)” and “v2” as they moved around.

The next step is usually guessing at a word in a column header and searching for that, then opening candidates and scanning their tabs. A spreadsheet is mostly numbers and short labels, so a guessed word can easily miss. Our Learn article on searching Google Drive by what’s inside files covers what Drive’s own search can do here.

When that fails, people message whoever built it. That works if the person is still around and remembers. For a freelancer or a small team, it often means sifting through email attachments from months ago instead.

Step 1: Bring your spreadsheets into one library

Drag CSV and XLSX files into Fabric, paste them, or click Upload a file. Uploading copes with large batches, so a whole folder of exports can come in together. For a spreadsheet that arrived as an attachment, forward the email to your Fabric email address and the file comes with it.

If you work from Finder or File Explorer, install the desktop app. It mounts Fabric as a virtual drive, so you can save exports straight into it from Excel or a browser. Files there stream when opened and take no space on your computer.

Google Sheets come through a Google Drive connection. Install it from the Fabric marketplace and sign in to grant permissions. Google Drive is a two-way sync, so the sheets appear inside Fabric and stay current. Connections need a paid plan.

Step 2: Search for what the spreadsheet tracks

Click Search or press Cmd+F (Mac) / Ctrl+F (Windows) and describe the sheet: “vendor quotes for the fall offsite”, “monthly ad spend by channel”, or “guest list with dietary requirements”. Search is hybrid, so it matches by meaning as well as by keyword. You don’t need the exact column names.

The reason a description works is what Fabric does when a file arrives. It creates embeddings for search by meaning, writes a summary of the file, and extracts attributes like content type and the concepts involved. A spreadsheet that tracks invoice payments can match a search for “who still owes us money” through that summary.

Use the kind-of-item filter to keep results to files, and add a tag or folder location filter if you know roughly where it might be.

Step 3: Ask the AI assistant to read through the candidates

The AI assistant can read CSV and XLSX files, which helps when several spreadsheets look alike from the outside. Ask “which spreadsheet lists the venue deposits we paid in September?” and it searches Fabric and your connected apps, then answers with clickable references to the files it drew on.

To keep it focused, open the folder where the file probably lives and open the assistant there. It limits itself to that folder and analyzes everything inside. You can also right-click the folder and add it to the assistant’s context without opening it.

Follow-up questions narrow things further. If the first answer finds last year’s budget, ask for the version that includes the catering line, and it carries on from there.

Step 4: Use one spreadsheet to find its relatives

Spreadsheets come in families: monthly reports, quarterly exports, a template copied for each client. If you can find one member, select it and run a similarity search. Fabric returns items that resemble it in meaning, which tends to surface the other months, the earlier drafts and the related notes.

This also helps when the spreadsheet you remember was a later copy of something. Find the original template, run a similarity search from it, and the client versions built from it are likely to appear alongside. From there, asking the assistant which one mentions a particular client or month usually settles it.

When the family is large and you need to know which copy is current, how to tell which version of a file is the latest covers that problem on its own.

Step 5: Make recurring spreadsheets easier to reach

If you pull the same kind of export every month, set up a smart collection for it. Smart collections fill themselves based on content, so each new export lands there without manual filing. Fabric also suggests tags for each file, and you can add your own tags or a comment when you save something.

Folders are still available if you like them, but search and the assistant don’t depend on them.

Frequently asked questions

How do I find an Excel file when I don’t know what it’s called?

Describe what it tracks in Fabric search, such as “freelancer invoices for 2025”. Search matches by meaning using the summary and embeddings Fabric creates for each file.

Can Fabric read what’s inside CSV and XLSX files?

Yes. The AI assistant can read CSV and XLSX files, so you can ask it which spreadsheet contains a particular set of figures.

Does it work with Google Sheets?

Yes, through a Google Drive connection, which keeps files in sync in both directions. Connections need a paid plan.

How do I find a CSV export with a meaningless file name?

Search for what the export contains rather than its name, or ask the AI assistant to identify it. Both work from the file’s contents and summary.

Can I ask questions about the figures once I’ve found the file?

Yes. Ask the AI assistant about the spreadsheet and it answers with references to the source. You can save a useful answer as a note.

What if the spreadsheet was sent to me as an attachment?

Forward it to your Fabric email address. It accepts mail from your verified account address, and on a team you can approve extra senders.

Do I need to rename my spreadsheets for this to work?

No. Fabric works from what’s in the file, so names like Book1.xlsx don’t get in the way of finding it.

Is this available on the free plan?

Uploads and limited AI use are on the free plan, which has storage and file size caps. Connecting Google Drive needs a paid plan. Pricing lists what each plan includes.