One easy way to find files is using All My Files. Or, if you know where they are, you can go straight to them with the Finder.
However, another way to find things is using Spotlight.
Spotlight lives in the top right corner of you screen in the menu bar, and looks like a magnifying glass. You can also get to it by pressing ⌘+[space
].
Here, type anything you're looking for. If you know what you are looking for, type it's name, and Spotlight will put it at the top of the list. You can type in a word and it'll define it. It'll do math for you. It can find folders, files, people, emails, and websites. You can also ask it things like "pages from last week" and it'll give you a list of things you typed or were typed last week.