Embodiments of the present invention provide an approach for identifying a most recent version of an electronic file (e.g., prior to or while the electronic file is being opened). In one embodiment, an application programming interface (API), plug-in, or the like, can enable both file management tools and on-line repositories to exchange file information. Along these lines, this approach can be especially useful for common business assets such as textual documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Moreover, this approach is a “pro-active” function in that it does not require the user to consciously seek out and determine if a newer version is available. The implementation of the method performs this function automatically.