Office Live
What is Office Live?
Office Live is a scaled down version of Microsoft Office accessible over the
internet via a web browser. You can access it from anywhere as long as you
have an internet connection.
It features Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote.
Using Office Live with your SkyDrive
Office Live integrates tightly with SkyDrive (which is the default storage
location for Office Live documents). When you log into either SkyDrive or
Office Live you will see the contents of your SkyDrive, you’ll also notice that
you have the option to create new documents.
Working with Office Live documents
When you log into Office Live you will see a screen similar to the one shown
below, this will display any existing files currently saved on your SkyDrive
(including Office and non-Office files).
Uploading new files
To upload new files click ‘Add Files’. In the dialog box that appears you can
then select the file(s) you want to upload and click ‘Open’. The selected file(s)
will then be uploaded to your SkyDrive – you’ll see a progress indicator in the
bottom right corner of the screen indicating the upload progress – depending
on the size of the file(s) it may take a few moments to complete the upload.
When the upload is complete you’ll see the file(s) listed along with the others
in the main ‘My Files’ area.
Creating new files
You can create new Office documents directly on your SkyDrive using Office
Live. Click the relevant icon to create a new Office document.
From left to right the icons correspond to: Word, Excel, PowerPoint and
OneNote.
You will be prompted to name your document. After typing in a name and
clicking create you will be presented with a new blank file.
Working with existing files
To open an Office document that is stored on your SkyDrive simply click on it.
The file will open in viewing mode initially but you can click ‘Edit in Browser’ to
make changes online, or ‘Open in Word’ to download and open the file using
Microsoft Word on your computer (the latter option assumes that you have
Microsoft Office installed on your machine).
If you choose to ‘Open in Word’ you will be prompted for your Windows Live
credentials. Your Office Live ID is your University email address in the format
[email protected], the password is the same one that you use to log
into student PCs. If you’re using the full version of an Office program
(installed on your PC as opposed to an Office Live application) to edit a file
you’ve opened from your SkyDrive, when you click ‘Save’ the changes will be
saved directly back to your SkyDrive.
Remember you can save any kind of the file to your SkyDrive, but only Word,
Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote files are editable using Office Live.
There are many extra options within SkyDrive and Office Live (for example
the ability to revert to a previous version of s document and the ability to share
files with other users). There is also a smartphone app available that allows
you to access your SkyDrive/Office Live files on the move. It is beyond the
scope of this introductory guide to cover these topics, but they are generally
very intuitive to use and further help is available directly from Microsoft at
http://explore.live.com/skydrive-help-center.