OneDrive and Office Online

Introduction

Watch the video (3:37). Need help?

Whether you're working at home or the office, OneDrive makes it easy to create new documents and share your files. You can even collaborate on a document with others. 

In this lesson, you'll learn how to create documents and folders. We'll also talk about how to share your files with different groups of people, as well as the various collaboration tools available in Office Online.

Types of Office documents

Office Online allows you to create several types of documents, including:

• Word documents 
• Excel workbooks 
• PowerPoint presentations 
• OneNote notebooks 

To create a new Office document:

In this example, we will create a Word document.

1. Click the Create button, then select the desired document type from the drop-down menu.
   
   Creating a new document
2. Your document will be created and opened.
   A new Word document in Office Online

To create a new folder:

1. Click the Create button, then select Folder from the drop-down menu.
   Creating a folder
2. Enter a name for the new folder, then click Create.
   Naming a new folder
3. Your folder will be created. Click the folder to open it.
   Clicking the newly created folder
4. You can create new documents inside the folder by following the same steps as above. Just click the Create button, then select the type of document you wish to create.
   An empty folder in OneDrive

You'll learn more about moving existing files into folders in Lesson 4 of this tutorial, Upload, Sync, and Manage Files.

Opening documents

You can open and edit your documents in your web browser with Office Online. If you have Microsoft Office installed on your computer, you can also open and edit them with the desktop Office programs. While editing your documents with Office Online is convenient, it does have fewer features and editing tools than the desktop Office programs.

To open a document with Office Online:

1. Locate and click the document you wish to open. In this example, we'll select a PowerPoint file.
   Selecting a file in OneDrive
2. A preview of your file will open. In the top toolbar, click Edit Presentation, then select Edit in PowerPoint Online from the drop-down menu.
   Clicking Edit in PowerPoint Online
3. Your document will appear. You can now edit it with Office Online.
   The file open in Office Online

To close the document and return to OneDrive, click the OneDrive link at the top of the page.

Going back to OneDrive

To open a document with a desktop Office program:

You will need to have a version of Office installed on your computer to use this option.

1. Locate and click the document you wish to open.
2. A preview of your document will open. In the top toolbar, click Edit Presentation, then select Edit in PowerPoint.
   Clicking Edit in PowerPoint
   
3. Follow the instructions, and your document will open in its desktop Office program.

When you're ready to return to OneDrive, simply save the document within the desktop program and close it. The changes you made will be saved to the file on OneDrive as well.

Saving in the desktop version of PowerPoint

Sharing files and folders

Watch the video (4:12). Need help?

When you use OneDrive to share a document with someone, you're actually giving that person access to the exact same file you're working on. This lets you and the people you share with edit the same document without having to keep track of multiple versions.

There are two ways to share in OneDrive. You can share:

• Individual files
• Entire folders and all of the files they contain

To share a file or folder:

1. Hover the mouse over the file or folder you wish to share, then click the check box that appears.
   
   Selecting a file or folder
2. Click the Details pane button in the top-right corner of the screen to open the Details pane (if it's not already visible).
3. The Details pane will appear on the right side of the screen. Locate the Sharing group, then click Share.
   Opening the Share options in the Details pane
   
4. A pop-up window will appear. Enter the email addresses of the people you want to share with, add a note (if desired), and set sharing options. When you're ready, click Share.
   Sharing a file
5. Your file or folder will be shared.
   
   

To edit the permissions of a shared file or folder, go back to the Details pane and use the controls in the Sharing group.

Editing sharing permissions

Remember, when you share a folder, all of the documents in that folder will be shared. You cannot set individual sharing settings for documents within a shared folder.

Sharing tools

Once you've shared a document with others, they'll be able to access it at any time. If you gave them permission, they'll also be able to edit it with Office Online. In fact, multiple people can edit the same shared document at the same time.

As other people make changes to a document you have open, you'll be able to see the location of their cursors, although you won't be able to see their edits until they save their changes. These changes will be applied to all versions of the document.

Note: This aspect of sharing can be a bit unpredictable. When you're editing at the same time as other people, the changes they make might not appear immediately. You may need to refresh and reopen the document to see their most recent edits.

Multiple people editing a document at once

You can communicate about shared documents by adding document comments. When you comment on a document you've shared with other people, those people will be able to see and respond to your comment.

• To add a document comment, go to OneDrive, make sure the Details pane is visible, and select the document. You can type your comment in the Comments section at the bottom of the Details pane.
  
  Adding a comment to a shared document