Jan 18, 2017

More and more these days, individuals and organisations alike are starting to embrace The Cloud as a medium for carrying out everyday tasks. OneDrive is one such service. But what is it?

The Cloud

To understand what OneDrive is, we first need to understand what “The Cloud” is. The term “Cloud” simply refers to services that are provided via the Internet. An example of a cloud service that many people have been using for 20 years is web-based email; for example, Hotmail, Gmail or Yahoo! Mail. You can log in to your email account from any computer connected to the Internet.

Today, there are thousands of online services from a multitude of companies, providing people with everything from streaming video and music (like Netflix and Spotify) to web-site creation tools (like WordPress).

Microsoft has an ever-increasing number of its products being made available this way. Their Office 365 services, which can be subscribed to by anyone, provide access to many online tools such as email, communication and collaboration platforms (like Yammer and Skype for Business), online versions of the Office 2016 applications (like Word Online) and file storage and management (SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business).

Your educational institution or organisation that you work for may be starting to adopt some of these new technologies.

OneDrive versus OneDrive for Business.

One thing that should be made clear is the distinction between OneDrive and OneDrive for Business. They are separate products but do similar things. Many people, such as myself, therefore have two OneDrives!

OneDrive is an online storage service that anyone can have for free by creating a Microsoft account. If you have a Hotmail or Outlook.com email account, then you have a Microsoft account and therefore have OneDrive. You can store all your documents, photos and videos there and share them (ie provide access to them) with others.

OneDrive for Business is provided with a work or school account (often via an Office 365 subscription). It also lets you store files and share, but also provides other more advanced document control and sharing features.

Saving files to OneDrive

If you are using Office 2013 or Office 2016, you can save the files you create directly to OneDrive (or OneDrive for Business) from within the app. When you choose File, Open or File, Save As in Word 2016, for example, you can sign in to either a personal Microsoft account or connect to your work (or school) account so that your OneDrive files are shown.

Accessing files from the web

You can sign in to your account from any web browser, anytime and anywhere to access your files. You can upload files and download copies of files and if you are using a computer that does not have Microsoft Office installed, you can use the online versions of the Office apps.

Accessing files from mobile devices

There is a OneDrive app for iPhone/iPad as well as Android devices. Also, there are apps for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote so you can edit or view your documents on your phone or tablet if necessary.

Syncing files to a Windows PC

With the files that you save or upload to OneDrive, what happens if you are offline? There are OneDrive apps that can be installed on PCs and Macs so that files are synchronised to the computer for offline access. A physical folder is created on your hard disk that contains copies of the files you have in OneDrive and when you open and edit one, the changes get saved to the local copy and also synced to the online version. If you don’t have Internet access at the time, then it simply syncs the file next time you connect. Note that if you have Windows 10, the OneDrive app is installed by default.

Maybe I’ll just keep doing things the way I’ve always done…

If this still sounds all too confusing, take it one step at a time. Get your IT department (or whomever you turn to for tech advice) to get you set up with the OneDrive app and start using it. Practice saving files to OneDrive and accessing them from there. It’s feasible that eventually those shared drives you are so comfortable using now, will disappear one day and you’ll be forced to use OneDrive and other related services. Better to be as prepared as possible and ease into it rather than face a steep learning curve down the road.  

For more information, take a look at our Office 365 courses for Business Professionals.