Online storage is very convenient. You can always access your documents and it is easy to share them. Microsoft Office has a strong preference for its own OneDrive, but you don't have to share that love. With a little bit of skill, you can also link Office to Google Drive or Dropbox.
Tip 01: Default OneDrive
It has long been common in companies that you can always access your documents to view or edit them, and sharing with colleagues always takes little more than a few clicks. For a long time, home users could only dream of this. Email was the only way to share documents. And then came the storage services like Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive. Also read: The 9 best free cloud services under the microscope.
Suddenly you could store your documents from your own home and without any effort or expense, so that they were always accessible. And sharing was suddenly very possible. OneDrive now plays a prominent role in recent versions of Microsoft Office. Just click on Save file in Word or Excel and OneDrive is the first place to keep your documents.
OneDrive limits storage
This fall, Microsoft surprised friend and foe with the message that it would significantly limit online storage in OneDrive. According to Microsoft because it was abused, but why punish all regular users and even those who paid for their online storage?! The changes could have major consequences for those who already made significant use of OneDrive. For example, the free storage will be reduced from 15 to 5 GB and the extra 15 GB for photo storage will even be dropped altogether. Paying Office 365 customers had unlimited storage and now only 1 TB. If you want more, you have to pay.
Tip 02: Google Drive
Using Office with a Google Drive or Dropbox starts with installing software on the PC that shows the cloud storage as a local hard drive. Office then suddenly sees that storage space and can use it to save or open documents. OneDrive also works like this, it is even standard in Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. If you want to use Google Drive, go to www.google.com/drive/download and click on Download drive. Then click Mac and PC / Accept and Install. Download and install the Google Drive sync software. When the installation is complete, a wizard will help you configure it. click on To work and on the next screen sign in to Google Drive with your Google account and password. After that, accept all the default options and finally close with a click on Ready. When you now start Windows Explorer, you will also see a Google Drive in the list of folders.
Tip 03: Link Dropbox
If you prefer Dropbox to Google Drive or use both, install the Dropbox software on your PC. To do this, go to www.dropbox.com/install and click Free download. The installation is only a few steps and much more than every time Next one click is not necessary to install Dropbox. At the end of the installation, log in with your username and password and open Windows Explorer. You can see that in addition to possibly already Google Drive, Dropbox is also suddenly in Windows Explorer. You can open and save documents there.
Tip 04: Save and open
Now that Google Drive and Dropbox are directly in Windows Explorer, you can save and open files directly from Word, Excel and other Office programs. click on Save file and click To leaf through. Click now Google Drive or Dropbox and select the folder where you want to save the file and choose Save. It is no different when opening a document, only you choose File / Open. Then select Google Drive or Dropbox and browse to the document you want to open. Select it and choose To open.
