Microsoft has released a lot of web services, but one that recently became available could be extremely beneficial to college students, especially when collaborating on class projects.
SkyDrive is essentially a cloud to store your information and files. It works much like Google Docs, but with many more features. And very important to college students – it’s free!
Yesterday, I spent some time using SkyDrive in relation to Office applications: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and OneNote. Here’s what I found:
Convenient Versatility
The first feature I got excited about was that SkyDrive can be used on either a PC or a Mac, which saves the user inconvenient trips to crowded computer labs.
Word Collaboration
I was most impressed with SkyDrive’s integration with Word, because it makes co-authoring papers so much easier. If some students are working on the paper from the Word desktop application and others are writing inside the SkyDrive program, they can still see each other’s changes in real time. This is especially helpful with features that are only available from the Word desktop app and not in SkyDrive, such as automatically updating bibliographies.
The only drawback to SkyDrive with Word is that the latest versions of Office are required (2010 for PC, 2011 for Mac) in order to work with the desktop application.
Powerful PowerPoints
The PowerPoint aspect of SkyDrive was also impressive. As with Word, the co-authoring feature is available here. This would be helpful when compiling long presentations. However, PowerPoint utility in SkyDrive seems to be best limited to small changes, rather than creating full slides; it does not have the full range of features as the desktop application of PowerPoint.
Excellent Spreadsheets
I could see where using Microsoft Excel with SkyDrive would be useful; files can be saved and uploaded to SharePoint, which is another great Microsoft collaboration software that many IT courses use. Here too, within the desktop application the co-authoring feature enables updates to Excel files, (changes to formulas for example), in real time.
One Last Note
The last Office application I reviewed in conjunction with SkyDrive is Microsoft OneNote. OneNote can be used as a brainstorming tool for presentations and papers, with the co-authoring feature available in the OneNote web application as well as the desktop application. The features available in the OneNote web application – like SkyDrive – a are limited; it is best used for making small changes, rather than creating full documents. The OneNote web application seems best used for sharing photos with family and friends in an online folder that anyone with permission can access.
SkyDrive is an excellent – free – solution for students who need to collaborate on large projects, and want an option with more features than Google Docs. As long as you have the latest versions of Microsoft Office, collaborating with team members in real time is a simple, yet powerful way to get tasks accomplished.
About the Author: Erica Roberts graduated from Oregon State University in 2011 with a B.S. in Marketing. She is an avid reader and writer, and is extremely passionate about social media. Erica currently holds several part time marketing positions, including a social media internship with YouTern, and is searching for a full time career. Connect with Erica on LinkedIn and Twitter.
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