Tips for working online

When you are writing a new document in Word for the web, remember to give it a name.

Click the placeholder name in the taskbar, just above the ribbon, and type.

This automatically becomes the name of the document as well as the document file.

Because Word for the web saves your document automatically, you might not give much thought to the file.

But if you need to find it, look to the left of the name. In this case, the file is saved in the Documents folder on OneDrive.

To go to the file, click the folder, and Word for the web closes.

You can work with your online files pretty much the same way you work with files on your computer.

Here is the document we were just working on. If you click the file, the document opens in Word for the web.

 

But to work with the file itself, hold the mouse pointer over the file, and click the check box.

Now with the file selected, you have a whole bunch of things you can do with it.

Use the commands in the menu bar up here, or right-click the file.

For example, you can Download it, Rename it, Delete it, Move to or Copy to to another location on OneDrive, or view the Version history and Properties.

Let's say we want to move some files to a new folder. Select the files you want to move and right-click one of them.

Click Move to, and New folder.

Type a name for the folder, and press Enter.

Then, click Move.

Now you can click the folder to open it and access the files.

So again, you can open a document in Word for the web by simply clicking the file.

But if you have a recent version of Office installed on your computer, you can right-click the file and click Open in Word to open it in Word on your desktop instead.

Click Yes to dismiss the warning.

If you have Word 2013, it actually looks a lot like Word for the web, except you have a lot more options.

For example, you have more PAGE LAYOUT options and you can add a Table of Contents.

Keep in mind, Word doesn't save automatically like Word for the web.

So if you make a change, you need to press Ctrl+S, or click Save on the Quick Access Toolbar.

But when you do, the document is saved in the cloud on OneDrive, not on your Computer.

So later you can go back to OneDrive and click the file to open it in Word for the web. And you immediately see the changes you made in Word, including things that you can't do in Word for the web.

Click EDIT DOCUMENT, and Edit in Word for the web, to continue working on the document.

Later, if you decide to switch back to desktop Word, go up to the ribbon and click OPEN IN WORD. And click Yes to dismiss the warning.

When you open the document this way, you can work on it in either desktop Word or Word for the web.

Being able to edit a file in two places at once isn't that useful, if you are working on one computer. But imagine, if the document was open on two or more computers, being edited by two or more people.

Now, you have the essence of collaborating online.

And to set that up, you start by sharing the document.

Sharing allows other people to link to the document over the Internet.

You can share a document from OneDrive or within Word for the web.

It's the same process either way.

Click SHARE, then decide how you want to initiate sharing. You can Invite people or Get a link.

Let's click Get a link.

Then, click the arrow under Choose an option, and decide what people can do with your document.

If you click View only, people who click the link will be able to view the document, but not make changes to it.

If you want them to be able to make changes, click Edit.

Public is like View only, except that people will also be able to search for the document, even if you don't share the link.

After you choose an option, click Create link.

Click Shorten link if you want people to link to your document from a tweet, or in an IM.

Then, click the link to select it and press Ctrl+C to copy it to the clipboard.

One way to distribute the link is to send it in email. Open a new email message and address it to the people you want to receive the link. Then, press Ctrl+V to paste the link in the message.

Keep in mind that anyone who clicks the link can access the document, so be careful who you send it to.

If you want more control of who gets the link, use the Invite people option instead. When recipients get the email, they click the link, and the document opens in their browsers.

Then, they can click EDIT IN BROWSER.

Now you and the others can edit the document online.

And if you are all working on it at the same time, you can immediately see what the others are changing, and markers in the document show you where they are working. So now you can collaborate online in real time.

For more details on sharing or working with documents in Word for the web, check out the links in the course summary.