Many people have grown familiar with OneDrive, the cloud storage service by Microsoft that works well by itself or with Windows and Microsoft Office products. Whether you have experience with the service or not, you will discover that OneDrive can help you work faster and smarter in your personal and business roles. Try the following fifteen tips and tricks to get even more out of OneDrive.
1. Access Local Files Remotely with Fetch
Use the Fetch feature of OneDrive to gain remote access to the files on your computer, even if you have never uploaded them to your OneDrive account. Using Fetch, you can stream videos and browse networks accessible from your computer, even as you travel or work at customer sites. Fetch only works for powered-on machines that have active Internet connections, so make sure you turn yours on before you leave the office.
2. Integrate Microsoft Delve to Search and Share Easily
Microsoft Delve makes finding and sharing your files easy. Integrate Delve to search for people and manage your social networking accounts in one simple environment.
3. Use IFTTT to Automate OneDrive Transfers
A free service called “If This, Then That” gives you an easy way to automate actions on your computer. Using the tool, you use simple, plain language tools to build “recipes” that automatically perform needed tasks on your computer. For example, you can use IFTTT to download Facebook images that have you tagged to your OneDrive account.
4. Set Up a Link in SharePoint to OneDrive for Business
Organizations that use OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Server 2010 or SharePoint Online can use administrative access to do this in order to transfer files quickly from SharePoint to OneDrive, giving you a smooth migration path.
5. Create and Host an Online Survey
Use your OneDrive Business account to create and host online surveys. While logged in, you can click “New” from the menu and then choose the “Excel Survey” option. Create a survey to gather information from your website visitors that can contribute to your business.
6. Stream Photos and Videos to Chromecast from OneDrive
A new option beginning with version 3.2.0 of the OneDrive app lets you stream photos and videos to Google Chromecast devices for viewing on large screens and projectors. To access this feature, select “Media” and then tap the “Cast” icon.
7. How to Change the OneDrive Default Folder
When you use OneDrive with Windows 10, you can change the default location the app uses to save files on your computer. The feature lets you choose to save files to an external or secondary drive, conserving space on the drive that stores Windows.
8. Windows 10 Mobile Automatic Backup to OneDrive
If you have a Windows 10 Mobile device, you can set it to save device backups automatically to your OneDrive account. Visit “Settings” and then choose “Backup” from the “Update & Security” menu. You can also use the menu option to perform manual backups.
9. Read OneDrive Files Offline
The Sync option saves all your OneDrive files to the folder of your choice, so you can work with your data even in the absence of an Internet connection.
10. Access File Versions
Use Microsoft OneDrive to provide access to old versions of your documents. The feature means that if you accidentally delete information from a file and save it, you can recover the information.
11. Get More Space with Office 365
The free 5 GB your get with OneDrive might not meet your demands, so you can expand your storage by buying 50 GB for $1.99 or choosing an Office 365 plan, such as one for $5/month, which offers 1 TB of storage, Skype for Business, Exchange and a 50 GB mailbox.
12. Stream Music from OneDrive
Use the Microsoft Groove Music application to stream music from your OneDrive without downloading it to your computer or device.
13. Set Up PIN Code on Mobile
Get additional security for your OneDrive files by configuring an access PIN. On iOS devices, the feature also works with Touch ID.
14. Save Outlook.com Attachments to OneDrive
When you use Outlook and OneDrive, you can save your attachments directly to the cloud. The feature saves your hard drive space and lets you get easy access to the files from any computer or device. Right-click on the file attachment and then choose to save it to OneDrive. You can also easily attach OneDrive files to the emails you send via email.
15. Embed an Office Document in a Webpage
You can embed any office document stored in your OneDrive account into a Web page, simplifying the process of providing high-quality online content. Right-click on your file and click “Embed” to generate an HTML code you can insert into your website.
As you try the above listed OneDrive tips and tricks, you will likely discover even more ways you can make OneDrive work for you.
John Porter (Facebook | Twitter ) is a Southampton-based freelance writer and a tech head, so he enjoys writing about new technology and is particularly interested in all types of gadgets and productivity apps.
