O
“You’ll see a familiar-looking interface,
although the Ribbon is cut down
compared to the desktop version”
Hidden features
Discover how to make use of f ree OneDrive apps –
and encrypt your most sensitive data
Microsoft Sway is one of three free productivity
apps that link into your OneDrive account.ne of OneDrive’s biggest
selling points is its
support for online
editing of documents
using cloud-based
versions of Microsoft
Office. While feature-limited compared
to the full-blown Office 365 found on
your PC, you’ll find they’re more-than-
capable substitutes when you find
yourself on the road. The simplest way
to access them is through your favourite
web browser – simply browse to the file
in question and double-click it to open
it the appropriate Office app (Word,
Excel or PowerPoint) in a separate
browser tab.
You’ll see a familiar-looking interface,
although the Ribbon is cut-down
compared to the desktop version of
Office. However, it’s easy to navigate
and changes are saved automatically as
you make them. You can also access
each Office app directly by clicking the
app launcher button in the top-left
corner. This takes you to the online
equivalent of the File tab found in the
desktop versions.
One advantage of using Office online
in this way is that you can share files
with others and collaborate on
documents in real time. Click the Share
button to send an invite to someone via
email or generate a web link to share by
other means. Once both parties are
logged on, look out for a flag that
indicates where the other person is
currently editing. Look out too for the
chat icon that enables you both to
converse as you edit through a Skype
chat window.More free apps
OneDrive users also get access to the
free OneNote and Sway apps, both of
which can be accessed through your
web browser via the app launcher or
via their own dedicated apps, both on
mobile and in Windows itself (look for
both on the Microsoft Store).Think of OneNote as the ultimate
note-taking tool, organised into pages,
tabs and notebooks, any of which can
be shared with others. Sway, meanwhile,
is an app that enables you to tell stories
using a mixture of text, photos, videos
and effects, all put together in a simple
block-by-block fashion to produce
stunning media-friendly presentations- perfect for sharing holiday snaps or
family history research. In both cases,
your presentations and notebooks are
stored directly in your OneDrive folder.
Look out too for the free Office Lens
app – you can use it on your mobile as a
portable document scanner, but it can
also be installed in Windows to convert
image-based scans to editable PDF,
Word or PowerPoint documents thanks
to built-in OCR support – these can also
be transferred to OneNote. The only
restriction for free OneDrive users is that
you can only scan/convert single pages;
Office 365 users can create multiple-
page documents easily.(QFU\SWVHQVLWLYHÀOHV
All files uploaded to OneDrive are
encrypted to protect them from hackers.
But even after strengthening your
password and enabling 2FA your filesmay still be at risk. That’s because
OneDrive doesn’t store your data
encrypted in the cloud unless you’re a
business user – it’s only encrypted in
transit between your PC and the
OneDrive servers.
In most cases, that’s not a major
problem, but if you have particularly
sensitive data you have two choices:
either keep it away from OneDrive
altogether, or add a secondary layer of
encryption so the files themselves are
encrypted inside the OneDrive folder.There are several different options out
there, the most convenient of which is
Cryptomator (www.cryptomator.org).
This provides ‘transparent encryption’
through an encrypted vault – a virtual
drive that resides in your cloud storage.
While the vault is open, you can access
the files like they’re on a USB flash drive,
but the unprotected files are never
exposed to OneDrive; it only ever stores
the encrypted version of the files. The
guide on the page opposite reveals how
to set it up – don’t forget to install
Cryptomator on your other devices
(mobile and desktop) to access the files
on there – choose ‘Open existing vault’
to link to your original vault rather than
create a new one from scratch. Image credits: Cryptomator, Microsoft50 |^ |^ June 2019
You can edit documents in cloud versions of Word,
Excel and PowerPoint for free in your web browser.