Windows 10

Modern Collaboration: Accessing and Saving Files in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint

The time has come in my Modern Collaboration blog series to start diving deep into the how-to. We started this series by broadly talking about what Modern Collaboration is and how it impacts business. The second post was a brief introduction to some of the Microsoft Office 365 products, such as OneDrive, SharePoint, and Microsoft Teams. Now is the time we start to dive deep into the different individual products and how-to-use them. This blog will dive into OneDrive for Business and SharePoint file storage, specifically finding and saving files.

Microsoft Office with OneDrive for Business and SharePoint

When working with cloud storage and Microsoft Products, everything is built right into the Office Suite! From the File menu, which is the screen you start on when launching the applications, you will automatically see recent files you have used in SharePoint and OneDrive for Business, as long as your accounts are connected. You even have the option to Pin files or see files that have been shared with you and who shared them.

If the file isn’t something you have worked on recently, that is no problem! You can click on Open on the left menu and navigate through all of your connected accounts SharePoint sites and OneDrive for Business sites. 

If your files are not showing up, you will need to connect your account. To add accounts to your Office applications, follow the below steps.

  1. Open an Office Application such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint.
  2. Click Account on the bottom left of the application
  3. Click Add a service 
  4. Hover over Storage and click OneDrive for Business
  5. Log in using your Work account

If you just created a new document and need to save it, the interface is identical, and it will show all of your connected accounts OneDrive for Business and SharePoint sites. The unified experience inside the office applications gives you the full capability of quickly securing your files to be available anytime, anywhere on any device.

Accessing and Uploading to the Web

You won’t exclusively work with office documents, so using the office applications to open and save files will not be your only means of accessing OneDrive for Business and SharePoint. With OneDrive for Business and SharePoint storage, it is all web-based and accessible through a website.

To upload your file, you need to think about who needs access to the file. Depending on your organization, you may have teams based on departments, locations, projects, or just any group you work with frequently across departments. However, let’s start with something easy. You have a brand new document you started working on, and you need to save it, but it isn’t quite ready to share with a team. The answer to where to keep it is straight forward. You can save it in your personal OneDrive for Business storage.

To access your Onedrive for Business storage and upload a document, follow the below steps.

  1. Open your favorite web browser and navigate to https://www.office.com 
  2. Click Sign in
  3. Log in using your Work account
  4. Click OneDrive
  5. Navigate to the folder you want to upload your saved file to
  6. Click Upload at the top navigation bar
  7. Select Files
  8. Select the files you want to upload and click Open

What about finding a file you uploaded a long time ago, or someone else on your team has uploaded? Unlike a mapped network drive or a file on your computer, the brilliant thing is that knowing exactly where the file is, isn’t that big of a deal. If you know precisely which SharePoint site the file was saved in, which Document Library and folder it is in, you are welcome to go straight to the file and open it. However, the search capabilities of OneDrive for Business and SharePoint are incredible; not only will it search the file name, but it will also examine the content of the file.

To use OneDrive for Business and SharePoint’s search functionality, you can use almost any of the search boxes found in the Office 365 portal or connected SharePoint sites. If you are on a work computer running Windows 10, you can even search the start menu files and click see work and web results, assuming enterprise search is enabled.

To search from the Office website, follow the below instructions.

  1. Open your favorite web browser and navigate to https://www.office.com 
  2. Click Sign in
  3. Log in using your Work account
  4. Click the Search box at the top of the screen
  5. Search any keyword related to the file, it could be the name of the file or a topic that the file is about, and you think it is referenced in the file.

Sync OneDrive for Business and SharePoint to Windows 10 computer

The last way I want to talk about accessing and saving files is using the OneDrive sync client. Now, I try to discourage the extensive use of the OneDrive Sync client to a Windows computer. It tends to confuse users, but it does make interacting with non-Office files significantly more accessible, so it becomes a necessary evil.

Using it for personal OneDrive for Business files makes sense. You can automatically sync your Documents, Pictures Videos, and comfortably have those files backed up immediately and available on all devices. However, it gets a bit trickier when you are working with multiple SharePoint Sites.

First, you must locate the SharePoint site that you wish to Sync with your computer. To do this, follow the below instructions for every SharePoint site you want to sync.

  1. Open your favorite web browser and navigate to https://www.office.com 
  2. Click Sign in
  3. Log in using your Work account
  4. Click SharePoint
  5. Click the site you want to sync
  6. Click Documents on the left side
  7. Click Sync on the top menu
  8. Click Open when prompted to open the OneDrive client

By syncing the files to your Windows Computer, you will find them listed in Windows Explorer on the left navigation. You can open the files, create new ones and even share the files straight from Windows Explorer.

As you can see, there are at least three ways to perform tasks when working with OneDrive for Business and SharePoint file storage. Each has specific pros and cons, and it comes down to how you work on what will be best for you. I encourage you to try them out and see what you like best!

Keep an eye out for the next post in the Modern Collaboration blog series on Sharing Files in OneDrive for Business and SharePoint!

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My Microsoft HoloLens Adventure – Updates on Studying

A couple of weeks ago, I made a post on the study materials I planned on leveraging to learn how to program for the Microsoft HoloLens. This weekend was the first time I finally started digging into studying. I quickly identified that the videos I intended to use might have been a bit off on exactly what I wanted to learn.

To be open and honest with everyone with my adventure, I wanted to share this and point you towards the resources I’ve decided to leverage instead. As I had mentioned in the last post, My Microsoft HoloLens Adventure – Preparing Study Resources. I had looked over some Basics videos back in March when I first started looking into this. I hadn’t touched those since March as I was getting kind of bored with it and it was all I had done when I was in college.

The next section in that post was Universal Apps, which I had never worked with. I started watching the Developing Universal Windows Apps with C# and XAML video. I quickly realized that it was going to be too high-level for me since I had such a limited experience. I tried searching for the videos they mention at the beginning of that course but was unable to find them on MVA. However, I was able to find Windows 10 Development for Absolute Beginners. In the first 10 minutes, I was able to figure out how to get my first 2D Application running for HoloLens. Yes, all it was is a button that shows text that says Hello World, but it was an app!

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My Microsoft HoloLens Adventure – First Impressions of the HoloLens

it’s been over two weeks since my last post; however I have an excuse! It may not be a good excuse, however I went on a vacation to beautiful Las Vegas and shockingly decided I didn’t want to do anything computer related while out there (who would have thought?) Also before you ask – no I didn’t take the HoloLens to Vegas with me – in retrospect I think I could have made some decent money if I had and let people take pictures with it, everyone dressed like Mickey Mouse and Minions on the strip seem to make a good of enough of a living!

Matt in Las Vegas riding the High Rider
On the High Roller in Las Vegas

Anyway, I have now been back to reality for about a week and it is time to get my butt back in gear! So let’s talk the well over-due first impressions I need to share regarding the Microsoft HoloLens.

Disclaimer: Before we dive into my first impressions I do want to call out that this device is designed as a developer build – this is by no means a final release of the system or designed for consumer use I will reference this throughout my comments because I am not being as critical as some may have been on this device.

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My Microsoft HoloLens Adventure – Preparing Study Resources

As I continue my adventure of learning how to program for the HoloLens, the first step is actually learning how to program! I am lucky enough that I took some programming classes while in College and I’ve done a lot of Scripting in Windows PowerShell – this helps me understand programming constructs. I just need to become more well-practices in the area of Object Oriented Programming and understanding the C# Syntax.

visual-studio-2013-logo

Basics:

To do this I actually started digging in a bit back in March covering some of the basics to refresh my memory. One of my favorite resources is the Microsoft Virtual Academy. I haven’t watched much but the first video I started watching was Bob Tabor’s C# Fundamentals for Absolute Beginners. As the subject says this is for absolute beginners so I’ve done a bit of skimming on a lot of the videos, but it gives a good introduction if you haven’t programmed before. I most likely will continue to skim these videos occasionally just to keep my mind fresh since I haven’t written a full blow application before.

Universal Apps:

The next video series I intend to watch is the Developing Universal Windows Apps with C# and XAML. The reason I am wanting to check with video out is my applications I want to have work across all Windows Platforms – this is something I’ve never done so it’ll be a challenge to pick it up. The nice thing about using this as a stepping stone is Universal Apps will not only work on HoloLens but also Windows 8+ Windows PC’s and Windows Phones.

HoloLens Apps:

When developing for the HoloLens there are two different types of app models, let’s explore each one.

2D Apps:

2D HoloLens apps will be the easiest ones to build – at least I think it will be for me. These apps are just like any other Windows Universal App, except the HoloLens will project the 2D App on a wall, or in front of you while using the HoloLens.

To make 2D Apps on the HoloLens I am intending to heavily rely on the Developing Uniersal Windows Apps with C# and XAML that is referenced under Universal Apps section.

In addition to the video the Microsoft Dev Center also has a couple of pages on building 2D Apps.

Building 2D apps
Current limitations for apps using APIs from the shell

Holographic Apps:

Holographic Apps are a very new concept – this is what makes the HoloLens a truly magical experience. You will see 3D renderings throughout your house, office, or where ever you are using the HoloLens at.

To start developing for HoloLens you must understand the different ways to interact with the HoloLens. This includes

World coordinates
Gaze input
Gesture input
Voice input
Spatial sound
Spatial mapping

To get a better understanding of the ways you interact with the HoloLens I suggest taking a look at the Development Overview video from Microsoft.

As I continue my adventure with learning how to develop for HoloLens I’ll make sure I share more information as I find it.

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My Microsoft HoloLens Adventure – Setting up the Development Tools

I’ve started my adventure of learning how to program for the Microsoft HoloLens. If you haven’t heard about this new adventure please check out my blog post My Microsoft HoloLens Adventure – Introduction. On that blog post I have a video introducing myself, and my intentions. In addition I’ve included a video of the unboxing of the Microsoft HoloLens. Throughout this blog post I will highlight the steps required to get your PC setup to program the HoloLens.

Matt wearing the Hololens

System Requirements:

  • Windows 7 SP 1 or greater (Windows 10 recommended) – Must be Professional, Enterprise or Education edition
  • Hyper-V enabled on the system
  • 64-bit CPU with at least 4 cores
  • 8 GB of RAM
  • BIOS that supports:
    • Hardware-assisted virtualization
    • Second Level Address Translation (SLAT)
    • Hardware-based Data Execution Prevention (DEP)
  • GPU that supports:
    • DirectX 11.0 or later
    • WDDM 1.2 driver or later

Enable Hyper-V:

  1. Open Control Panel
  2. Click Programs
  3. Click Turn Windows features on or off
  4. Check Hyper-V
  5. Click OK
  6. Restart computer when install finishes

Installing Visual Studio 2015:

To write applications for the HoloLens you must use Visual Studio 2015 with Update 2 installed to write the Universal Windows App. Luckily you can use the Visual Studio 2015 Community edition at no cost! The community edition will provide enough features for you to get started, however if you are an experienced developer and want to dig into more depth you may want to evaluate the Professional or Enterprise editions. To compare what each edition has check out the Compare Visual Studio 2015 Offerings page.

Procedure:

  1. Download Visual Studio Community Edition
  2. Run the Installer
  3. Choose custom install
  4. Select Tools and Windows 10 SDK
  5. Click Install

HoloLens Emulator:

To develop for the HoloLens doesn’t require that you have a HoloLens – although it does make it more entertaining! If you do not own one do not fear – you can download and install the HoloLens Emulator.

Procedure:

  1. Download the HoloLens Emulator
  2. Run the Installer
  3. Click Next
  4. Click Next
  5. Read and review the License Agreement
  6. Click Accept
  7. Click Install

Unity HoloLens Technical Preview Beta:

To build holographic applications you need to use the Unity HoloLens Technical Preview – this gives you the ability to place 3D Models into your applications to be treated as Holograms.

Procedure:

  1. Download the 32-bit or 64-Bit client based on your needs.
  2. Run the Installer
  3. Click Next >
  4. Read and review the License Agreement
  5. Click I Agree
  6. Click Next >
  7. Click Install
  8. Click Finish
  9. Download the UWP Runtime
  10. Run the Installer
  11. Click Next >
  12. Read and review the License Agreement
  13. Click I Agree
  14. Click Install
  15. (Optional) Download the offline documentation
  16. Run the Installer
  17. Click Next >
  18. Read and review the License Agreement
  19. Click I Agree
  20. Click Install
  21. Click Finish

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