Windows Live web services hints and tips
Thursday, 8 July 2010
What's in the Live web services
The Live web service that most would be familiar with is Hotmail, the web email service that's been part of Microsoft since the late 1990's.
In the past few years, Microsoft have added more online web services, the main ones being: Live Skydrive (free online storage of 25Gb, i.e., 25,000 megabytes), Live Photos (online storage for photos and videos), Office Live (online versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, along with online storage space), Live Profile (to enable us to set permission levels as to who and what others can view about us and what we store online), Live Home page (giving us a summary of our Hotmail email and news about what our family and friends are doing, such as uploading a new photo album, through Messenger social) and Live Spaces (a free, personal website which gives a convenient means to point family and friends to so they can view our online photos).
The new header on each Live web page
Each Live web service has a header that's been updated in the latest version of Live web services. Each item on the header has a submenu that you obtain by simply hovering over with the mouse. In the screenshot above, the mouse is hovered over the Office item to give several options.
You need to spend a little bit of time to become familiar with these items so you know how to easily move between services.
For example, to get to your Live Profile page so you can check and, if need be, change some permission settings, you need to hover over the Messenger item (think social connections because your profile permissions are all about setting levels of privacy as to who you'll allow to view your online photos and documents, for example).
If you want to go to your Live Space website, you'll need to go to your Profile page because your Space is something you own, just as you own your personal details.
Live Photos
There's a little trick in uploading your photos from your computer to an album on your Live Photos. The new uploader begins working as soon as you drop your photos onto the upload area so, before you drag and drop a group of photos from Live Photo Gallery, make sure you've chosen Original as being the size of the photos you want to store online.
Messenger social
On your Live Home page you can see what your family and friends have been saying and doing. You get to your Live Home page by clicking the choice under the Windows Live item on the header.
If you want to make life easier and you have a Facebook account, you can bring in your friends' Facebook activities (as well as many others). Note that your Messenger social listings give you two-way communication so you can add your comments to one of your Facebook friends and it will be posted to their Facebook wall - no more need to jump over to everybody's Facebook page to leave a comment.
As well, Messenger social lets you know who's added new photos (again, you can leave comments), including any emails you've received with photos attached. In Live Photos you'll also see when your friends have uploaded new photos or videos.
Office Live
If you're going to share any of your online documents then you need to create new folders outside of the My Documents folder - keep My Documents for your private documents.
Web Messenger
Another way in which the new Live version makes life easier is to enable you to chat to family and friends from any Live web service page. IMs will come to both desktop Messenger and Web Messenger but now you don't have to take your eyes off the work you're doing on one of your Live pages (e.g., you might be adding captions to a group of photos).