Since Microsoft launched the Outlook.com preview, I keep finding new cool features it provides. Here’s a look at the groovy new way to view and edit attached documents online from your Inbox.
First, log in to Outlook.com – if you have an old @hotmail or @live email address, you’ll see the new revamped interface.
Now, open a message that contains an attached document. Then click the doc icon at the bottom to view it online. If you click anywhere else on the icon, it will prompt you to download it. Here’s an example of an Excel spreadsheet.
And here’s an attached Word doc. Notice the groovy new icons that look like Office 2013.
The document will open in Office Web apps. Here you can read the document, download it or edit in the browser.
Alternately, click on File and you have more options for the document. Here I’m going to Edit it in Word Web Apps from IE 9.
The document opens up via SkyDrive and you can begin using Office Web Apps to make changes to it. Using Microsoft Office Web Apps used to be a rather convoluted process. Now, since everything Microsoft is getting revamped, it works really slick. Office Web Apps don’t give you complete editing capabilities, but it’s perfect for making general adjustments.
For instance, here I’m inserting ClipArt into the Word document.
Search for the type of ClipArt you want, select the thumbnail and click Insert.
Viola…ClipArt easily added to your document online straight from your browser. No need to download it and open it in Word. The Office Web Apps are useful if you or the person you’re sharing the document with don’t have MS Office installed.
Another groovy feature in your Outlook.com Inbox is Quick Views. It lets you pull up only emails that contain a document or photos. This helps organize and manage messages with attachments more easily.
After making changes to the documents, they’ll be saved in your SkyDrive. Microsoft is really going for an all cloud computing solution with Windows 8, SkyDrive, Outlook.com and Office 2013. Sometimes it acts a bit buggy – pages load slow or not at all. But that’s to be expected since Outlook.com is still in the Preview stage.
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