Livessentials: Windows Live: June 2008

Add your Outlook Calendar to Windows Live Calendar

Windows Live Calendar is a new service from Windows Live that is currently in Beta (testing).

You can use the calendar to plan events and schedule meetings, but what if I'm already using the calendar in Outlook? Well, I can import my calendar from Outlook into Windows Live and receive alerts, and updates.

It is expected that a plug-in will be made available soon to handle synchronisation between the two calendars shortly, but in the meantime, this is a great work around.

Firstly, open up Outlook, and go to your calendar.

Click on "File" on the menu bar, and click on "Save As".

Now, pick a location to save your calendar. You'll be deleting this afterwards, so we're just going to pick the desktop. Name the file.

You'll also want to click on "More Options" and change the settings... You will want either "Whole Calendar" or "Next 30 Days".

Click OK and Save.

Now, go to http://calendar.live.com/ (You can also reach the calendar by clicking on the Windows Live Orb on any Windows Live service).

Click on "Import" to bring up the import settings.

Now, find the file you just exported from Outlook.

You can also decide whether to create a new calendar (default option) or import into an existing calendar (useful if you want to do this procedure again and upload changes).

Click on "Import" and wait whilst the calendar is uploaded (this may take a little while for entire calendars).

Once this procedure has done you will see all your Outlook events in your Windows Live Calendar!

If you wish, you can edit events and chose to be alerted through Windows Live Messenger, or by email, when events are due to happen.

You'll also be able to see upcoming events at http://home.live.com

Labels: Windows Live Calendar

Share Files Using SkyDrive (Share with Everyone)

Remember the days of emailing files to yourself? Or remember USB keys that you'd leave at home/work/in the car? Well, these days are now officially over thanks to Windows Live SkyDrive. Think of the service like a USB drive in the cloud. A USB key that you never have to remember.

Better still is that you can also share files with others.

Let's take a look at how we can share a file with everybody.

Let's log in to SkyDrive at http://skydrive.live.com

You'll notice that SkyDrive is split into Personal, Shared and Public Folders...

We are now going to chose where to upload a file. If I want to be the only person allowed to access the file, I'd simply upload the file to the Personal folders (you can add folders if you wish to any section).

For this tutorial, I'm going to share my folder with everyone (ideal for uploading a holiday snap, for example).

Click on the Add Files button next to the Public Folder header:

You're then given the option of uploading to a new folder, or selecting and existing one. Let's create a new one:

Click on Browse, and locate your file:

Tip: You can also install the drag on drop application if you want to upload multiple files at once

Once you have added your file, click on the Upload button.

You'll see an animation as your file(s) upload, and then you will see your file appear, as if by magic, in the folder you created earlier:

You can now share your image in a number of ways. The easiest way is to use the options on the menu bar. You can click Embed to get the code to put your file on a web page, if you wish. But, probably, the most common button you'll use will be 'Send a link' which will generate a URL you can give to your family and friends so that they view your file:

If you wish to share a number of photos, you can jump back to the folder that you have uploaded your files to, and click Send a Link. That way, your family and friends can see all the photos and files in that folder.

Labels: Windows Live SkyDrive

Get Facebook on Windows Live Messenger

Did you know you can now get Facebook information directly from Windows Live Messenger?

To do this, simply click on the Facebook tab (if you want, you can rearrange your tab order - click here).

You will need to sign in, at least the first time you use this service, with your Facebook account details.

Once you have done this, you will be able to see status updates and view photographs.

Also, a cool little feature, is that you can invite your Facebook friends to use Windows Live Messenger by simply highlighting their name and clicking on the Messenger icon (you can also send a message and poke too).