Microsoft OneDrive gets a new design and more ☁️

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OneDrive is Microsoft’s storage service. It competes with other services such as Google Drive, and its integration with other Microsoft tools is one of its strengths. Microsoft is unveiling its 3rd version, which benefits from a new design and improved integration with Microsoft services.

New design for easier file management 🤩

OneDrive is getting a facelift. For this new version, Microsoft has completely redesigned its online storage service. It has adopted a new, more modern look, closer to what is offered with Windows 11. With this new version, Microsoft wants to make managing your files as simple as possible. That’s why new views have been introduced, so you can quickly navigate between your files.

When you log in to OneDrive, you’ll come across the « For You » view. Located at the top of the home page, it features AI-powered file recommendations at just the right moment.

© Microsoft

The « Recent » view has also been moved to the home page, just below the ‘For You’ view. It can now be filtered not only by file type, but also by name.

© Microsoft

As well as the new views, OneDrive introduces some other welcome little additions. You can tag files in OneDrive using the ⭐(star) button. These marked files will be grouped together in an organised view called « Favorites », regardless of which application you used to mark them. To make finding shared content easier, you also have the option of adding shortcut links to these files in your existing OneDrive folders.

Managing favorites in OneDrive// © Microsoft

And best of all, you can now choose a color for your files.

Folder colors // © Microsoft

Finally, a new « Add new » button lets you launch a blank document or choose from a number of templates to get your work started.

File sharing at the heart of One Drive 🔗

File sharing is one of OneDrive’s key features. To help you easily find your way around the files that are shared with you, OneDrive has updated one view and introduced two new ones. The existing « Shared » view has been updated. In particular, it has new filters to help you quickly find a type of file, or even a folder.

New « Shared » view // © Microsoft

In addition, a new « People » view has been created. It groups all the files shared with you, by the person who shared them. You can even pin certain people to the top of the page.

New « People » view // © Microsoft

If you’re a Teams user, you’ll be delighted to know that it’s even easier to find files shared during a meeting, thanks to the brand new « Meetings » view.

« Meetings » view // © Microsoft

But Microsoft hasn’t just changed the look of share management. The file sharing process has also been improved. It’s now more intuitive and takes fewer clicks than before.

Nouvelle façon de partager // © Microsoft

Better integration with other Microsoft services 🤝

With its new version, OneDrive goes even further with its integration with other Microsoft services. The integration of OneDrive with Teams and Outlook has been improved. On Teams, it’s already easier to find your files without having to leave the application, thanks to a tab. Synchronisation and performance have also been improved. The Outlook application for Windows will also benefit from this tab. It will be easier to quickly and easily copy a share link and include it in an email, or to find a shared file, without leaving Outlook.

More efficient use outside the browser and offline 🛜

Until now, it was possible to open a Word, PowerPoint or Excel file from OneDrive on the browser in their dedicated desktop applications. Soon, you’ll be able to do the same with any file. You can open it in its respective desktop application, make changes to it, and these will be automatically synchronised with OneDrive. Whether you want to quickly edit a PDF or CAD file, you can now do it directly from OneDrive, seamlessly and transparently.

OneDrive also greatly improves its offline mode. When you want files and folders to be available for offline access on your device, you simply select them, making them always available locally via OneDrive for the Web. You no longer need to go through Windows’ File Explorer or Mac’s Finder to do this. Once you have selected them, these files will be accessible offline.