MICROSOFT ONEDRIVE STEP-BY-STEP

GUIDE

ANDIE PHILO;MIKE ANGSTADT

MONTGOMERY COUNTY-NORRISTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY
 MICROSOFT ONEDRIVE: STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE Revised: 4/8/2021

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ......................................................... 4 8.1 SHARING WITH A SPECIFIC PERSON.................................. 22
OPENING YOUR ONEDRIVE ........................................ 5 8.2 OPENING A SHARED FILE ............................................... 27
THE ONEDRIVE HOME SCREEN ................................... 6 8.3 MANAGING SHARING PERMISSIONS ................................ 28
WORKING WITH FILES ................................................ 8 8.4 SHARING WITH A LINK .................................................. 30
4.1 ADJUSTING VIEW OPTIONS ............................................ 8 8.4.1 Creating the sharable document .................. 30
4.2 UPLOADING A FILE ........................................................ 8 8.4.2 Sharing the document .................................. 31
4.3 SELECTING A SINGLE FILE ................................................ 9 8.4.3 Emailing the link ........................................... 32
4.4 SELECTING MULTIPLE FILES ........................................... 10 8.5 URL SHORTENERS....................................................... 34
4.5 DESELECTING A FILE .................................................... 10 ACCESSING ONEDRIVE FROM FILE EXPLORER
(SUPPLEMENTAL) .............................................................. 37
4.6 DELETING A FILE ......................................................... 11
9.1 ACCESSING THE ONEDRIVE APP ..................................... 37
4.7 RENAMING A FILE ....................................................... 12
9.2 LOCATING YOUR FILES .................................................. 38
4.8 EDITING OUR PHOTO ................................................... 13
9.3 UPLOADING A FILE....................................................... 40
WORKING WITH FOLDERS........................................ 15
9.4 DELETING A FILE.......................................................... 42
5.1 DEFAULT FOLDERS ...................................................... 15
9.5 SHARING ................................................................... 42
5.2 CREATING A FOLDER.................................................... 15
DOCUMENT COLLABORATION (SUPPLEMENTAL) ..... 46
5.3 MOVING A FILE INTO A FOLDER ..................................... 16
PERSONAL VAULT (SUPPLEMENTAL) ........................ 50
DETAILS PANE .......................................................... 18
11.1 OPENING THE VAULT FROM FILE EXPLORER ................. 50
PREVIEW WINDOW ................................................. 21
11.2 OPENING THE VAULT FROM THE WEB INTERFACE .......... 52
7.1 USING THE CONTEXT MENU .......................................... 21
VERSION HISTORY (SUPPLEMENTAL) ....................... 56
7.2 CLICKING THE FILE NAME .............................................. 21
EXPLORING ONEDRIVE DESKTOP APP SETTINGS
SHARING .................................................................. 22
(SUPPLEMENTAL) .............................................................. 57

Created & Maintained by:

Andrea Philo
Mike Angstadt

MONTGOMERY COUNTY-NORRISTOWN PUBLIC LIBRARY

NORRISTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA

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Note to Home Students:

This lesson plan will frequently refer to flash drives that we have our students use
during class. Instead of saving files to a flash drive, you may save them to your
computer’s hard drive.
We preload these flash drives with an assortment of files that are used during class.
These files can be downloaded from on our Class Resources page. Our class handouts
and exercises can also be downloaded there. The website address is:
www.mc-npl.org/class-resources

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Introduction
OneDrive is a platform for storing, sharing, and editing files on the “cloud” (the Internet). It is made by
a company called Microsoft, the same company that makes Windows. Because the files are stored on
the Internet, they can be accessed from any Internet-connected computer and are not lost if your
computer crashes. Files can also be shared so that other people can view and edit them. We will cover
all these things in this course.
What is Microsoft Office? The term “Microsoft Office” refers Microsoft’s entire suite of office
productivity applications. Microsoft OneDrive is one of the many applications that are grouped under
of the “Microsoft Office” umbrella.
What is Microsoft 365? (formally known as Office 365) Microsoft 365 is a service where you pay a
monthly subscription fee (around $10 a month) for premium access to the Microsoft Office software
applications, including premium access to OneDrive.
How much does OneDrive cost? You can use OneDrive for free, but if you have a Microsoft 365
subscription, you get additional features and storage space.
Free tier Microsoft 365 Subscription
5 GB storage space 1 TB storage space (1,024 GB)
Max of 3 files in Personal Vault Unlimited files in Personal Vault
Password-protect shared files
Set expiration dates on shared files

See this website for a full comparison:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/onedrive/compare-onedrive-plans

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Opening your OneDrive

1. Open a web browser.
2. Navigate to the Microsoft Office homepage: www.office.com
3. Click “Sign in” and sign into your Microsoft account.
4. The Microsoft Office home page is displayed. A listing of the available online apps available to you
is displayed. Below that is a listing of files you’ve recently accessed in your OneDrive cloud storage.

5. Click “OneDrive” in the apps listing.

6. Notice how OneDrive opens in a new tab.

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The OneDrive Home Screen

Toolbar Content Pane Blue toolbar

Navigation Pane

Blue toolbar

Displays the other services you have access to as a Microsoft Account holder.
App Launcher
Search box Allows you to perform a search over all your files. The contents of each file
will be searched.
Purchase additional storage space.
Diamond
Opens the OneDrive settings.
Gear
Opens the help documentation.
Help
Microsoft Account Provides access to your Microsoft account. If your account does not have a
profile picture assigned to it, it will display the first letter of your first name.

button

Navigation Pane

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My files Shows the files that are in your OneDrive account. This is selected by default
when you login.
Recent Shows files you have recently uploaded, opened, or modified.
Photos Displays only the photos that are in your OneDrive account. Organizes them
by date.
Shared Displays the files that you have shared with others, and the files that others
have shared with you.
Recycle Bin This is where files go when you delete them. Files are automatically,
permanently deleted after they have been in the trash for 30 days.
Content Pane
Shows the files and folders in the currently selected folder.
Toolbar
The buttons in the Toolbar will change depending on what is selected in the Content Pane.
The buttons described below are only visible if no files are selected.
New Allows you to create new files and folders.
Upload Allows you to upload files and folders from your computer.
Sort Sorts the files in the content pane in different ways.

View Options Changes the way the files are displayed in the content pane.

Opens the file details pane (this button is always visible).

Details Pane

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Working with Files

4.1 Adjusting View Options
The View Options button allows you to control how the files appear in the Content Pane.
Teacher’s Note: If the student has a file selected, they will not see this button.
1. Click the View Options button on the right-hand side of the Toolbar to see the available options.
Try out each one of them.

a. List. This displays your files in a tabular format. It shows you the last modified date,
Sharing settings, and size of each file.
b. Compact List. This is like List, but more compact.
c. Tiles. Displays each file as a large object. Image files (photos) are displayed larger so you
can see what each image looks like.
d. Photo. This view displays image files much larger so you can see them better.
2. We will be conducting class using the “List” option. Select this option from the View Options
menu.
4.2 Uploading a file
Preparation:
1. Go to www.mc-npl.org/class-resources
2. Find the button for “OneDrive” and click it.
3. Locate “Library of Congress.jpg” link under “Supporting Files”. Download this file to your
Downloads file.
4. Switch back to OneDrive.

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Now, we are ready to upload our file.

1. Click “Upload” near the top of the screen, and then click “Files”.

2. In the file upload dialog box, navigate to the Downloads folder.

3. Select “Library Of Congress.jpg” and click Open.
4. Notice how the file has appeared in the content pane.

5. Also notice the three blue lines “coming out” of the letter L in Library. This symbol means that
the file has been recently added.
6. Click on the file name to view the photo.
7. Click the X button in the upper-right (next to the Next button) to close the photo.

4.3 Selecting a single file

1. Notice the buttons in the Toolbar—in particular, the Upload button. Most of these buttons will
disappear when we select a file.
2. Point to the “Library of Congress.jpg” file.

3. Notice how the row turns light gray.

4. Notice the white circle that appeared on the left.
5. Click the white circle.
Do NOT to click on the file name. Clicking the file name opens the file.

6. Notice how the white circle has turned blue and now contains a white checkmark. The file is
now selected.

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7. Notice how the Toolbar now contains several new buttons. These buttons can be used to
interact with the file you have selected.

4.4 Selecting multiple files

1. To select additional files, repeat the same procedure. Each white circle you click will add
another file to the selection.
2. To select all files, click the white circle in the column heading area, to the left of the Name
column heading.

4.5 Deselecting a file

When a file is selected, several Toolbar buttons are no longer accessible: New, Upload, Sort, and View
Options. To bring these buttons back, you must deselect the file(s).
1. In the Toolbar, notice the words “1 selected” in the upper-right, followed by an X (the number
may be different for you, depending on how many files you have selected).

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2. Point to the words “1 selected”.

a. Notice how the background darkens, including the background for the X. The X is part of
the same button.
b. Notice the tooltip: “Clear selection”.

3. Click “1 selected” to deselect your file(s).

a. Notice how your file(s) are no longer selected.
b. Notice how the New, Upload, Sort, and View Options buttons have returned.
4.6 Deleting a file
When you delete a OneDrive file, it is first sent to the Recycle Bin (much like deleting a file on your
Windows computer). If a file is in the Recycle Bin, it can be recovered or “undeleted”. Unlike the
Recycle Bin on your Windows computer, OneDrive will automatically erase a file from the Recycle Bin
once it has been in the Recycle Bin for 30 days. Once this happens, the file is gone forever and cannot
be recovered.
Let’s delete our image file.
1. Select the file.
2. Click “Delete” in the Toolbar.

3. Notice the message that appears in the upper-left. It is confirming our Delete operating and
giving us a chance to Undo it if we made a mistake.
Teacher’s Note: This box is buggy and sometimes only appears for a split-second.

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If you delete something by mistake, or change your mind about wanting to delete it, you can recover it
from the Recycle Bin (provided 30 days has not passed). Let’s recover our file.
1. Click “Recycle Bin” in the Navigation Pane.
2. Select the file.
3. Click “Restore” on the Toolbar.

4. Click “My files” in the Navigation Pane.

5. Notice how the file has returned.
4.7 Renaming a file
1. Select the image file by clicking on it.
2. Click Rename on the Toolbar.
3. A dialog box appears. Notice how the file extension cannot be changed. The file extension is
how the computer knows what kind of file it is (document, photo, etc), so OneDrive is
preventing us from changing it.
4. Type your first name in the textbox.
5. Click Save.

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4.8 Editing our photo

Some Microsoft Office file types, such as Word and Excel files, can be edited in the cloud using the
online versions of Word and Excel.
Other file types, such as photos, can only be edited on your computer. To do this, you must download
a copy of the file to your hard drive, edit the file, and then re-upload the edited file.
1. Select the “Library of Congress.jpg” file if it’s not already selected.
2. Click the Download button in the Toolbar. This downloads a copy of the file to your computer.
3. Open your Downloads folder and then double-click the file. If you are using Windows 10, this
should open the file in the Photos app.
4. Click the “Edit & Create” button in the upper-right, and then click “Edit”.

5. Click Filters.
Left partner: select the “Slate” filter.
Right partner: select the “Rouge” filter.

6. Click the arrow to the right of “Save a copy” and then click “Save”.

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7. Close the Photo app and return to OneDrive.

8. Deselect the file.
9. Use the Upload button to upload the file.
10. A message appears saying that a file with the same name already exists in our OneDrive.
Click Replace.

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Working with Folders

5.1 Default folders
Your OneDrive account may already have some folders in it.
• “Attachments” or “Email Attachments”: If you save an email attachment from your Microsoft
email account into OneDrive, the attachment gets stored here.
• Public: The contents of this folder are viewable by anyone who has the link to the folder (more
about sharing later).
• Personal Vault: A storage location for storing files with sensitive, personal information. To
“open” the vault, a code must be sent to your phone to verify your identity. Examples of such
files include tax documents, financial documents, or anything with your Social Security Number.
5.2 Creating a folder
1. Click the New button in the Toolbar, and then click Folder.
a. If the New button is not present, make sure all are files are deselected.

2. Type “Library Photos” into the name field.

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3. Click Create.
4. Notice the folder in the Content Pane. The Content Pane always displays the folders at the top
of the list, and the files underneath the folders.
5. Click on the folder name to open the folder and see its contents.
a. Notice the “This folder is empty” message.
b. Notice how there are several buttons on the toolbar. Usually, this many buttons only
appears when a file is selected. Since we don’t have any files selected, these buttons
apply to the folder we are currently viewing. For example, if we clicked “Rename”, it
would rename the Library Photos folder. Or, if we clicked “Upload” it would upload a file
to the Library Photos folder.

6. Notice the Words “My files > Library Photos” on the left, under the Toolbar. This is called a
“breadcrumb” trail. It shows the name of the folder we are viewing, as well as the names of the
folders that our folder is inside of.
7. The folder names in the breadcrumb trail are clickable. Click “My files” to return to the root of
your OneDrive.
5.3 Moving a file into a folder
1. Select the library photo.
2. Click “Move to” in the Toolbar.

3. Notice the panel that appears on the right.

4. Click Library Photos in the panel.
5. Click the blue Move button.

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6. Open the Library Photos folder to confirm that the file was moved.
a. Note that the “folder empty” message may appear for a few seconds before the file
appears.

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Details Pane
1. Select the library photo.
2. In the Toolbar, click the Details Pane button (far-right).
a. Notice the Details Pane opens on the right. It is
showing us details about the library photo.
b. Notice the file name at the top of the details pane.
c. Notice the thumbnail for the photo.
d. Notice the words “Add a caption” under the thumbnail.

3. Deselect the file by clicking the “1 selected” button.

a. Notice how the Details Pane is still present.
b. Notice how the thumbnail for the photo is still there.
c. Notice how the words “Add a caption” were replaced
with “Add a description”.
d. Notice how the folder name is now at the top of the
Details Pane. Since we have deselected our library
photo, the Details Pane is now showing us details on
the Library Photos folder. Confusingly, it is still showing
us the thumbnail of the photo.

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4. Select the library photo again. The Details Pane re-populates

with details of the photo.
a. Add a caption: This is a textbox for assigning a caption
to the photo. Note that the caption is only saved on
OneDrive. If you download the file onto your PC, the file
does not contain the caption you assigned to it.
b. Has Access: Shows the sharing permissions assigned to
the file.
c. All activity: Shows a record of all actions that have
happened to the file in reverse chronological order,
along with who made the changes.
i. For example, it shows that the most recent
action was that we moved it to the Library
Photos folder (“LiveFolders” is another name for
“My files”, which is the root storage location of
your OneDrive account)
ii. As we will see soon, if we were to share our file
with someone else, their edits would appear
here as well.
d. More details: Shows additional information about the
file, such as its file size and creation date.
i. Type: The type of file (e.g. an image or a
Microsoft Word document)
ii. Dimensions: The size of the image in pixels.
iii. Camera: The camera that was used to take the
photo.
iv. Modified: When the file was last edited. Clicking
the “clock” icon displays a listing of the file’s
previous versions. You can use this to restore an
older version of the file.
v. Added: The name of the Microsoft account that
uploaded the file.
vi. Date Created: When the file was initially created.
vii. Path: The hierarchy of folders that the file is stored in.
viii. Size: How much storage space the file is using.

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5. Close the Details Pane by:

a. Clicking the button in the Toolbar or

b. Clicking the “X” in the upper-right corner of the pane.

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Preview Window
It is possible to view a file without opening it for editing. This is called previewing a file.
Previewing a file is faster than opening it for editing, which is why it is a useful tool. It is particularly
useful for Word documents because it allows you to quickly see what is inside the document.
7.1 Using the context menu
This is the most reliable way of previewing the file.
1. Right-click on the image file.
2. On the context menu that appears, click “Preview”

3. Notice how a larger version of the image appears. We are now looking at a preview of the file.
4. Close the preview by clicking the X button in the top-right corner of the screen.
Do not confuse this with the browser’s close button!

7.2 Clicking the file name

With most kinds of files, clicking the file name causes it to open in edit mode. However, when an image
file is clicked, the image is opened in the Preview Window.
1. Click on the image file name.
2. Notice how the same preview appears.
3. Close the preview.

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Sharing
One of the most powerful features of OneDrive is the ability to share files with other people. This
allows multiple people to view and edit the same file, making it great for collaboration.
To make this possible, OneDrive saves all of your files to Microsoft’s “cloud”. The cloud is essentially a
collection of thousands of computers located at Microsoft’s headquarters. Everybody’s OneDrive files
get saved here. However, nobody can see each other’s files unless they explicitly share them with
someone else.
Note that every company has its own, separate cloud. For example, you cannot access a file on
Google’s cloud service (called “Google Drive”) from your OneDrive account.
To demonstrate sharing, we’re going to share our image file with our partner.
In this section, for remote one-on-one classes, the teacher will be acting as the student’s “partner”.
The teacher will follow the same steps IN PARALLEL with the student. This is accomplished by logging
into the [email protected] OneDrive account (instructions below) on the teacher’s computer
and following along with the student.

8.1 Sharing with a specific person

1. Teacher Only: Minimize TeamViewer and login to the [email protected] OneDrive
account on your home computer (NOT on the student’s computer).
a. This is accomplished by going to onedrive.com and logging in.
b. If your browser is already logged into a OneDrive account, you will need to logout of it
first.
2. Teacher only: Once logged in, create a folder called “Library Photos” and upload the “Library of
Congress” file to this folder. If the folder is already there from a previous class, delete it and re-
create it.
3. Teacher only: Rename the photo after your first name.
4. STUDENT DOING SAME THING STARTING HERE
5. Select the photo by clicking the checkmark.
6. Click the “Share” button in the Toolbar.

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7. A dialog entitled “Send link” will appear. This allows you to (1) apply sharing settings to the file
and (2) optionally send an email to the person or people you are sharing it with, notifying them
that you shared a file with them.

8. Notice the “Copy link” button. Clicking this button will actually do TWO things:
a. Make the file sharable by link and then…
b. Copy the file’s link to the clipboard.
9. To see more sharing options, click “Anyone with the link can edit”.

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10. The Link settings are displayed.

a. Notice the two sharing options at the top.
i. Anyone with the link: Gives access to
anyone who has a link to the file. This is
the simplest option. It is good if you
want to share your file with lots of
people. They also do not need OneDrive
accounts to access the file when it is
shared in this way.
ii. Specific people: Gives access to a
specific list of people. The benefit to this
option is that it gives you fine-grained
control over who can access the file. It
also allows you to revoke access to
specific people should you need to.
However, each person you share it with must have their own OneDrive account.
b. Notice the “Allow editing” checkbox. By default, the people you share the file with will
be able to edit the file.
c. Notice the “Set expiration date” field. This allows you to set a date for when the sharing
settings will automatically be revoked. This a premium feature.
d. Notice the “Set password” field. This allows you to password-protect the file so that the
people you share it with also need to know the password in order to open it. This is only
available with the “Anyone with the link” sharing option. This is a premium feature.
11. We will start by sharing our file with specific people.
12. Click “Specific people”.
13. Click Apply.

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14. Type your partner’s email address and then press Enter.
a. Student only: Type [email protected]
b. Teacher only: Type the student’s email address (the one that is associated with their
OneDrive account).
15. Optionally, you may type a message into the “Add a message” field. This message will appear in
the email that they get.
16. Click “Send”

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17. THIS STEP IS FOR Student only (checking to see if they got the share notification email)
Using the App launcher is only going to work if they have a live.com, hotmail.com or
outlook.com email address. If it does not, they will have to login to their non-Microsoft email
account by their normal means.
After checking the student’s email inbox for the share notification, you may then skip down to
the next section.
Teacher: Stay right where you are in your OneDrive account.
Let’s check our email to see the share notification that our partner just sent to us.
a. Click the App Launcher button in the upper left.
b. Click Outlook.

c. Notice the email at the top of the list.

d. Click on the email to open it.

e. Notice the blue Open button. You could use this button to open the file. But we will
open it another way.

f. Click the App Launcher button and click OneDrive to return to OneDrive.

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8.2 Opening a shared file

Teacher: Continue to follow these steps on YOUR computer in parallel with the student.
1. Click Shared in the navigation pane.
2. Notice the “Shared by me” subheading. This shows all the files you have shared with others.
You should see the file you just shared there.
3. The rest of the screen shows the files that others have shared with you. Notice the subheading
with your partner’s account name.

4. Click on your partner’s file to view it in the preview window.

5. Recall that “Allow editing” was turned on when we shared our file. This allows our partner to
edit the file. Unfortunately, OneDrive does not support advanced photo editing in the cloud.
However, we can rotate our partner’s photo to demonstrate the fact that we can edit it.
6. While still previewing the photo, click the “Rotate” button.
7. Notice how the image rotates 90 degrees.
8. Close the preview window.
9. Click on your photo under the “Shared by me” heading to see your partner’s changes.

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10. Notice how the photo may appear to be unchanged, even though our partner rotated it. When
working in the cloud, you will sometimes experience issues with your computer not getting the
latest information in a timely manner. For example, someone might share a file with you, but
you might not actually see the file until a couple minutes later. To resolve these issues, it
sometimes helps to do a browser refresh. This forces your computer to “sync” with the cloud
and download the latest information. Click your browser’s refresh button.
11. Notice how it now displays the rotated image.
12. Close the preview window.
8.3 Managing sharing permissions
Teacher: Continue to follow these steps on YOUR computer in parallel with the student.
If you wanted to remove someone’s access to a file, or just see which people a file is shared with:
1. Navigate to the Library Photos folder.
2. Select the image file.
3. Open the Details Pane using the button in the Toolbar.
4. Click the “Manage Access” link under the “Has Access” heading.

5. Notice your partner’s account is listed.

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6. Notice the arrow to the right of “Can Edit” underneath our partner’s account name. To edit our
partner’s access, click “Can Edit”.

a. Change to view only: Revokes edit permissions so they can only view the file.
b. Stop Sharing: Totally removes that person’s access to the file so they can no longer view
or edit it.
7. Click Stop Sharing.
8. Notice how our partner’s account disappears from the list.
9. Notice how the Sharing column in the Content Pane now says “Private”. This means that the file
is no longer being shared with anyone.

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8.4 Sharing with a link

Teacher: Continue to follow these steps on YOUR computer in parallel with the student.
Link sharing is useful if you want to share a file with lots of people, or if you want to share a file with
someone who does not have a OneDrive account.
8.4.1 Creating the sharable document
To demonstrate this, we are going to create a Word document that we will use for everyone to record
what they are bringing to a holiday party. A lot of people are coming, and many of them do not have
OneDrive, so this would be an ideal time to create a shareable link.
1. Make sure you are in the Library Photos folder.
2. Make sure all files are deselected.
3. Click New in the toolbar and click “Word document”. If the New button is not visible, it means
there are still files selected.

4. Notice how the new document opened in a new tab.

5. Let’s give the document a file name.
a. In the top left of the screen, click “Document1 – Saved to OneDrive”
b. Type “July 4 Party” into the File Name field.
c. Press Enter .

6. Type your name at the top of the document and press Enter.

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7. Click the “Bullets” button in the toolbar. Note that this is a two-part button. Click the left-half of
the button.

8. Type the names of three types of food.

8.4.2 Sharing the document

1. Close the browser tab. Word Online saves changes as you type, so there is no need to save the
file.
2. Notice how we are returned to OneDrive.
3. Notice the file we just created is there.
4. Select the “July 4 Party.docx” file.
5. Click “Share” in the Toolbar.

6. Notice how “Anyone with the link can edit” is the default sharing option. This is what we want.

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7. Notice how it is prompting us to enter a name or email address. This is an optional feature that
will send an email to whoever we want containing a link to the file. We will not enter any email
addresses here because we want to send a personalized email to our friends.
8. Click “Copy link”.
9. A confirmation message appears with the link to the file.

10. Clicking the “Copy link” button does two things:

a. Applies sharing permissions to the file. The sharing permissions state that anyone who
knows the link to the file can view and edit it.
b. Copies the link to the file to the clipboard so you can paste it somewhere.
11. Even though it is showing us a Copy button, clicking it is not necessary. It has already copied it.
8.4.3 Emailing the link
At this point, we have configured the file to be sharable by link, but we have not given the link to
anybody, so nobody knows about it. Next, we will email our partner a link to the file.
In order for the instructions in this section to work, the student’s email address must end in live.com,
hotmail.com, or outlook.com. If it does not, you will have to adapt the instructions below to the
email service they use (e.g. Gmail/Yahoo).
Teacher: You can follow these instructions, but the student will have to go to their non-Microsoft
account.
1. Click the App Launcher and click Outlook.
2. Click New Message.
3. Type your partner’s email address in the To field.
a. Student only: Type [email protected]
b. Teacher only: Type the student’s email address.
4. In the “Add a subject” field, type “July 4 Party Food List”.

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5. In the email body:

a. Type “Enter the food you’re going to bring at the link below!”
b. Press Enter .

c. Press Ctrl+V to paste.

6. Notice how long and convoluted the link is. This would be next to impossible to write down on
a napkin or deliver verbally over the phone. We will address this shortly.
7. Click Send.

8. Check your Inbox for your partner’s email (using the App launcher button) and click the link to
open it.
a. The student may have gotten into OneDrive using a login that is not a Microsoft login.
Rather they might have logged in with a different email address that is now associated
with OneDrive. If they were to switch to the Outlook email now, they would be able to
SEND email but NOT receive it. Therefore, if they used a non-Microsoft login to
OneDrive, in order for this section to work they are going to have to login to their actual
email address that they used to create their OneDrive account.
9. Notice how the document opens in a new tab.
10. Notice how the document is not editable. Click the “Edit document” button and select “Edit”

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11. You MAY receive a message asking to confirm the Microsoft you want to use to open the
document with. Click Continue.

12. Add your own name to the document and the food you’re going to bring!
8.5 URL Shorteners
Teacher: You may now STOP following these steps on your computer in parallel with the student. You
don’t even need to be in OneDrive anymore.
If we wanted to share the shareable link of our food list with somebody over the phone, or write it
down on a napkin, we wouldn’t be able to because the link is so long.
A URL shortener can be used to make long URLs much shorter (“URL” is another word for “link”). There
are many URL shortener services on the Internet, and many of them are free. We will be using one of
the more popular ones called TinyURL.
First, we need to get the shareable link of our food list and copy it to the clipboard. (It should already
be in your clipboard, but for demonstration purposes, we will show you how you would get it again).
1. Close out of your partner’s food list document by closing the browser tab.
2. You should now be in your email. Use the App Launcher to go back to OneDrive. If the student
is not using a Microsoft email account, they will need to switch to OneDrive.
3. Navigate to the Library Photos folder.
4. Select the “July 4 Party.docx” file.
5. Click the Share button on the Toolbar.
6. Click the “Copy link” button. This copies the link to the clipboard.

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Now we are ready to create the shortened URL.

1. Open a new browser tab.
2. Type “tinyurl.com” into the address bar and press Enter .

3. Click into the “Enter a long URL to make a TinyURL” textbox and press Ctrl+V to paste.
4. Click the “Make TinyURL!” button.

5. Note that it may take 5-10 seconds for the shortened URL to be generated.
6. Locate the shortened URL on the page. It is underneath the “TinyURL” subheading. It starts with
https://tinyurl.com. Notice how much shorter it is.

7. Note that shortened URLs are often case-sensitive. This means if you type a lowercase letter
when you should have typed an uppercase letter (or vice versa) the URL will not work.
8. Note that, when giving this shortened link to somebody, you do not need to include the https://
part. Web browsers will automatically add this, so it is not necessary to include.

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Next, we are going to practice how we would share this URL with somebody by writing it down on a
slip of paper
1. On a slip of paper, write down the URL, keeping the following things in mind:
a. You do not need to write the “https://” part. Start at the first “t”.
b. Remember to differentiate capital letters from lowercase letters.
c. Remember to differentiate between the letter “O” and the number zero.
d. Remember to differentiate between a lowercase “L” and the number 1.
2. Open a new browser tab.
3. Type the URL into the Address Bar of the browser and press Enter . (we will pretend that you
got this slip from somebody else).
4. Confirm that it has taken you to your document.
a. If you get an error, you may have written it down wrong or typed it wrong.
5. Notice how the shortened URL has disappeared from the Address Bar. This is normal behavior.
The shortened URL has redirected us to the full URL.
In-person class steps (CANNOT do remotely):
1. On a slip of paper, write down the URL, keeping the following things in mind:
a. You do not need to write the “https://” part. Start at the first “t”.
b. Remember to differentiate capital letters from lowercase letters.
c. Remember to differentiate between the letter “O” and the number zero.
d. Remember to differentiate between a lowercase “L” and the number 1.
2. Swap slips with your partner.
3. Open a new browser tab.
4. Type your partner’s URL into the Address Bar of the browser and press Enter .
5. Confirm that it has taken you to the document.
a. If you get an error, you may have typed it wrong or your partner may have written it
down wrong.
6. Notice how the shortened URL has disappeared from the Address Bar. This is normal behavior.
The shortened URL has redirected us to the full URL.

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Accessing OneDrive from File Explorer (supplemental)

Windows 10 comes pre-installed with the OneDrive Desktop app. This app allows you to access your
OneDrive files directly from your PC without needing to login from a web browser, as we have been
doing during this class. You can open, edit, upload, and share files without needing to open a web
browser.
9.1 Accessing the OneDrive app
1. Click once on the OneDrive icon in the system tray.
a. If the icon is not visible, click the “Show hidden icons” button.

b. If the icon is still not visible, it means the OneDrive app is not running. Type “OneDrive”
into the start menu search box to launch it.
2. A dialog appears on the right-side of the screen.
a. If you had to click the “Show hidden icons” button, the system tray icons may be
covering up part of the OneDrive dialog. Point away from the system tray icons, wait a
few seconds, and the system tray icons will disappear.
b. Unlike most dialog boxes, this dialog will disappear the moment you click anywhere
outside of it.
c. It displays a listing of files that were modified since the app was launched (i.e. when you
logged into your computer). If no files are listed, it means no files were modified since
the app was launched.

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3. There are three buttons at the bottom:

a. Open folder: Opens File Explorer to your OneDrive folder.
b. View online: Opens OneDrive in your web browser. Some tasks can only be
accomplished through the web browser. For example, viewing your shared files.
c. Help & Settings: Opens a menu with additional options.
4. Click Help & Settings (this menu can also be quickly accessed by right-clicking the system tray
icon).
a. Open your OneDrive folder: Same as Open folder button.
b. Settings: Opens the OneDrive settings.
c. View online: Same as View online button.
d. Unlock Personal Vault (discussed in separate section).
e. Pause syncing: Temporarily stops the OneDrive app from
syncing your files. Could be useful if you want to conserve
bandwidth for something else. Or maybe you are copying a
lot of files to your OneDrive folder and doing a lot of
rearranging and you don’t want OneDrive to sync
everything until you’re done.
f. Close OneDrive: Exits the OneDrive app and stops your files
from syncing. To re-open the OneDrive app, search for
OneDrive using the start menu search box. The app is also configured to launch on
startup by default, which means you could also reboot your computer to restart the
app, provided you have not changed this setting.
5. Click outside of the dialog box to dismiss it.
9.2 Locating your files
1. Open the OneDrive app by clicking the system tray icon.
2. Click the “Open folder” button. This opens File Explorer to your OneDrive files.
3. Close File Explorer.
4. You can also view your OneDrive files by opening File Explorer directly.
Open the File Explorer app by clicking the “file folder” icon on the task bar.
a. If this icon is not present on your task bar, search for it using the Start Menu search box.
b. You can also press Win+E to open File Explorer.

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5. Locate the “OneDrive” heading in the navigation pane.

6. If the OneDrive subfolders are not visible, you can show them by pointing to the heading and
clicking the chevron.

7. Click on the OneDrive heading in the navigation pane. This is the same as the “My files” location
in the web browser. It opens to the root of your OneDrive folder.
8. Notice how your OneDrive files and folders appear in the Content Pane on the right.
9. Notice the Status column

a. Your computer does not have a copy of the file. It is only in the cloud.
When you open the file, a copy of the file will be downloaded to your PC, and its status

will change to .
i. If you right-click a file and select “Free up space”, the file’s status changes to this.

b. A copy of the file is currently saved to your computer. If you open a file that has the
“cloud” icon, OneDrive will download the file, and the file’s status will change to this.

c. OneDrive will always keep a copy of the file on your computer. To make a file
behave in this way, right-click the file and select “Always keep on this device”. This
ensures that you will be able to access the file if your computer loses internet
connectivity (not really applicable for desktop computers, more suitable for devices that
do not always have a reliable internet connection, such as laptops).

d. The file is being shared in some way. On a folder, either the folder is shared or some
of the files are

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10. Right-click a file in your OneDrive folder and notice the OneDrive options

a. Share: Adjust the file’s sharing settings.

b. View online: Opens the file in a web browser in the OneDrive web interface. This can be
useful if you want to open a document in its online app (e.g. Word Online).
c. Version history: See old versions of the file.

d. Always keep on this device: Clicking this will change the file’s status icon to .
Instructs OneDrive to always download this file to your PC. This ensures that you will be
able to access the file if your computer loses internet connectivity (not really applicable
for desktop computers, more suited for devices that may not always have an internet
connection, such as laptops). This option will have a checkmark next to it if it is already
configured so.
e. Free up space: Instructs OneDrive to delete the copy of the file that’s on your PC in
order to free up hard disk space on your computer. Clicking this will change the file’s

status icon to . This option will be disabled if the file’s status is already .
9.3 Uploading a file
Uploading a file to your OneDrive is as simple as copying the file to this folder, as you would do with
any folder on your PC.
Preparation:
1. Go to www.mc-npl.org/class-resources
2. Find the button for “OneDrive” and click it.
3. Under the “Supporting Files” subheading, locate Siberian tiger.jpg link. Download this file to
your Downloads file.
4. Under the same subheading, download the Orchid.jpg file.
5. Switch back to File Explorer.

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Now, we are ready to upload our file.

1. Navigate to the Downloads folder.
2. Move the “Siberian tiger.jpg” image to the Library Photos folder in your OneDrive.
a. Select the “Siberian tiger.jpg” file.
b. Click the Home tab on the Ribbon.
c. Click Move To and click “Choose Location”
d. Find OneDrive in the file listing.
e. Click the chevon to show the sub folders.
f. Click the Library Photos folder.
g. Click Move.
3. Navigate to the Library Photos folder in your OneDrive folder.
4. Notice how the file has a green checkmark. The file has automatically synced itself with the
cloud.

5. Editing the file is now as simple as opening it, making your changes, and saving your changes.
The changes are automatically uploaded to the cloud because your computer is using the
OneDrive app.
Let’s view OneDrive in a web browser to confirm it was uploaded.
1. Open a web browser and login to OneDrive (see the Opening your OneDrive section above).
2. Open the Library Photos folder.
3. Locate the file.
4. Don’t close the browser yet.

Note: When you upload a file through the web browser, the file is given the status in File Explorer.
Demo uploading Orchid.jpg via web interface to see that the file’s status is cloud.

Demo opening Orchid.jpg from File Explorer. Watch how the status changes to “loading” symbol.

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9.4 Deleting a file

When you delete a file from your OneDrive folder to goes to both your Windows Recycle Bin and your
OneDrive Recycle Bin. The latter is only accessible through a web browser.

The exception to this is if the file has the status. In this case, it only goes to your OneDrive Recycle
Bin. When you delete a file like this, Windows shows you this confirmation message:

9.5 Sharing
Files can also be shared from File Explorer. There is one limitation, however: You cannot share with
specific people—you can only create sharable links.
We will be sharing the Siberian tiger image with our partner.
1. Right-click Siberian tiger.jpg.
2. Notice how the context menu contains TWO items labeled “Share”.
3. Click the “Share” item that has the OneDrive logo next to it.

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4. A dialog opens that looks like what we saw when we shared a file before.

5. Click “Anyone with the link can edit”.

a. Notice how, this time, it is not giving us the option to share with specific people. This
can only be done through the web browser.
b. Notice how we can disallow editing if we only want the user to be able to view our file.
c. Notice how we can set an expiration date and password as well (these features are only
available to paying OneDrive subscribers).
d. Click Cancel.

6. To have OneDrive email our partner a link to the file, type their email into the “Enter a name or
email address” box.
a. If you do not want OneDrive to send them any emails, you can click the “Copy link”
button instead. This does two things: (1) Enables link sharing on the file and (2) copies
the link to the clipboard for us to do what we please.

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7. Press Enter when you are done typing the address, or click the suggestion from the list.

8. Click Send.
9. Close the confirmation message.

10. Aside: Alternatively, we could have clicked the “Copy link” button. This does two things: (1)
Enable link sharing on the file and (2) copies the link to the clipboard for us to do what we
please.

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11. To stop sharing this file:

a. Right-click the file and select the OneDrive “Share” button.
b. Click the “three dots” button in the upper-right, and click “Manage Access”
c. Notice how your partner’s name is in this list. This is misleading. It suggests that we
could revoke access to a specific person. This is not true because we enabled the
“anyone with the link can edit” sharing option. If we removed our partner’s name from
this list, they would still be able to access the file.

d. To fully revoke our partner’s access to the file, we must turn off link sharing AND
remove them name from the list.
e. Click the arrow next to “Can edit” underneath your partner’s name and click “Stop
sharing”.
f. Click the X to the right of the link.
g. Close the dialog box.

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Document Collaboration (supplemental)

It is possible to edit a Word document at the exact same time that another person is editing the same
document. You will be able to see the other person’s changes instantly as they are making them. This is
called simultaneous collaboration.
Note that, simultaneous collaboration works best when all parties are using the online version of
Microsoft Word. If someone is using the Desktop version of Word, the other people will not be able to
see the changes they make instantaneously. The Desktop version of Word only saves changes every 5
seconds or so.
1. Open a web browser and login to your OneDrive account.
2. Open the Library Photos folder.
3. In the Toolbar, click New, then click Word document.

4. Notice how a new tab opens. Our new document will open in this tab.
5. Let’s give the document a file name.
a. In the top left of the screen, click “Document1 – Saved to OneDrive”
b. Type “Family Party” into the File Name field.
c. Press Enter .

6. Type your name at the top of the document and press Enter.

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7. Click the “Bullets” button in the toolbar. Note that this is a two-part button. Click the left-half of
the button.

8. Type the names of three types of food.

9. Now, we are going to share this document with our partner.

a. Click the Share button in the upper-right.
b. Type your partner’s email address and press Enter.
c. Click Send.

10. Now, the partner will open the file.

a. Open a web browser and login to OneDrive.
b. Click “Shared” on the left.
c. Click the file to open it.

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11. Notice the colored circle in the upper-right, next to the Share button. This indicates that
someone else is currently has the document open.

12. Notice colored cursor. This shows where your partner’s cursor is.
13. Partner adds their own items, crosses off an item.

14. Notice how you are seeing changes happen in real time.
15. You can also open this document in the Desktop version of Microsoft Word. Again, the Desktop
version is not good for simultaneous editing. However, it has more features that the online
version does. So, you might need to open the document in the Desktop version if you need to
use those features.
a. Click the Editing button.
b. Click “Open in Desktop App”

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c. You will see two messages on the screen.

i. The first message is your browser altering you to the fact that the website you
are on wants to open the Desktop version of Microsoft Word. If you do not want
to see this message again in the future, you can click the “Always allow…”
checkbox.

ii. The second message is from Word Online. It is informing you that it has
instructed your computer to open the document in the Desktop version, and
that you can close the browser tab once this operation completes.

iii. Click the “Open Word” button in the first message.

16. Notice the colored circle in the upper-right. This is informing you that someone else has the
document open.

17. Notice the “AutoSave” button in the top-left. This means that Word will save changes as you
type. AutoSave can only be enabled on documents that are stored in OneDrive.
18. Click the File tab. Notice how the “Save As” option has been replaced with [ File > Save a Copy ].
This is because the file is stored in OneDrive. When you save a copy of the file, the copy does
not retain the original file’s version history.
19. Make some changes to the document. Notice how you are not seeing your partner’s changes
instantaneously. The Desktop version of Word is not as good for simultaneous editing as Word
Online is.

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Personal Vault (supplemental)

A storage location for storing files with sensitive, personal information. Examples of such files include
tax documents, financial documents, or anything with your Social Security Number. Files in your vault
cannot be shared.
To “open” the vault, a code must be sent to your phone to verify your identity. The vault “locks” after
20 minutes of inactivity, in which case you need to verify your identity again to open it. You can also
lock the vault yourself.
Your Personal Vault can be opened from a web browser or File Explorer. If you unlock it in one place
and try to access it in another place, it must be unlocked again. For example, if you unlock it from File
Explorer, and then tried to access it from a web browser, you will need to verify your identity again.
11.1 Opening the Vault from File Explorer
1. Open File Explorer and navigate to your OneDrive folder.
2. Locate the file named “Personal Vault”. Due to technical reasons, the computer initially treats it
as a file, so it is not grouped with the folders at the top of the file listing.
3. Double-click “Personal Vault”.
4. If this is your first time using it, it will have to go through an initial setup process, which takes 5-
10 minutes.
5. It will then ask by which method you would like to be contacted to verify your identity. Select
whichever option you prefer.

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6. Before it sends you the code, it asks you to verify your contact method. For example, if you
selected Email, it will ask you type the full email address. Or, if you selected a phone number, it
will ask you for the last 4 digits of the phone number.

7. It will then send you a seven-digit, numeric code to whichever option you select. The code only
works one time, so there’s no reason to save it anywhere.
8. Type the code into the textbox and click Verify.

9. Notice how your Personal Vault opens in a new File Explorer window.

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10. Notice how there is now an entry for “Personal Vault” in the navigation pane.

11. You can now interact with this folder as you would any other folder on your computer.
12. The vault will lock automatically after 20 minutes of inactivity. To lock it yourself, right-click on
the Personal Vault folder and click “Lock Personal Vault”

11.2 Opening the Vault from the web interface

1. Open a web browser and login to your OneDrive account.
2. Click the “Personal Vault” folder.

3. Notice how a popup window appears. This popup window will step you through the unlocking
process.

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4. If this is the first time you are opening your vault, you may see a message explaining how it
works. If you see this message, click Next.

5. It will then ask by which method you would like to be contacted to verify your identity. Select
whichever option you prefer.

6. Before it sends you the code, it asks you to verify your contact method. For example, if you
selected Email, it may ask you type the full email address. Or, if you selected a phone number, it
may ask you for the last 4 digits of the phone number.
7. It will then send you a seven-digit, numeric code to whichever option you select. The code only
works one time, so there is no need to save it anywhere.
8. Type the code into the textbox and click Verify.

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9. Notice how the popup window disappears and your Personal Vault folder is displayed.
10. You may see several boxes at the top of the screen. These provide you with more information
on your Personal Vault. You may close them by clicking their individual close buttons, or you
may leave them there for future reference.

11. Notice the “Personal Vault Options” button on the right side of the Toolbar. This is a new
button that has appeared because we unlocked our Personal Vault.

12. Click the “Personal Vault Options” button.

a. Lock: Locks the vault. When the vault is locked, its files can no longer be accessed. You
must unlock the vault again to access your files.
b. Personal Vault settings: Opens advanced settings for your vault.
c. 2 of 3 free files remaining: If you do not have a premium OneDrive subscription, this
informs you that you can only store three files in your vault at a time.
13. Now that our Personal Vault is open, we can move files into it. Let’s move one of the files in our
Library Photos folder into our vault.

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14. Navigate to the Library Photos folder.

15. Select the file you want to move and click “Move to” in the Toolbar.
16. In the panel on the right, click Personal Vault.
17. Click the blue Move button.

18. Notice the status message that confirms the move operation.

19. Now that we are done using our vault, we can lock it. Click the “Personal Vault Options” button
in the toolbar, and click “Lock”.

20. Note that the vault will lock automatically after 20 minutes of inactivity.

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Version History (supplemental)

1. Right-click Family History in File Explorer and select Version history. Lets you only download
past versions. No comparison feature.
2. Open document in Word and go to [ File > Info > Version history ].
a. Version History panel opens on right.
b. Click a version to view it. Opens in a new Word window.
c. Click Compare button to see the differences (opens in yet another window).

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Exploring OneDrive Desktop app Settings (supplemental)

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