Would you prefer to open that document in Microsoft Office on your PC? You’ll have to download it first, as discussed next.
To open a document, simply tap (or click, or otherwise select) it. Some document types, like PDF files, will open in the Metro-style app, or Windows desktop application, that is associated with that file type. However, some behave a bit differently than expected. For example, Office documents—Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations—as well as OneNote notebooks open in the SkyDrive-based Office Web Apps instead. This can be seen in Figure 8-50.
When viewing a folder full of photos, as shown in Figure 8-51, SkyDrive provides a more compelling and panoramic view of the folder contents.
But there’s still little you can do beyond viewing individual photos: No slideshow is available, and you can’t even manually switch from photo to photo in a pleasant full-screen view.
Copying Files from SkyDrive to the PC
To copy (or download) a document, photo, or other file from your SkyDrive storage to the PC, simply select it and then display the app bar (Winkey + Z is quickest). Then, select the Download button, which can be seen in Figure 8-52. You can perform this action on individual files or multiple files.
Figure 8-50: A SkyDrive-based Word document will open in the Office Web Apps.
Figure 8-51: Viewing a folder full of photos on SkyDrive
Copying Files from the PC to SkyDrive
To copy (or upload) a document, photo, or other file from your PC to SkyDrive, navigate to the destination location in SkyDrive, display the app bar and then select the Add button. A File picker screen will appear, allowing you to select one or more files from your local filesystem, as well as from various Metro-style apps that are connected to online services of their own.
Figure 8-52: You can download SkyDrive-based files using the app bar.
As you select files to upload, they are added to the File picker’s basket, which runs along the bottom of the screen. This basket lets you collect files from various locations and then upload only when you’ve gotten all the files you want, no matter where they’re found throughout your PC’s filesystem and potentially on other storage services in the cloud.
Sharing Files from SkyDrive
To share files from SkyDrive, you use the system-wide, Metro-style sharing mechanism that’s available to all apps. Simply open the Share pane (via the Charms bar, or with the Winkey + H keyboard shortcut) and you can share the currently selected document, photo, or other file via any apps that are configured to offer this capability. In Figure 8-53, you can see that Mail and People are available for sharing the currently selected document.
Figure 8-53: Sharing a file from SkyDrive
Windows Reader
Windows Reader also works with Microsoft’s aborted XPS document format.
After fighting against the tide of Adobe’s popular PDF document format for years, Microsoft has finally given in and created its own Windows PDF reader app. Dubbed Windows Reader, this great little app works as expected and is a lightweight and fast alternative to Adobe’s bloated Reader application, even for those who prefer to stick largely with desktop applications.
Windows Reader presents a very simple full-screen interface, like many Metro-style apps, but some interesting features are revealed, as always, by activating the app bar (Winkey + Z, swipe toward the center of the screen from the top or bottom edge, or right-click anywhere). Windows Reader is shown in Figure 8-54 with its app bar displayed.
Figure 8-54: Windows Reader with its app bar displayed
Windows Reader provides the following features related to PDF document viewing:
• Zoom: In any of the available view styles, you can zoom in and out to better see the document. Zooming works as it does elsewhere in Metro: Via pinching on touch-based systems, with Ctrl + - (zoom out) and Ctrl + + (zoom in) keyboard shortcuts, or by holding down the Ctrl key and using your mouse’s scroll wheel.
Zoom out enough and you’ll see a nice thumbnail view.
• View styles: The Two pages, One page, and Continuous buttons in the Reader app bar work like toggles so that only one can be on at a time. In Two pages view, Reader will display two pages of the current document side by side. In One page view, only one whole page will be seen at a time and you must use the app’s navigational controls (discussed next) to move from page to page. In Continuous view, only one whole page will be seen at a time, but you can scroll through the document continuously, with the start of the next page being visually attached to the end of the current page.
• Navigation: In Two pages and One page view, you can swipe left and right, use the left and right arrow keys, or click the pop-up navigational controls that appear to move through the document.
In Continuous view, navigation works differently. That is, instead of behaving like a standard Metro-style app with horizontal navigation, it behaves like a traditional document-based Windows application and utilizes vertical navigation instead. In this mode, you can move through the document by swiping up and down, by using the up and down arrow keys, or by utilizing the scroll bars that appear on the right side of the application.
• Find: By using the Find button in Reader’s app bar, you can search for text within the current document. This interface supplies Previous and Next buttons so you can find individual references to the search text, and an optional results pane, that calls out each instance of the search text in the document for quick navigation.
