ie8 fix

Microsoft updates SkyDrive with HTML5 upload, PDF support and more

By | November 29, 2011, 8:31am PST

Summary: Microsoft is updating its SkyDrive cloud storage service with a number of new features and enhancements.

Microsoft is rolling out on November 29 a new release of its SkyDrive cloud-storage service that includes a number of new features and updates, including HTML5 uploading and PDF support.

In a new “Inside Windows Live” blog post, Microsoft officials detailed the various enhancements that will go live for users later today.

Among the updates:

HTML5 rich-upload capability
: Currently, SkyDrive uses Silverlight for rich upload support. In the new release, Microsoft is adding drag and drop as a way to upload files and photos with browsers that support HTML5 File API, including Internet Explorer 10, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari. Users can browse and use SkyDrive rather than waiting for uploads to complete with the new release, as well.

Better photo slideshow support: Microsoft has “rebuilt and “re-introduced” photo slideshows with the release so that they work faster.

Rich viewing support for PDFs: With the new SkyDrive update, users can click a PDF and load it using whatever available PDF viewer their browsers support. “This means that on IE, Firefox and Safari, PDFs will load in the browser if you have Adobe Acrobat installed. On Chrome, PDFs will load using Chrome’s native PDF viewer,” the post explains.

Overall performance enhancements: Now many actions — like upload, delete, copy, move, rename, share and create — happen inline. The new SkyDrive release preloads more resources while users are signing in, making it faster to view and edit docs. Officials also claim that signing into the new SkyDrive will be “about 50 percent faster.”

Simplified app sharing, especially for Office: The new SkyDrive release allows users to share from within apps and complete their tasks without having to think about structures of folders and subfolders. The new release allows for sharing of individual files, photos and documents within a folder. Users also can more simply share SkyDrive documents and photos via e-mail and by posting to their networks, like Facebook and LinkedIn.

Microsoft posted this video to YouTube explaining the new SkyDrive features:

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Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Disclosure

Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

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RE: Microsoft updates SkyDrive with HTML5 upload, PDF support and more
sdgwefvb 1st Dec
I've been a defender of IE for a while now, but it's hard to justify when even Microsoft can't use it to demo their own software.

I am sure this will all work great in IE10, but the release schedule for IE version is way too slow.
@MaxxDelusional It works fine in IE9
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@HalfAKilo well he means the Drag and drop, in the video he switches to Chrome because IE9 doesn't support it.
IE10 does though... but obviously it is not a final product.


but you know, seriously, its just 1 click on "add files", its not like anyone will die from not having direct drag and drop in IE9 and you have to use "Add Files".

some people make so much drama about little things but yeah it works really good in IE9 and all these new features make Skydrive is even better.
@HalfAKilo - think tablets. Drag-n-drop matters a lot more there, and is arguably more than just a little thing.
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SkyDrive is sweet
statuskwo5 29th Nov
Just used it the other day for school and it's good to know they are updating it and adding more features.
I want to upload folders....
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This is a good start
rjohn05 29th Nov
I like the fact that the windows live services are getting updated on a regular basis now. Glad to see them adding some useful stuff to SkyDrive.
I used the photo link feature in the previous iteration to embed a link back to SkyDrive and it's broken. They've adjusted this two times that I can recall and broke it for me both times. I do like the presentation and will go fix it - I guess that's the price of progress.
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Linux support yet?
daboochmeister 29th Nov
Maybe it was because of how clunky Silverlight is on Linux (with the Mono-based Moonlight plugin), but I could never get SkyDrive to work on Linux. Anyone know if it does now?

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