Pro Office for iPad: How to Be Productive with Office for iPad (2014)

Chapter 3. Managing Your Office Documents

In this chapter, you will learn how to manage your Office documents. First, you will set up your OneDrive and SharePoint services on your iPad so that the Office apps can access them. You will then learn to navigate the file management screens and manage an active document from its File menu. After that, this chapter will explain how to share your documents with others and how to troubleshoot problems with documents.

Setting Up Your Services

As you saw in Chapter 1, you need to activate the Office apps before you can get anything done in them. By this point, your iPad should have the Office account that you used for activation configured for use. This is your primary account.

You can add other accounts and services as needed. If you no longer need an account or service other than your primary account, you can remove it.

Adding a Service

To add an account or service, follow these steps.

1. Open one of the Office apps by tapping its icon on the Home screen.

2. If the app opens the document you were using last, tap the Back button to close the document and display the file management screens.

3. Tap the Open icon in the left column to display the Open screen.

Note You can also tap the Account icon at the top of the left column and then tap the Add a Service button in the Add a Service dialog box. But because the Add a Service dialog box lets you add only OneDrive or OneDrive for Business at this writing, not SharePoint, it is usually easier to display the Open screen and tap the Add a Place button.

4. Tap the Add a Place button. The Add a Place dialog box opens (see Figure 3-1).

Figure 3-1. To start adding an account, tap the Add a Place button on the file management screens in one of the Office apps, and then tap the account type in the Add a Place dialog box

5. Tap the appropriate button.

OneDrive: Tap this button to add a personal OneDrive account. This is the standard type of OneDrive account, so unless you know you have a OneDrive for Business account, choose this type. In the OneDrive dialog box (see Figure 3-2), type your account name and password, and then tap the Sign In button.

Figure 3-2. In the Sign In dialog box for OneDrive, type your account name and password, and then tap the Sign In button

OneDrive for Business: Tap this button to add an OneDrive for Business account, such as one provided by your company or your school. In the OneDrive for Business dialog box, type your account name and password, and then tap the Sign In button.

Tip For a OneDrive for Business account, you can select the Keep Me Signed In check box to have the Office app keep you signed in to the service. This is helpful as long as you keep your iPad protected against others using it.

Note If OneDrive prompts you for an e-mail address to which Microsoft can send a security code if you get locked out of your account, select the appropriate e-mail account in the Where Should We Send Your Code? pop-up menu, and tap the Next button. In the next dialog box, type the code you received via e-mail and tap the Next button.

SharePoint Site URL: Tap this button to add a SharePoint site by specifying its URL, the Internet address. Provide your SharePoint credentials when the app prompts for them.

Once the Office app has set up your account, the account appears on the file management screens, and you can start using it.

Removing a Service

When you have set up two or more services, you can remove ones you no longer need. You must always have one service set up, and the Office apps prevent you from removing the last service.

To remove a service, follow these steps:

1. Open one of the Office apps by tapping its icon on the Home screen.

2. If the app opens the document you were using last, tap the Back button to close the document and display the file management screens.

3. Tap the button that bears your name at the top of the left column to display the Account pop-up panel (see Figure 3-3).

Figure 3-3. Tap your name to display the Account pop-up panel, and then tap the Edit button

4. Tap the Edit button to turn on editing mode (see Figure 3-4). A red Remove icon appears to the left of each service you can delete.

Figure 3-4. In editing mode, tap the Remove icon to the left of the service you want to remove

Note The Edit button doesn’t appear if you have only one service set up.

5. Tap the Remove icon for the appropriate service. A red Remove button (with “Remove” in white text) appears on the right of the button.

6. Tap the Remove icon for the appropriate service. A red Remove button (with “Remove” in white text) appears on the right of the button.

7. Tap the red Remove button. The Are you sure you want to remove this service? dialog box opens (see Figure 3-5).

Figure 3-5. Tap the Remove button in the Are you sure you want to remove this service? dialog box to remove the service

8. Tap the Remove button in the dialog box. The app removes the service.

9. Tap the button with your name at the top of the left column to hide the Account pop-up panel.

Signing Out from Your Account

Normally, you’ll want to stay signed in to your Office account so that you can use the apps and access your documents quickly on your iPad. But if you use multiple accounts for Office, such as a work account and a personal account, you will need to sign out of one account so that you can sign in to the other account, because you can be signed in to only one account at a time.

Here’s how to sign out of your account.

1. Open one of the Office apps by tapping its icon on the Home screen.

2. If the app opens the document you were using last, tap the Back button to close the document and display the file-management screen.

3. Tap the button that bears your name at the top of the left column to display the Account pop-up panel.

4. Tap the button with your name and e-mail address in the Account section to display the Account dialog box (see Figure 3-6).

Figure 3-6. To sign out from your account, open the Account dialog box and then tap the Sign Out button

5. Tap the Sign Out button. The Sign Out dialog box opens (see Figure 3-7).

Figure 3-7. Tap the Sign Out button in the Sign Out dialog box to confirm that you want to sign out

6. Tap the Sign Out button. The app signs you out.

Signing In to an Account

After you sign out, the Sign In button appears in place of the account button (the button showing your name) in the left column on the file management screens. You can sign in to a different account (or the same account, if you like) by following these steps.

1. Tap the Sign In button to display the Sign In dialog box (see Figure 3-8).

Figure 3-8. To sign in, tap the Sign In button at the top of the left column, type your username in the Sign In dialog box, and then tap the Next button

2. Type your username.

3. Tap the Next button. The Sign In dialog box prompts you for your password.

4. Type your password.

5. Tap the Next button. The app signs you in, and your name appears on the account button at the top of the left column on the file management screens.

Caution Any local documents—documents you store on your iPad rather than on an online drive—are not tied to the account that creates them. This means that you can work on local documents no matter which account you are currently signed in to. You can also work on local documents while you are not signed in.

Navigating the File Management Screens

Once you’ve got your account and services set up, you’re ready to create new documents and open existing documents. As in the desktop versions of the apps, you perform these tasks from within the appropriate app. For example, you create a new spreadsheet workbook from within Excel or a new presentation from within PowerPoint.

Because the iPad doesn’t have a file management app, you also perform file management tasks with documents, such as renaming a document or deleting a document, from inside the relevant apps. This is different from the desktop version of the apps.

Note You can perform some file management tasks by using the OneDrive app, which you can download for free from the App Store.

Displaying the File Management Screens

To start exploring the file management screens, open the Office app you want to use by tapping its icon on the Home screen.

Depending on what you last did in the app, it may display the last document you opened. If it does so, tap the Back button to close the document and display the file management screens.

The file management screens have four buttons on the left: a button with your first name, the New button, the Recent button, and the Open button. As you saw earlier in this chapter, tapping the button that bears your name displays the Account dialog box, in which you can add or remove service. The following sections explain how to work with the screens that the other three buttons display.

Creating New Documents from the New Screen

To create a new document, tap the New button, and then tap the appropriate button on the New screen. Figure 3-9 shows the New screen in Word.

Figure 3-9. To create a new document, tap the appropriate template or design on the New screen

Your choices on the New screen vary greatly by app.

· Word: Word provides templates loaded with content and formatting to help you quickly create specific types of documents, such as business letters, school newsletters, and resumes.

· Excel: Excel provides templates that give you a jump-start on creating a wide range of workbook types, from household budgets and inventory lists all the way to annual financial reports and Gantt project planners.

· PowerPoint: PowerPoint provides a wide range of design themes but not (at this writing) content templates.

Note OneNote doesn’t have a New screen. To create a new notebook, tap the Notebooks button in the left column, and then tap the Create Notebook button on the Notebooks pane. There are no choices for you to make about the notebook’s design or content.

Working on the Recent Screen

To work with documents you’ve used recently in this app, tap the Recent button in the left column. The Recent screen appears (see Figure 3-10), showing your recent documents organized in descending date order, so the most recent documents appear at the top. The Recent screen breaks up the list of documents into sections with names such as Today, Yesterday, Past Week, and Past Month. The Pinned section appears at the top of the list if you have “pinned” documents to the list (see the nearby sidebar for details on pinning).

Figure 3-10. On the Recent screen, you can open a document, pin a document to the list, or display the File pop-up panel

PINNING A DOCUMENT TO THE RECENT SCREEN FOR INSTANT ACCESS

To keep your important documents immediately to hand, you can pin them to the Recent screen. The pinned documents appear in a section called Pinned at the top of the Recent screen. This section appears only when you have pinned documents.

To pin a document, tap the pushpin icon on the right of a document’s button. The pushpin changes from an outline to solid color, and the document moves to the Pinned section.

When you no longer need a document to be pinned, tap its pushpin icon to remove the pinning. The document disappears from the Pinned list.

When you unpin the last pinned document, the Pinned section disappears from the top of the Recent screen.

You can take the following actions from the Recent screen and the Open screen (discussed in the next section):

· Open a document: Tap the document in the list. If the document is stored online, the app downloads it, provided that your iPad has an Internet connection. If the document is stored on your iPad, the app opens it rather more quickly.

· Share the document: Tap the File icon (the box with an arrow pointing up from it) on the right of the document’s button to display the File pop-up panel (see Figure 3-11), tap the Share button to display the Share pop-up panel, and then give the appropriate command. See the section “Sharing Documents,” later in this chapter, for full coverage on sharing documents.

Figure 3-11. Tap the File icon on the document’s button on the Recent screen to display the File pop-up panel

· Move the document from your iPad to OneDrive: Tap the File icon on the document’s button to display the File pop-up panel, and then tap the Move to Cloud button. In the Choose Name and Location dialog box (see Figure 3-12), change the name if necessary, select the folder in which you want to store the document, and then tap the Save button. As you’d imagine, this command is available only for documents saved on your iPad.

Figure 3-12. When moving a document from your iPad to iCloud, you can specify the folder—and change the name if necessary—in the Choose Name and Location dialog box

· Remove the document from the Recent list: Tap the File icon on the document’s button to display the File pop-up panel, and then tap the Remove from Recent button.

· Delete the document: Tap the File icon on the document’s button to display the File pop-up panel, and then tap the Delete button. In the confirmation dialog box that opens (see Figure 3-13), tap the Delete button.

Figure 3-13. Tap the Delete button in the confirmation dialog box to finish deleting a document

· Discard changes you have made to the document: Tap the File icon on the document’s button to display the File pop-up panel, and then tap the Discard Changes button. This button is available only if the document contains changes that have not been synced with the online service on which the document is stored.

· View the properties for the document: Tap the File icon on the document’s button to display the File pop-up panel, and then tap the Properties button. The Properties pop-up panel appears (see Figure 3-14), showing details including the document’s filename, location, type, size, and dates created and modified. You may need to scroll down to see some items of information.

Figure 3-14. The Properties pop-up panel includes the document’s filename, location, type, and date last modified

Tip Look at the Type readout in the Properties pop-up panel if you need to determine a document’s type. This readout enables you to distinguish regular documents, workbooks, and presentations from macro-enabled ones and from templates.

Opening a Document from the Open Screen

As you saw in the previous section, the Recent screen is the easiest way to open an existing document with which you have worked recently. To open any other document (or indeed any document your iPad can access), you use the Open screen (see Figure 3-15), which you display by tapping the Open button in the left column of the file management screens.

Figure 3-15. Tap the Open button in the left column to display the Open screen, navigate to the document you want to open, and then tap its button

Note You can add a place to the first column by tapping the Add a Place button and then work in the Add a Place dialog box that opens.

You can navigate the Open screen easily by following these steps.

1. In the first column, tap the location, such as your OneDrive account or your iPad. The documents and folders in that location appear in the second column.

2. In the second column, tap the folder that contains the document you want to open. (If the document is in the top level of the location, simply tap the document’s button to open it.)

3. Navigate further through the folder structure as necessary.

4. Tap the document you want to open.

Note Instead of opening a document, you can tap the File button to display the File menu, and then use the commands explained in the previous section. For example, you can move a document from your iPad to the cloud, share a document with others, or rename a document.

MINIMIZING THE INTERRUPTIONS CAUSED BY LOCKING YOUR IPAD

You may find that, every time your iPad locks, whichever Office app you were using gives up the focus to the operating system, so that the Office app is no longer active. If this happens, when you unlock your iPad, your iPad displays the Home screen, not the Office app, so you need to switch back to the Office app so that you can resume work.

This takes a moment, but it would be okay except for one thing: the Office app momentarily displays the document you were working on, then goes back to the file management screens while it reloads the document. This makes for enough of an interruption to your work to be disruptive, especially if the document is large, your Internet connection is slow, or both.

If your iPad displays this behavior, you may want to set a long Auto-Lock interval on your iPad to minimize the interruptions. From the Home screen, tap Settings, tap General, and then tap Auto-Lock to reach the Auto-Lock screen, and then tap a button such as 10 Minutes or 15 Minutes. You may also want to avoid locking the iPad manually unless you need to conserve battery power or leaving it unlocked is a threat to your security.

Managing the Active Document from the File Menu

After you open a document in one of the apps, you can perform some management actions on it from the File menu within the app. Tap the File button near the left end of the Ribbon to display the File menu (see Figure 3-16). You can then take the following actions:

· Toggle AutoSave on or off: Set the AutoSave switch to the On position or to the Off position, as needed.

· Save the document: When AutoSave is off, tap the Save button to save the document.

· Name: If this button appears and is available, tap it to display the Save As dialog box. You can then enter the document’s name, choose the folder in which to save it, and tap the Save button.

· Duplicate: Tap this button to create a copy of the document. The app displays the Choose Name and Location dialog box (shown earlier in Figure 3-12), in which you can give the file a different name, save it in a different location, or both.

· Restore: Tap this button to display the Restore pop-up panel (see Figure 3-17). From here, you can tap the Restore to Last Opened button to restore the document to how it was when you last opened it, or tap the View Version History Online button to switch to your browser and display other versions available online.

· Print: Tap this button to display the Print pop-up panel, from which you can print the document, as discussed in Chapter 2.

· Properties: Tap this button to display the Properties pop-up panel, which displays information ranging from the filename, location, and type to when it was created, last modified, and who last modified it.

Figure 3-16. You can perform several file management actions from the File menu for the open document

Figure 3-17. On the Restore pop-up panel, you can tap the Restore to Last Opened button to restore the document to its state when you last opened it

Note The File menu in OneNote is more limited than the File menu in the other apps. The only management command it offers is the Sync Your Notebook command, which does just what its name says.

Sharing Documents

The Office for iPad apps make it easy to share your documents with others. You can share either the document on which you are working or any document that you can access on the file management screens in an app.

Understanding the Ways of Sharing a Document

You can share a document in these three ways:

· E-mail a link: You e-mail a link that the recipient can click to open the document online. You can choose between a link that enables the recipient only to view the document or a link that enables both viewing and editing.

· E-mail the document as an attachment: You e-mail the document itself, either in its current format (such as a Word document) or as a PDF file.

Tip Send a PDF file instead of the document in its current format if you don’t know whether the recipient has the Office app the document needs. PDF files are also good for enabling the recipient to view and print the document without letting them edit a copy of it (at least, without undue effort).

· Copy a link: You can copy a link to the document so that you can share it in a way other than e-mail—for example, via instant messaging. As when sending a link, you can choose between a link for viewing only and a link for both viewing and editing.

Sharing a Document

To share the open document, tap the Share button at the right end of the Ribbon. In the Share pop-up panel (see Figure 3-18), tap the Email as Link button, the Email as Attachment button, or the Copy Link button, as needed.

Figure 3-18. To share the current notebook or e-mail the current page, open the Share pop-up panel and tap the appropriate button

If you tap the Email as Link button or the Copy as Link button, the Email as Link pop-up panel (see Figure 3-19) or the Copy as Link pop-up panel appears. Tap the View Only button or the View and Edit button, as needed.

Figure 3-19. On the Email as Link pop-up panel or the Copy as Link pop-up panel, tap the View Only button or the View and Edit button to specify the type of link to create

After you tap the View Only button or the View and Edit button on the Email as Link pop-up panel, Mail opens with the skeleton of an e-mail message created. Fill in the recipient, add any text needed, and then tap the Send button.

If you tap the Email as Attachment button, the Email as Attachment pop-up panel appears (see Figure 3-20). You can then tap the button for sending the document in its current format (the Send Word Document button, the Send Excel Workbook button, or the Send PowerPoint Presentation button) or the Send PDF button. Mail opens, showing a new message with the file attached. You can then complete the message and send it.

Figure 3-20. From the Email as Attachment pop-up panel, you can either send the document in its current format or create a PDF file to send instead

Troubleshooting Problems with Documents

At this writing, Office for iPad works impressively well with both OneDrive and SharePoint. But even so, you’re likely to run into problems with documents now and then. This section explains how to deal with the two problems you’re most likely to experience: multiple instances of documents, and puzzling error messages.

Dealing with Multiple Instances of Documents

At this writing, one of the trickiest problems with the Office for iPad apps is dealing with multiple instances of documents. You create a document, save it as normal—and then find multiple instances of it. For example, in Figure 3-21, Word shows three instances of the document called “Team Expansion Proposal – first draft” and three instances of the document called Working Notes. This happens both with documents that you edit simultaneously with colleagues (which can cause extra instances to accommodate unresolved conflicts) and on documents that you don’t share.

Figure 3-21. You may find multiple instance of a document in your online locations even though you have created only one instance

At this writing, there’s no clear solution to this problem, so you need to proceed cautiously, especially if the documents are in a shared location and other people may be editing them.

Usually—as you’d hope—the most recent instance of the document has the latest changes. But don’t assume that it’s safe to go with the most recent instance and delete the others—at least check the other instances of a document and make sure that you’ve chosen the most promising of them to keep. For a quick check, you can look at the details in the Properties pop-up panel from the Recent screen or the Open screen; but to be certain that you’re dealing with the right instance of the document, you’ll need to open the different instances and look at them.

Tip The Properties pop-up panel that you can display from the Recent screen or the Open screen in the file management screens often displays less information than the Properties pop-up panel that you can display when you have a document open. So if you really need to see the details about a document, open it in the app, tap the File button to open the File menu, and then tap the Properties button.

If you run into the errors described in the next section when you try to open an instance of a document, you’ll be on surer ground for deleting it.

Dealing with Errors

This section introduces you to three errors you may run into when using the Office for iPad apps:

· Cannot Connect to Server

· Cannot Connect to Site

· File Unavailable

Cannot Connect to Server

The error message “Cannot Connect to Server: The server may be unavailable. Check your internet connection and try again.” (see Figure 3-22) typically indicates a problem with your Internet connection. So the first thing to do is to check whether other apps are having a problem accessing the Internet.

Figure 3-22. The “Cannot Connect to Server” error may indicate a problem with your iPad’s Internet connection

Open Safari and see if it can reach web sites. If so, your Internet connection is fine, and you’ll probably want to restart the Office app.

Tip Once the Mail app has used the Domain Name Service (DNS) to establish the IP address for each mail server you use, it typically retains that IP address until you close the app. This means that Mail may be able to send and receive mail even when your iPad has lost DNS functionality. For this reason, use Safari or another app to test your Internet connectivity rather than using Mail.

If Safari can’t reach web sites, troubleshoot your iPad’s Internet connection as usual. For example,

· Restart your Internet router if other devices are unable to connect to the Internet.

· Turn Airplane Mode on and then off again. This forces your iPad to reconnect to your cellular carrier (if it is a cellular iPad) and to Wi-Fi networks.

· Connect to a different Wi-Fi network if one is available.

· Turn your iPad off and then restart it.

Cannot Connect to Site

The error message “Cannot Connect to Site: The site doesn’t have a valid security certificate.” (see Figure 3-23) appears to be a bug, because the sites that typically produce it have valid security certificates before and afterward.

Figure 3-23. The “Cannot Connect to Site” error is usually a bug

To deal with this error, press the Home button twice to display the app switcher, and then swipe the app that raised the error up off the list of apps to close it. Open the app again and try opening the document again.

File Unavailable

The error “File Unavailable: The file has either been moved or deleted.” (see Figure 3-24) occurs when you try to open a ghost instance of a document—an instance of the document that still appears on the file management screens but is no longer present on the server.

Figure 3-24. The “File Unavailable” error occurs when you try to open a ghost instance of a document

At this writing, the only way to deal with this error is to leave the ghost instance of the document alone until OneDrive or SharePoint gets rid of it. You may be able to clear the ghost instance from the list on the file management screens by restarting the app, but this works only sometimes. If you try to delete the ghost instance, the app typically displays the Cannot Delete File dialog box (see Figure 3-25), telling you that the file is currently in use.

Figure 3-25. The Office app may claim that the ghost instance of the document is in use when you try to delete it

Summary

In this chapter, you learned how to manage your Office documents. You now know how to set up your OneDrive and SharePoint services on your iPad, manipulate documents from the file management screens and from the File menu within the active document, and how to share your documents with others. You also know how to troubleshoot some of the awkward problems that occur with documents on OneDrive and SharePoint.