However if you have an Outlook.com account, then Microsoft provides many Office features for use freely in the cloud. Outlook.com is Microsoft’s answer to Gmail and with it comes a variety of services, one of which is Microsoft’s cloud storage – SkyDrive. Users can create documents directly in SkyDrive just as typically done with MS Office software.

Here’s how to create Microsoft Office documents in the cloud

[notice type=”blue”]Note: in this example we’re creating an Excel spreadsheet.[/notice]

• Log-in to your Outlook.com account in a web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.)
• Click the arrow next to Outlook in the upper left-hand corner.
  
  
• Click SkyDrive.
  
  
• Click ‘Create’.
  
  
• Click ‘Excel workbook’.
  
  
• Name your Excel workbook and click the ‘Create’ button.
  
  
• Your Excel workbook opens and you can begin editing.  Note: Your edits save automatically, so you don’t have to keep clicking ‘Save’ to preserve your work.