Windows 8 to tap heavily into Windows Live

Windows 8 will let users more easily and seemlessly bridge the gap between online and offline by directly tapping into Microsoft's Windows Live service.

Some of the features and benefits of the new Windows Live integration in Microsoft's upcoming OS are;

Windows 8 prompts you to log in with your Windows Live ID. If you allow it to do so, Windows Live can then automatically store your Windows profile, settings, and other key files in the cloud. This gives you the ability to synchronize those settings with any Windows 8 PC in which you're logged in, ensuring that you retain the same preferences from one PC to another. Microsoft is also promising the same synchronization between PCs and mobile devices running Windows Phone 7.

Windows 8 will also integrate more smoothly with Sky drive, Microsoft's online storage site. Documents, photos, and other files that you create locally can be saved to SkyDrive, accessed from any PC, and even shared with other people that you designate. Microsoft will reportedly still limit SkyDrive users to 25 gigabytes of space for most files but offer unlimited storage for photos or Office documents.

The new operating system will further rely on the new Metro user interface to let you access and share different information, whether it's online or offline. Booting into Metro will show you tiles for key services, such as e-mail, calendar, and contacts. The e-mail feature can connect to multiple accounts, such as work and home. The Calendar can also display appointments for work and home as well as those of friends, family, or colleagues with Windows Live accounts.

People is Microsoft's new address book, which ties together all your contacts, including those from Facebook and LinkedIn. And the new Photos app in Windows 8 can show you photos from your local PC, another PC, SkyDrive, and other services.

The company is also opening up Windows Live and SkyDrive to developers who want to incorporate those services into their own applications or devices.

SharePoint Integration with Office

Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services takes Microsoft Office beyond the desktop application and brings it online so that we can share and collaborate more effectively with other people in company, group or organization. SharePoint is a web site that can be displayed in a browser such as Internet Explorer, and includes an interface for displaying lists and libraries in a secure database.

SharePoint also contains various web-parts that can display sorted or filtered information in various ways, or can display some kind of custom functionality. SharePoint can be used for something as simple as a list of contacts, or for something as complex as a project management dashboard for a new store opening.

Document management and sharing are the most important features of Windows SharePoint Services. We can use these features to create, manage, and share documents easily. Because these features are integrated with Office 2007, and can easily find them and use them.

File Menu Integration

Document sharing is fully integrated into the File menu in most Office 2007 applications. You can use the File menu to open or save documents in a document library on a SharePoint site. 

Document Check-in and Check-out

Windows SharePoint Services provides an intuitive, easy-to-use method for tracking the version history of a document. First, if you want to work on a document that is stored in a document library, you can check out the document. When you do this, other users cannot make changes to the document. This helps prevent the confusion that can occur when multiple users make simultaneous changes to the same document. When you finish working on the document, you can check in the document so other users can work on it. To check out a document, you must be a member of a site group with the Edit Items right for that SharePoint site.

Version Tracking

Windows SharePoint Services also handles version tracking for documents stored on a SharePoint site. Windows SharePoint Services keeps copies of previous versions of each document so you can go back and view the changes that were made to a document at any time.

Integrated Web Discussions

Windows SharePoint Services enhances the existing shared editing features in Office 2007 by providing inline discussion tools and by storing inline discussion comments on the SharePoint site. This means that reviewers can add their comments directly to the document and that reviewer comments are stored and managed centrally, so they are available whenever an editor or reviewer opens a document from the SharePoint site. 

Document Workspace Sites and Meeting Workspace Sites

Windows SharePoint Services introduces Document Workspace sites and Meeting Workspace sites, which are innovative new tools for communicating and sharing. A Document Workspace site or Meeting Workspace site is a SharePoint site that you can quickly create from an Office 2007 application to share a particular task, document, or project.