The last time I planned a summer trip with a group of friends, it was a long process that involved picking the right dates, finding hotels, and looking for activities to do once we got there. It was all pretty disorganized, with long email threads and multiple copies of documents that people had been sending back and forth in email.
It would have been a lot easier if we’d been using Windows Live Groups to plan that trip. It would have helped us organize all the planning and trip information in one place, making it so much easier for everyone going on the trip to be a part of the planning process.
For each group you create on Windows Live, you get a unique URL and email address. Group members can access all group information from the group's site. Once you invite someone to be a member of your group, they start receiving group email (even if they don't sign up), and they can view group photos and documents.
Collaborate on documents like never before
Each group has its own 25GB of online storage on Windows Live SkyDrive, which gives you a central place to store and collaborate on documents. In this release, we’ve added the ability to share documents and photo albums that you’ve stored in your personal SkyDrive with the group.
Now that Office Web Apps are integrated with SkyDrive, group members can view and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents right in the browser – even if they don’t have Office installed on their PC.
Group owners can "pin" documents and folders to the group profile page to make it easy for anyone in the group to find an important document.
Your secret weapon – OneNote
Every group also gets its own OneNote notebook on SkyDrive, with different sections and pages just like a regular notebook. Your group’s online notebook is useful for collecting information from members and for storing centralized resources. You can copy in links, images, maps, and random notes, and rearrange them on the page as you get things organized. It’s great for brainstorming with others as you plan your trip, because you can each add your own notes and ideas to the notebook in real time, without fear of overwriting anyone else’s notes In other words, it’s a great companion to trip planning.
Messenger integration
Groups is also integrated into the new Messenger. In one click you can start an IM conversation with the entire group (for groups with less than 40 members).
Group activity is also really easy to keep track of. Each group has its own Messenger social feed on the group's main page.
Sharing photos with the group
After your trip, everyone in the group can upload photos to the group's SkyDrive or share albums from their personal SkyDrive folders with the group.
Here we're uploading photos from Windows Live Photo Gallery directly to the group:
And here's what it looks like when you’re viewing those photos in a cool Silverlight slide show on the group’s SkyDrive:
A powerful tool for group planning
Windows Live Groups is a simple and powerful tool to plan a trip or event or stay connected with your family, your team, or your social club. In our latest release, we’ve added deeper integration with SkyDrive, which makes collaborating on docs or sharing photos easier than ever. Give the updated Windows Live Groups a spin at groups.live.com, and let us know what you think.
Omar Shahine
Principal Lead Program Manager, Windows Live
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