How-to guide: Sharing files with SkyDrive

Start by tracking down SkyDrive. Just go to the "More" drop-down menu in your Windows Live navigation, displayed at the top of your Hotmail and Profile pages, and select SkyDrive from the list.

Once you're in your SkyDrive page, chances are, it'll look a bit bare, but you've got 25GB to play with, so start uploading as much as you want!

Now, we're going to upload and share a few things with some friends. First thing to do is create a folder and give it name. We'll call this one "Briefs", as it'll be the new home for documents ready for submission.

Next, we'll need to select who we want to authorise to see the folder. You can set it to public — making it available across the Web — or make it private and choose who from your contacts is allowed to access it. In this case, we'll just authorise those on our "Favourites" list.

You can also choose the level of access you want to give to those you're sharing your folder with. In this example, those who have access to the folder can add, edit and delete files. But you can switch access levels whenever you like so others can only view and read the files.

Now that we've chosen who can see the folder, and decided what level access to give them, it's time to send them a link directly to the new folder, letting everyone know it's been created and making it a lot easier for the right people to find.

It's as simple as that! And if there's anything we need to change, all the options are there in the SkyDrive toolbar, allowing us to extend permission to more contacts to access the folder, or send the link out again to someone who may have missed it.