Cloud Fundamentals

Digital Maestro Magazine
Cloud Fundamentals
Google Drive
OneDrive
iCloud
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May 15, 2015

Author’s Note
Cloud Fundamentals
The cloud is one of those terms that most people
don’t understand and difficult to conceptualize. I
was recently approached to provide a parent technology
academy. The goal of the academy is to provide
a very basic introduction to technology. This is
a very broad topic so I thought we should focus on
the most relevant aspects that parents could use
with their children. Most technology today uses a
Cloud service of some kind. Their children are most
likely to use these services and I’m sure they’d like
to know what their children are doing on Facebook,
Twitter and Snapchat.
I proposed to provide an overview of the Cloud
and what it means to them as they begin to use
technology. The immediate feedback by the parent
coordinator for the district was hesitation and
uncertainty. She was concerned most parents
wouldn’t understand the concept. I reassured her
that I teach this concept to teachers daily and that I
could convey the concept very well to parents. She
remained unconvinced.
This started me thinking of ways in which I could
convey the concept in a way that was easy for most
people to understand. I thought of my audience
and figured most of them would be at least my
age or younger. I’m 51 so most of them could have
been my students at one time.
It’s much easier to teach a concept that is based
on a concept they understands. I thought of one
that has been around for a long enough time and
something that everyone has had some experience
using.
Most people have had some experience with radios
and music stations. A radio station seems to me to
be the closest analogy to a cloud service. It’s something
we interact with regularly but don’t have
direct access.
For example, we can interact with the radio station
through a Disk Jockey, DJ, by requesting songs on
those lazy Sunday afternoons.
Theory is great but I like my students to learn in
context so I’ve included instructions for creating
Cloud accounts with Google, Microsoft and Apple.
I’ll be using these services along with others in
future issues.
Teaching through a magazine is different from
teaching in a classroom. I don’t get your immediate
feedback or get a chance to get formative feedback.
So, I hope I’ve done a good job.
Alex Reyes
The cover for this magazine was inspired by
artwork from graphicstock.com.
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Cloud Fundamentals
Cloud Services
The concept of the Cloud is very important because
future technologies used by yourself and students
will be based on cloud services. These cloud services
include email, Google Docs, Office 365, iCloud
and many others.
The cloud is very new to many people but in fact
it’s been around for a very long time. I’ll begin my
explanation of the cloud by referring to something
that we all know very well.
Think of a radio station. Radio stations send out
signals that deliver audio in the
form of music and news. A radio
station has a library of music that
it streams over the air to your
radio. You can receive this stream
of music from any radio in a variety
of locations. You can listen to
music in your car, in your stereo
at home and on a portable radio in the park. In this
example the radio station is like the Cloud, providing
a service to everyone.
Let’s take that same example and say that the radio
station can provide you a channel of your own. This
channel is your own special channel where you can
listen to the music of your choice at any time and
from anywhere. You can listen to this music from
your car, your home and in the park. Now you have
access to the same cloud service everyone else
does, but you’ll have a special channel all your own.
With this special channel you can choose the music
you want to listen to and the order in which you
would like to have it played. This is probably starting
to sound familiar.
Let’s replace the radio station with a computer. This
is a very big and very fast computer. This computer
puts out information that other computers around
the world can access. To access this computer
your computer tunes into the computers channel
much like a radio tunes into a channel from a radio
station. On a radio station this
channel might be 88.5. On a
computer this station number is
a little longer. It’s usually a set of
numbers separated by periods
like this, nn.nn.nn.nn. Instead of
remembering numbers, which
can be hard, a computer translates
our language into the computer
language of numbers. Instead of numbers
we can use gmail.com for the computer channel.
It’s a lot like telling your phone to call your wife by
tapping on the button with your wife’s name. You
don’t need to know the number because the computer,
will dial it for you.
The computer putting out information is a cloud
device. This is where the difference between radio
stations and computers begins to change, but let’s
see if we can have it make sense. Let’s say that you
can send music to the radio station and it will play
this music over your station. You can then go onto
any radio where you have access and tune in your
station to listen to the music. Now you can listen to
your purchased music on any radio.
Going back to the computer example, we can do
the same thing. The computer, which we will call
a server, can receive media from us like music and
provide it to us on any device. This computer can
receive content from us and make it available to us
on any device we want.
Instead of music, let’s say you have lots of pictures.
You want to be able to see your pictures from any
device. This device can be a computer, tablet or
smart phone. You can send pictures to a cloud
service, let’s call it Flickr. Flickr receives the pictures
and then makes them available on any device.

Cloud Services
Cloud Fundamentals
Services like Flickr for pictures, YouTube for video
and SoundCloud for audio, provide services to store
content and then make it available on any device.
When a Cloud service stores content and then
makes it available, it’s called hosting.
There are other Cloud services that do more than
host content. Services like Google Drive, Office 365
and iCloud have services that allow you to create
content. What makes these services different is
that they provide the software to create the content.
The software is often free and available for
most devices and computers.
A huge benefit to services like these is that you
don’t need to install the software on your computer.
The software is installed on the Cloud service
and provided over the Internet. The software is
regularly updated and you take advantage of the
latest updates for free when they are released. As
the technology gets better the services get better
and the tools get easier to use.
Cloud services like Google Drive, Office 365 and
iCloud also provide free storage for content. This
means that you don’t have to save the content on
your computer. The content is saved on their server.
It’s like creating music at a radio station and having
the radio station save the music for you. You know
that the radio station has the money and resources
to keep your music safe. The same is true for cloud
services like Google Drive. It stores content and
keeps it safe.
Another benefit of having these services store content
is that you don’t have to worry about losing it
when something goes wrong with your computer
or device. Let’s look at an example.
Let’s say you’re using your smart phone to write an
important letter. You’re using a cloud service like
Office 365. Let’s assume that you drop your phone
and it shatters, Oh No!. Since your document is
hosted by Office 365, you can go to any device or
computer and access the same document. You can
buy yourself another smart phone and easily continue
to edit the important letter on that phone.
Can anyone see what’s in my Cloud? Most cloud
services require that you create a free account to
use their services. When you create this account
you’re asked to provide an email and a password.
This account ensures that you will be the only one
to access the content.
Can I choose to share stuff in my Cloud? One of
the many benefits of cloud services is the ability
to share content. Services like Google Drive, Office
365 and iCloud have options to share content
you’ve created with others.
In addition to sharing, many services allow collaboration.
This is very true for Google Drive, Office 365
and iCloud. Collaboration is when you give others
permission to edit your content or add to your
content. When collaborating on content you and
the collaborators can work on content at the same
time or at different times. Collaborators can be in
the same room or the same building. They can also
be on the other side of the world.
What does this mean for your classroom? This
means that your students can work on the same
document using two or more computers or devices.
You can divide the work to be done by each student
in a group. For example, on a biography research
paper on Abraham Lincoln, one student can write a
section on his life and childhood. Another student
could write a section on his life before becoming
President and one student can write about his Presidency
during the civil war.
Let’s look at three Cloud services that can be used
by teachers and students.
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Cloud Fundamentals
Gmail Account
Google Drive is a service provided by Google. The
service is completely free. All you need to do is get
a gmail account. This Gmail account is your access
to an array of services and applications. To create a
free account, go over to Google.com.
On the Google page you will see a sign in button.
Click on this button.
A page will open where you can provide login
information. Below the login fields for email and
password is a link to create an account. Click on the
link to create an account.
I encourage you to use a separate gmail account
for your school instead of your personal gmail, if
you already have one. This will make it much easier
to keep things compartmentalized and thus make
things easier to manage.
You will be prompted to provide your name and
to choose a username. This username will be your
email address. Lots of people have email and it
might be difficult to create an email account with
the username you want. You can use any username
but here’s a suggestion based on my experience.
If you want to use your name, you might include
a prefix so it’s different from other accounts. For
example, a teacher working in my district could
use the district acronym before her name. Google
allows the use of periods and underscores in
usernames so you can use this to help create an
account. For example, yisd.areyes@gmail.com can
be one possible username.
After you’ve created a username, create a
password. Google has a minimum password
requirement. The password must be at least eight
characters long.
The rest of the form requires that you provide
a date of birth along with your gender and your
current email address. You are also asked to
provide a mobile phone number and current email
address.
Okay, why provide a mobile number and a
current email address? The mobile phone number
is optional but it’s a good way to retrieve your
username or password just in case you forget over
the summer. Google will send you a text with the
information, so you will need to have a mobile
phone with text service. The current email address
is another way to retrieve your username and to
reset your password. Google will send you a reset
link to this email.
Prove you’re not a robot? There are programs
roaming the Internet looking to create email
account so they can be used to spam people with
email. These programs aren’t very smart so they
can’t read. The picture provides a number that only
humans can read. Type this number into the text
field.
Click on the ‘agree to the terms of service’ and click
the next step button. You now have a Google Gmail
and Drive account.

Google Drive
Cloud Fundamentals
Google Drive works on any browser but to get the
best experience you should use Google’s browser,
Chrome. Chrome is free and provides some specific
tools to help use and manage Google Apps.
Each time you want to login to Google Drive, go to
Google.com. After you login, your account name
will appear in the upper right of the Google page.
To the left of your name is a box made up of nine
smaller boxes. This is the Google apps launcher.
Click on the Apps Launcher and a list of nine core
apps will appear. At the bottom of the list is the
Drive app. Click on the Drive App icon.
The first time you login, Drive will present a
welcome dialogue. Click the next button to go
through a very brief overview.
Google provides a How to get started with Google
Drive document. This document is a PDF that
provides some brief information about Google
Drive.
Google Drive is your storage location for all kinds
of files. At the time of the writing of this article,
Google provides 15 Gigabytes of Storage for free.
To see the amount of storage available, go to the
lower left corner and hover your mouse over the
percentage used area.
Google Drive is your storage in the Cloud. You can
upload and save any file onto your Google Drive
account. This includes documents, pictures, audio
and video. Be careful of copyright laws when
uploading and sharing any media. Google can
cancel your account if you are sharing copyrighted
material with your account.
The easiest way to place documents and media into
your Drive account is to drag and drop files onto
the browser from your computer. Let’s take a look
at how to do this with an example.
In this example I have several files. I have three
documents created with Microsoft Office. These
files include a Word, Excel and Power Point
document. I also have a few iWorks files, images, an
audio file and a video file.
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Cloud Fundamentals
Google Drive
The easiest way to upload these files is to drop
them in from your computer. I can drag and drop
one file at a time into the browser. The Drive
is quite smart. It knows you are about to drop
a file into the browser. It displays a large blue
circle where you can release the media. Drop the
document into this circle.
At the bottom of the page you will see a progress
bar for the upload. When we place any media into
the Drive or any cloud service we call it uploading.
When the upload is complete the progress bar will
let you know its done with a message. Let’s upload
some more files.
We can drag several files at once. Each document
or media item get’s its own progress bar. As each
item is uploaded you will see a progress bar and a
waiting message for items to be uploaded next.
What if you want to upload an entire folder of
files? That’s a good question. Currently, you can’t
upload a folder using the browser. You can use
the Google Drive app to synchronize your files and
folders. We’ll look at the Google Drive app later.
This is your home for any documents or media
created with Google’s apps. These apps include
Docs, sheets and slides. Docs is a word processor,
Sheets is a spreadsheet application, and Slides is a
presentation application.
Google doesn’t include tools to create or edit audio
or video. If you’ve uploaded audio or video, Google
drive will play back the audio and video right within
the drive. This is useful if you want to have access
to your media anywhere.
Google Drive and the Docs, Sheets and Slides apps
are available for most mobile devices. The editing
tools are very basic on these apps for mobile
devices but I expect they’ll get better in the future.
We’ll cover these apps in a future issue.
Cloud accounts can be used to
backup your important documents.

Cloud Fundamentals
One Drive
When we create an Outlook account with Microsoft
it includes access to Office 365. Office 365 is like
Google Drive. Microsoft calls their online storage,
OneDrive. OneDrive provides 15 Gigabytes of free
storage with your account. You have the option
to purchase more. You also have the option to
subscribe to Office 365, which includes the Office
products and 1 terabyte of online storage.
Let’s create our free account. Go over to
outlook.com and let’s create an account. Click on
the sign up now link below the sign in button.
OneDrive works on any browser but to get the
best experience you should use Internet Explorer
on Windows computers and Firefox on Apple
computers.
Let’s go over to OneDrive. Click on the Microsoft
Apps launcher in the upper left corner of the page.
This looks very similar to Google’s App launcher.
A panel will open with several app buttons. Click on
the OneDrive button.
Microsoft allows you to use an existing email
account for your Outlook and OneDrive account.
This option is nice because you don’t have to create
another email account. In this example we’ll create
a new email account. To create a new account, click
the get a new email address link.
When creating the email for this account, keep in
mind the suggestion I made earlier. Fill in all the
information and click the create account button at
the bottom of the page.
The account will be created and you’ll be taken to
your Outlook email account. You’ll be presented
with a welcome page and the option to watch
a short information presentation. Watch the
presentation and click the continue to inbox button
when done.
OneDrive will open and a welcome section
will display on the page. There is a short video
presentation you can watch. There is also an
interactive three step introduction. In the three
step introduction Microsoft offers you an additional
15 Gigabytes if you download their app and sync
your photos. In the introduction you learn about
the OneDrive app available for your computer
and devices to sync files. Finally you are given the
opportunity to invite friends to join Outlook and
Office 365. In return you will get an additional 500
MB per friend that joins. Click the close button
when you are done with the welcome information.
OneDrive automatically includes three folders
in your cloud storage. These include folders for
documents, music and pictures. Let’s upload some
files to this account. Click the documents folder,
this will open the folder. Microsoft calls each of
these boxes a Tile. I’ll call them folders just because
it makes more sense to me.
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Cloud Fundamentals
One Drive
iCloud
We can upload files by dragging and dropping them
from your computer. This is the easiest way to
upload any file.
As we drop a file onto the documents folder, an
upload progress bar will appear at the top of the
page. We can upload several files at once. The only
thing you can’t do is upload a folder of files. This is
the same limitation we encountered with Google.
This is a cloud service from Apple. Like the cloud
services from Google and Microsoft, it doesn’t
matter what computer you are using. Like Google
and OneDrive it does have a preferred browser. To
get the most from iCloud you should use Safari on
Apple computers. Safari is no longer available for
Windows computers but you can use Explorer or
Firefox.
To use iCloud you don’t need to own an Apple Computer.
All you need is an Apple ID, which is free.
You also need an iOS device to setup iCloud Drive.
Without an iOS device all you will setup is iCloud
service to use Pages, Keynote and Numbers.
Let’s get our free Apple ID by going to iCloud.com.
Below the login fields is a link to create a free Apple
ID.
You will need an existing email address to create
your ID. An Apple ID is not an email address like the
other cloud services.
Fill in the form by providing an email address, use
one of the addresses we created earlier. You will be
asked to provide three security questions. These
questions are used to help recover your login information
in case you forget. When you’re done click
the ‘continue’ button.

iCloud Apple ID
Cloud Fundamentals
A set of four icons will appear on the page. Three of
these icons represent Pages, Keynote and Numbers.
Pages is a word processor. Keynote is a presentation
application. Numbers is a spreadsheet application.
The fourth icon is the settings icon for your account.
Apple will send a verification number to the email
used to create the account. Don’t leave this page,
you’ll need to come back to it in a moment. Open a
new tab or browser window. Go over to your email
and get this number. Type the number into the provided
fields and click the ‘verify’ button.
Click on the ‘agree’ button to the license agreement.
After clicking the ‘agree’ button you will be
prompted to select your language. Select your language
and click the ‘Start Using iCloud’ link.
At this point we’ve created an Apple ID and have
access to the iCloud services for Pages, Keynote and
Numbers. We need to setup iCloud Drive, which is
a separate service. The service is available for both
Apple and Windows computers. You get 5 gigabytes
of storage for free with the option to purchase more
storage.
To setup the iCloud Drive, you need to have an iOS
device like an iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. If you
try to setup iCloud Drive on an Apple or Windows
computer you will receive an error message.
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Cloud Fundamentals
iCloud Drive Setup
On your iOS device, tap on the settings button.
Tap on the iCloud settings option on the left.
Enter your Apple ID and password, then click the
sign in button.
In a few seconds your iCloud account will be
created. You’ll be prompted if you would like the
data from Safari to be merged with your iCloud
account. Tap the ‘Merge’ button.
ICloud can be used to locate your computers and
mobile devices. You’ll be prompted to allow iCloud
to use the location services on the device. Tap on
one of the options. The choice is yours.
You will return to the settings section when the
process is complete. Go back to your computer and
start your browser. Go to icloud.com and login.
With iCloud Drive setup we now have several
other services available. You can see those on the
next page. These services include Mail, Contacts,
Calendar, Photos and iCloud Drive. To upload files
into iCloud Drive, click on the iCloud Drive icon.
A window will open with several folders already
created for you. These folders include Pages,
Keynote and Numbers. You might also have other
folders. These folders are automatically created
based on the apps you have installed on the iOS
device when you activated the iCloud account.
Drag and drop files into this folder or any folder
from your computer. Each file has its own progress
bar. Like Google Drive and OneDrive, you can
upload any type of file except folders.
Click on the button to agree to the license
agreement.

Cloud Fundamentals
iCloud
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Cloud Fundamentals
Cloud Sync
Google Drive App
Each of these cloud services has a component
for syncing files from your computer. These sync
applications are very good when using applications
that don’t have a cloud service, and you want to
use the cloud to keep backups of your work and at
the same time have access to your media on any
computer. A major benefit to using these syncing
services is that it keeps all your work backed up at
all times and it syncs folders too. If you recall, this is
the limitation we encountered when uploading files
to our drive account through a web browser.
For example, Google, Microsoft and iCloud use
applications in the cloud to create and edit documents.
Applications like Adobe don’t have applicaitons
that run in the cloud but you can use cloud
services to save and backup your work created with
any Adobe application.
We’ll install and setup cloud sync services for Google
Drive, One Drive and iCloud Drive. You can use
one or more of these services to sync your documents.
This means that you can have Google Drive,
One Drive and iCloud Drive all syning separate sets
of files or the same set of files on your computer.
The Google Drive app is a free download. The
purpose of the app is to create a synchronized
folder on your computer. An immediate benefit of
using Google Drive to synchronize documents is
that it also synchronizes folders. When we reviewed
the process for uploading files to Google Drive
using the browser, we found that it wasn’t possible
to upload folders.
The app is available for a variety of computers and
devices. It’s also available for mobile devices that
run Android or iOS 7.0 and above(at the time of
this article). Let’s install the Google Drive app onto
your computer.
I’ll be using the Chrome browser for this lesson. I
recommend using the Chrome browser because
it is the most compatible with Google apps and
services. Log into your account and go to your Drive
using the Google Apps launcher.
When you are in Google Drive, on the right side of
the page you’ll find a settings button that looks like
a gear or a cog. Click on this and you will see the
option to download Drive. Click on the download
drive option.
You’ll be taken to a page where you will see a
button to download Drive. Move your mouse over
this button.

Google Drive App
Cloud Fundamentals
A list of computers and devices will be listed below
the button. Click on the Mac and PC option.
Find the Google Drive icon and double click it start
to Google Drive.
You will be prompted to confirm that you want to
start Google Drive. Click the Open button.
A Google log-in window will open. Provide your
account information and click the Sign in button.
A dialogue with the license agreement will open.
Click on the agree and download button. The
download will begin almost immediately if you are
using Google Chrome. Other browsers will probably
prompt you to save the file.
The download progress bar in Chrome can be
found in the lower left of the browser. When the
download is complete, click the file and this will
open the disk image on Apple computers. On
Windows computers this will start the installer.
On Mac computers drag the Google Drive icon onto
the Applications folder to install the Drive App.
Google drive will take you through a brief
presentation of Google Drive. Click the done button
at the end of the presentation.
A Google Drive icon will be placed in the Finder
menu.
Once the application has finished copying, double
click the Applications folder.
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Cloud Fundamentals
Google Drive App
A Google Drive folder will be created in your
account’s home directory automatically. A shortcut
to the folder will also be placed in your sidebar.
On Windows computers, follow the installation
instructions. During the installation you will
be prompted to provide your Google Account
username and password. Enter your information
and click the Sign in button. Google drive will take
you through a brief presentation of Google Drive.
Click the Done button at the end of the
presentation.
A shortcut to the Google Drive folder will be
created on your desktop.
Place your files in this folder and they will
automatically be synced to your Google Drive cloud
account. Create or place folders with files inside
this folder and they will also be synced to your
account.
The Google Drive folder will be created in your
account’s home directory automatically and a
shortcut to the Google Drive folder will also be
placed in your windows sidebar.
Get into the habit of saving your work into
a sync folder so you always have a backup.
With Google drive installed we can place
documents or any media in this folder. We can also
place folders with documents or media within the
folder. These documents, media and folders will
automatically be synced with your online Drive
account.

Google Drive App
Cloud Fundamentals
In this example I have a Google Drive folder on
my computer with documents and folders with
documents.
When I look at my online Google Drive, the same
files and folders are there too. Google Drive is a
great way to make sure there is a backup of all your
important files. It’s also a great way of having this
backup available anywhere.
Let’s take a look at what is synced in the cloud.
Right click the Google Drive folder in the File
Explorer or the windows sidebar. Move your mouse
over to the Google Drive option and select ‘Visit
Google Drive on the web’ from the submenu.
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Cloud Fundamentals
OneDrive App
OneDrive is the equivalent to Google Drive. This
service is provided by Microsoft and is part of your
account when you sign up for Outlook. There are
several ways to get your account through Microsoft.
If you have a Windows computer with version 8
or above you probably already have an account.
The account used to login to your computer is your
OneDrive account login. The same is true if you
have a Windows tablet or a Windows phone. If you
have an Xbox Live, you also might have an account.
If you don’t have an account, Microsoft provides a
way to create your account. In the previous lesson
we created an account with Outlook, which gives
you access to OneDrive.
Microsoft provides an application like Google
Drive, which provides a way to sync files from your
computer to the cloud service.
If you have Windows version 8 or above, the
application is already installed and ready to use.
Click on the OneDrive Tile. If you don’e see the
OneDrive tile, type OneDrive to search for the
application.
In a few moments, your files and folders will appear
in this window.
If you open the File Explorer, you’ll find a link to
OneDrive. Place files and folders here and they will
be synced to your account.
If you’ve never opened OneDrive before, you might
be prompted to enter your account password.

OneDrive App
Cloud Fundamentals
If you don’t have Windows 8, you will need to
download the OneDrive Application. To get the
application, log into your Microsoft Account we
created earlier. Go over to the Microsoft Apps
launcher and select OneDrive.
the application and start installing it as soon as the
download is complete.
Go through the installation process. When the
installation is complete, you will see a window with
a button that reads Get Started.
A sign in window will appear. Enter your account
information and click the Sign In button.
The One Drive installation automatically creates a
OneDrive folder. You can use this folder to sync all
your files or choose another. We’ll leave the option
as it is.
When OneDrive opens, you will find a link in the
lower left corner of the browser to download the
application . Click on the link titled Get One Drive
Apps.
In the next step you are prompted to select what
will be synced in the new folder. Leave the option
as it is and click the next button.
A page will open with the option to download
OneDrive for Windows 7 or 8. There are two button
download options. The other option is for business
and works the same way as the personal version,
but the business version requires an account linked
to a business solution. Click on the regular personal
OneDrive download option.
At the bottom of the browser window you will
be presented with the option to run or save the
application. Click the run option. This will download
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OneDrive App
iCloud Drive Apple Setup
In the final step you are prompted to allows One
Drive to be accessed from other computers. Leave
the option enabled and click the Done button.
To setup iCloud using your Apple computer, go
to the system preferences. You can only perform
this step once iCloud has been setup using an iOS
device.
Click on the iCloud settings icon.
Open a window or File Explorer and you will see a
shortcut to your OneDrive folder in the sidebar. In
the folder you will find three folders, a doucments,
music and pictures folder. Place documents or
media you want to sync into any of these folders
and it will automatically be synced.
Click the ’Sign In’ button.
You’ll need to provide your Apple ID information.
Enter this information and click the Sign In button.
You’ll be asked if you want to use iCloud for mail,
contacts, calendars, reminders, notes and Safari.
You’ll also be able to use ‘Find My Mac’. Leave
these options checked and click the ‘Next’ button.

Cloud Fundamentals
iCloud Drive Apple Setup
Enter your Apple ID password to setup iCloud Keychain.
Keychain is a secure authentication for your
Mac computer to assure the content of your computer
and other Apple devices is secure. Click the
‘OK’ button.
An iCloud drive folder will be created on your computer
and a shortcut to this folder will be placed on
your sidebar. Use this folder to sync files and folders
on your computer and between iOS devies like
your iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.
You’ll be prompted to create a security code. The
security code is a four digit number used to ensure
the security of your computer and devices that
use iCloud. Enter a four digit number and click the
‘Next’ button.
Enter the same security code again and click the
next button.
You’ll need to have a phone that can receive text
messages. This phone is used to verify your identity
and to protect you in case someone tries to access
or change any of your account settings. Provide
phone information in the field and click the ‘Done’
button.
You will receive a six digit number to enter on the
next screen. Enter this number to finish the iCloud
setup process on your computer.
Apps that use iCloud will automatically create
these folders. You’ll probably be prompted
when the app runs for the first time.
20
Digital Maestro

Digital Maestro 21
Cloud Fundamentals
iCloud Drive Windows App
On Windows computers, iCloud is not part of the
system. We need to download and install iCloud
Drive like we did with Google and OneDrive. To
download iCloud we will go to www.apple.com/
icloud/setup.
This page shows the three platforms for using
iCloud. Click on the Windows icon and scroll down
a little bit and click on the ‘Download now’ link.
Respond to any prompts from iCloud. Click on the
‘Apply’ button and when prompted to merge your
email, click the ‘merge’ button. When the process
is done, a setup complete window will display. Click
the ‘Done’ button and then click the ‘Close’ button
for iCloud.
On Windows 8 computers, you will find the iCloud
Drive folder in the File Explorer sidebar. On Windows
7 computers, it will be located in the window
sidebar.
On the next page, click the download button.
If you are using Internet Explorer, you will see a
message at the bottom of the page. You have the
option to run or save the application. Click the ‘Run’
button. If you’re using Firefox, you’ll be prompted
to save the file. If you’re using Chrome, the file will
download automatically.
Start the iCloud installation. Click on I Accept the
terms in the license agreement option and click the
‘Install’ button. Windows 8 will prompt for authorization
to install iCloud. Click on the ‘Yes’ button.
The installation will take a few moments. When the
installation is done, click the ‘Finish’ button. You
will be prompted to restart the computer.
When the computer restarts, iCloud will display
a login window for your Apple ID and password.
Enter this information and click the sign in button.
With iCloud Drive you will be able to drag files and
folders into the iCloud Drive folder and they will
be synced to your iCloud drive just like Google and
OneDrive.
These are three cloud services for storing, creating,
sharing and collaborating. There are other services
out there in I will cover those in future issues.