Living with Chromebook: Workflow Changes (Premium)

Coming at Chromebook from a Windows perspective requires one to adjust expectations accordingly. As noted previously, Chrome OS provides a familiar-enough UI façade, with on-screen elements that resemble and generally work like their Windows counterparts. But the illusion fails when you actually start using the system.

The issue isn’t just about specific applications—I went into this knowing that some of my key daily-use applications simply won’t be available in Chrome OS—but also workflow. This is a more nebulous topic, in some ways. But it’s hard to change years of habit and tradition.

Look, we all work differently. Personally, I rely on certain Microsoft products and services, which I’ve integrated into my daily workflow. And I’ve become quite efficient in using this system over so many years.

Consider two examples, both related to OneDrive.

First, I use the Windows desktop as a scratch space where I temporarily store documents and pictures that I’m working on for news articles on Thurrott.com. When I’m done with those files, they’re copied to specific locations in OneDrive, which is integrated with the Windows shell. It’s a quick drag-and-drop process.

I also use OneDrive and Windows file system integration for longer-term articles and documents, like those related to the Windows 10 Field Guide or the Programming Windows series. In this case, I work directly from the OneDrive-based folders in File Explorer. Because these folders are synced between my PCs, I can work on my desktop computer, go upstairs with a laptop, and pick up the work where I left off.

On the face of things, you might think that using a Chromebook would change the workflow of the first scenario only minimally, whereas I’d have to make major changes, including possibly swapping out OneDrive for Google Drive, to successfully engage in the second scenario. But I mentioned there were many subtle and small differences between Chrome OS and Windows. And it is these differences that require me to make major changes to the first scenario too.

First, you can’t put files on the desktop. So I will need to store my scratch files somewhere else.

Second, Chrome OS doesn’t provide a meaningful folder structure of any kind. When you open the Files app, you’ll see only single folder, for Downloads. So unless I make my own folder structure—add a Documents or Scratch folder, or whatever—-I’ll need to work via the Downloads folder. This reminds me of when people use to store all their files in the root of the C:\ drive in Windows/MS-DOS.

Third, I need to figure out how to get the files I’ve completed working on into my OneDrive folder structure. I could do this from the web: You can drag and drop files from the Files app into a web browser window. Or I could use the Chrome OS file system integration feature for OneDrive.

You know, if it existed anymore.

You used to be able to add OneDrive integration to Files by opening the app and then navigating to More (“…”) > Add new service > Install new service.

But viewing this interface today on two different Chromebooks, I see the same thing: There’s a Dropbox add-in available. And several others. But no OneDrive.

Which will complicate matters but … may be fine: Drag and drop from Files to the web version of OneDrive does work, after all.

But what about that second scenario? What about when I need to work from within a OneDrive folder, on files that are always stored in OneDrive?

There are a few different approaches.

I could work from the web: Just open OneDrive, navigate to the folder in question, and open and edit the documents in Word Online.

I could also use the Android app versions of OneDrive and Word. This requires a bit of work to figure out if this works better for my needs than the web apps.

Or I could try a hybrid approach. I happen to prefer the web app versions of OneDrive and Word to the mobile app versions. And Microsoft offers an interesting Office extension for Chrome that adds an Office icon to the browser’s toolbar. When clicked, you’re presented with a menu of the main Office Online apps plus a list of your most recent documents.

This satisfies a few needs, the most obvious of which is that portability thing I mentioned earlier: I could be working on a document on my primary PC, take a Chromebook upstairs, open it up, and because I had been just accessing that document, it would appear at the top of the Recent Documents list in this menu. So I could get right back to work.

Most Chromebook users, of course, will probably just use the related Google products and services. Google Drive instead of OneDrive, for example, and Google Docs instead of Word. And they will work fine. Will, in fact, work better than the Microsoft equivalents on Chromebook because they work online and because Google Drive integrates directly with the file system in the Files app.

And I will absolutely work that way at some point. For now, I just want to see how well Chromebook can work with the solutions that I’ve been using for years. And they do work. They just don’t work as efficiently, or at least in the manner to which I’m familiar. And that makes them less efficient, for me.

And that’s just documents.

When it comes to graphics, finding a new app is paramount: I use Microsoft Paint, which is part of Windows, and Adobe Photoshop Elements, which is a Microsoft Store app, all day long every day in Windows. But neither is available on Chrome OS.

I’ve spent a lot of time exploring web and mobile app alternatives to these products. But my needs are particular: I regularly need to crop and resize images precisely. I need to be able to remove superfluous things from images, like dust that may appear in products shots. And so on.

And I’ve found something that actually works pretty well, called the Pixlr x photo editor. It’s free, and it offers all the features I need. Yes, it’s less efficient than Paint/Elements, and not just because of familiarity: I need to upload an image, edit it, and then redownload it before I can then upload it yet again to the site. But it does work.

More soon.