Portland Public Schools
Portland, Oregon

Beaumont Middle School

Academic Achievement,
Situationally-Appropriate Behavior Everyone!

4043 NE Fremont | Portland, OR 97212
Phone: (503) 916-5610 | Fax: (503) 916-2609

Moving Files Between Home & School

computer circut board

Due to different programs, and types of technology, some students encounter problems when working on the same file at home and at school. By the end of the 2012-13 school year, all PPS students should have PPS e-mail accounts and access to their own commercial-free MS SkyDrive. Until then, this page offers a few tips on how to make this process easier.

First, some general things to consider:

  • Consider using a cloud-based editor like GoogleDocs or OfficeLive. These programs have a uniform format that can be used on any computer with an Internet connection.
  • If you can afford a portable USB flash drive you can save your work to it. Anything over 1GB of memory will be fine; you might want to get one that is 4GB or larger if you create a lot of video files. AND DON'T LOSE YOUR DEVICE!
  • A good alternative to having a USB drive is to use your PPS Y-Drive (see instructions below) or send yourself a copy of the file attached to an e-mail.
  • If you have MSOffice 2010 at home, these files (for example: .docx) will not open on older versions of MSOfiice. You can easily downgrade the file AT HOME by using the "Save As" feature and then in the "Save as type:" window select "Office 97-2003 Document" or "Rich Text Format" (for editing) or PDF (for printing).
  • When sending files to teachers for turn-in, and you are not submitting through SkyDrive, you may want to send it as a PDF. This will ensure all of your fonts and formats appear on the teacher's computer.
  • If your teacher does not give you a prescribed way to name files you should make it a habit to include your name in the file name. Your teacher may receive 5 files named "Egypt Project" but only one named "JSmithEgyptProject".

Accessing Your Y-Drive at Home

PPS Online File Access: http://files.pps.k12.or.us/

Please Note: PPS is currently transitioning to the MSLive system. By the end of the 2012-13 school year all PPS students should have a PPS e-mail account and their own commercial-free SkyDrive. This will eliminate the need for PPS to maintain student Y-Drives. Student Y-Drives will begin to be phased out when the SkyDrive transition is complete.

About Your Y Drive:

Files saved to your Y Drive are Web-based (cloud computing), you can access them from any computer, anywhere, anytime.

To Retrieve Documents from Your Y Drive (outside of school):

Open a Web Browser – i.e. Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer

  1. Type in the following URL: files.pps.k12.or.us
  2. In the top, right-hand corner, open: “FILES LOGIN”
  3. Log on
  4. Double-click on your “Y” Drive
  5. Double-click on the document
  6. You may need to deal with a security blocker to open – see note below*
  7. There may be an “open with” option for program i.e. Word (Office in Linux)
  8. Open – the document will open as “read only” in a temp. folder
  9. Go to File, Save As – and save your document to the desktop
  10. Minimize NetStorage
  11. Find and Open your document on your desktop – work on document, then Save
  12. (This Save does NOT update the version on your Y Drive. Follow the instructions below to update your Y-Drive file.)

To Save Documents to your Y Drive (outside of school):

  1. Re-open NetStorage from Taskbar (blue bar at bottom of screen)
  2. File, Upload*
  3. You may need to deal with a security blocker to open – see note below*
  4. Browse, Look In: Desktop, double-click on your document
  5. Upload (make sure “Overwrite existing files” is checked)

*Security Blocker:

Usually appears in area under Address Bar - Here are some options:

  1. If asked, “Do you want to allow pop-ups from this site” – answer, “Yes”
  2. Or - Open document while holding the “Ctrl” key (this works on any blocked pop-up)
  3. Or – Using Firefox – right-hand side of yellow bar “options” choose “Allow pop-ups…”
  4. Or - Open Tools, Open “Pop-up Blocker” “Turn On Pop-Up Blocker” should be listed (which means the pop-up blocker is turned off)
  5. Or - Open Tools, Internet Options, Privacy, “Block Pop-Ups” should NOT be checked
  6. Or -Un-install any toolbars (Google, Yahoo, etc.) or r/click in blank area to the right of “Help” and un-check Google or Yahoo toolbars if listed