Wednesday, April 08, 2009

tools I use: dropbox

Between home and office, it is not unusual for me to do service planning/message prep on up to 4 different computers. In addition, my assistant, Deb Johnston, also accesses and edits service/message files. The results of all this is multiple versions of the same file spread over multiple computers where it's a pain to determine which is the current, file or proofed copy.

Enter Dropbox. Dropbox is an easy and secure way to share and sync files across multiple computers and platforms. What I love about Dropbox is that syncing happens in the background. You save to your computer, Dropbox "feels" when you save, then automatically updates the files on your web account and then on any other computers where Dropbox is enabled and open. I don't have to manually update the web. I don't have to go through 5 steps to log into VPN. I just save in the file in my Dropbox on the computer I'm working on and then it's available on any other computer where I might need it.

After working with Dropbox, all I can say is it works terrific and has greatly simplified and streamlined my workflow.

Here's an introductory video . . .



Dropbox is free, but if you sign up, use this link and you and I will both get some additional storage space.

Check it out and tell me what you think . . . .

3 comments:

Tim Weaver said...

That is VERY cool. I am all over that.

Unknown said...

Dropbox is definitely a very powerful tool for individuals to maintain a sinclge synchronized copy.

For those that are looking for something similar but allow collaborative capabilities between parties, look into SharePoint. This is browser based - and provides file versioning - so many can participate and offer their opinion about a particular file.

Brian Wong said...

Thanks for the invitation. What's your storage space up to now that you posted that link?

I started using this after I read your post. And I must say, it really is quite nifty. And it's better than a shared network drive because I don't have to worry about being connected to the network. It's drag and drop easy. And it is pretty darn fast.

I love using it between my desktop, work laptop, and personal netbook. Thanks for sharing!