Hi this is Chris from vitamincm.com and today we’re going to talk about an application called drop box. Drop box is a service that is based on the web and resides on your desktop and it allows you to synchronize files between multiple computers.
So let’s say I had a computer at work and a computer at home or maybe two computers at home. and I want it to see some files, I can put them into my drop box ans it will automatically copy them over and to any of my new computers. So there’s two versions of service, there’s a free service on a paid service and you just have to go to the website. Get dropbox.com, sign up for the free service and then download the software fro your computer. There’s a desktop application for windows, mac and lenux and it’s pretty simple and you just install, it takes a second and you put it in you IBM password. And tell where you want to put your folder.
So I put my drop box folder on my desktop, on my PC and on my MAC. On my MAC right now and you can see I’m logged into drop box. If you notice up here in the top there is a little drop box icon and if you notice on my PC there’s a little drop box icon in the system tray. So if I go to my folder, my drop box folder, these are all my shared files and folders. So you can see I have a text files in there, I had some pictures and video files. The free service gives you two Gigabytes of storage.
I thought if folder right for a new project that I am working on. Ironically it’s called New Project. Now if I go over here to my PC, you could see I'm in my drop box folder right now. And the same folder called New Project, so there’s in it, as a word document that I’m working on for my new project and its called How to count it from work for standing pictures. So I started to type my word document and I put in the words, say 1,2,3,4. So let me save this I want to save in on my drop box so that it goes to my other computer.
Click my files 1 that and then I’ll go to my desktop and I’ll go to my drop box and to my new Project. So I’ll tell you delete counting. And you could see, so let me do a couple of things, if you notice my title says with standing pictures. Well I don’t have any pictures in there right now so let me close it and I am going over here to my MAC. And if you notice already that file counting dot dot appears. So I want to open it with microsoft word on my MAC, when it opens on a MAC, you see it’s exact same file. So I said with fancy pictures, I don’t have any fancy pictures in there yet. So I want to do is go to another folder on my MAC where I have a couple images, I have number one, number two and also I have a logo for drop box that I want to use.
So I’ll just copy those images and I’ll go back to the New Project folder, paste them in and couple things will happen. Number one, those files will instantly go up to any other of my computers, so it went up to my PC. Now if I go back here into Word, what I want to do is- I want to drop these images on to the page. And I’ll just save the file and close it, so it’s going to save the file because it is member now so it’s a new copy the files. So it’s going to take the changes I made sync them up to the web and then back down to my other computer-.
So if I go back to my PC and reopen that document, when document opened, you’ll see those images that I added on my MAC come back in. Now I don’t have a number three and number four, but I have a folder on my PC that also has some images in it. There’s a picture of the number three and the picture of number four, so I’m going to click them to my drop box. And then I’m just going to put them into my document, and that’s it. So now my document has 1, 2, 3, 4, so I now work on this document on my MAC, save it, opened it up on my PC Word on it. Put images into folders off my PC or my MAC, saved it, now I’m going to save it one last time and close it.
And when I do it, you should be the loop the loop sync in symbol. And as soon that thing turns green, that means that file is up to the web and about to go back down to my other computer. So I now go back over here to my MAC and open up the file, and all of my updates are in place. So the number three and number four in there, also if I look in that folder. You’ll see the images number three and number four in there, so it’s really great. It’s a great way to keep all your stuff where you want it all the time so if you have something that you are working on. And you started that work you can just drop it in there, open it up at home, finish it at home or vice- versa.
Or if you have maybe a desktop computer in one room and a laptop in the other room. You can always move your files back, back and forth – really easily. There’s a couple other really great features, I go back to the web interphase, if you notice here, there’s an option called Share. So I’m going to create a Shared folder and I’ll call it Client project, so let’s say I was working on something with a client and I want to collaborate back and forth with them. So I can call it a Client project and I can put my Client’s email address in there, hit enter and then I will share the folder.
So now you’ll see if I go to my drop box, in my drop box there’s a new folder called Client project. And that person I sent the email to would get the email and would have a link so that they could come back here. And access this folder and see the information into the web. So now if I go back to my PC, you could this folder called client project,so myself and my client could drop folders and files back in there, back and forth. We can do what did with that word document so we can open the file. One of us could work on and save it, the other person can open it and instantly see the changes.
So it’s really handy for collaborating with people, and then maybe when project is over. I could just save the file on to my hard drive and them come back into the web interphase . And just delete the folder, so if I go back to home, you see these folders so I could come in here and delete the folder if I want it. And then it would be gone, so really handy thing to temporarily or permanently collaborate with other people.
One other cool feature, I have my Iphone open right now. So if I go to the drop box site I’m already logged in. And it has a special mobile interphase, so if you have a Blackberry or an Iphone or something like that. You can go to your files, you can see your photos so any PC, even .if you are not on your PC. Let’s say your over- your friends house or relatives’ house, you can log into the web interphase and get at your photos, the files anything that you have stored. So very handy.
So the free version as I said is limited to two Gigabytes if you want you can actually pay to the paid version and get an increasing amount of storage. So if I go to – upgrade my drop box here, there is basic which is two Gigabytes for free and there’s pro. Which gives you 50 Gigabytes, its $10 a month or a $100 a year.
So a really great service if you use multiple computers and or you have to collaborate on things with other people. So that’s drop box and I’m Chris form vitamincm.com.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services