DropBox Tricks
DropBox is basically a free file hosting service, but it’s also much more. Did you know that you can even host your own website on Dropbox? Dropbox has numerous benefits: for productivity, peace of mind, and good old convenience. Since standard Dropbox is free, go ahead and sign up. You won’t regret it.
Dropbox is powerful, and most users don’t make full use of its services. So let’s look at some Dropbox tricks you didn’t know about.
1. Get More Space On DropBox For Free :
Let’s look at how you can get more space on DropBox, completely for free. Dropbox has its own “get more space” page, and the easiest way to get more space is to pay for it.
Free ways to get more space include referring friends (one gigabyte per friend, up to 32 gigabytes), following Dropbox on Twitter, and connecting your Facebook and Twitter accounts to the service.
2. Ease of Sharing BIG files and folders :
You may know that there are many challenges to send a huge file via email. Using Dropbox, you can share any file and folder,irrespective of its size. You can add them to your public Dropbox folder using its link.
It is simple to send the link. Just right-click on a file in your public folder in Dropbox, and choose “Copy Public Link”. That’s all! You can now send the link to anyone with whom you want to share the file. Or you can even post the link online.
If you want to collaborate with others, it’s easy. First create a folder, and then invite others to share it. When you work on a file in a shared folder, files are updated across every participants’ folder.
3. Dropbox as a download delivery system for sales :
If you’re starting a business, selling downloads like MP3s, images, or ebooks, you can use this to deliver the files.
Suppose that you’re a keen photographer. A family friend sees your portfolio, and decides to buy an image. You sell the image. You think that others might be interested in your images, so you decide to offer them for sale. For that, you create a small website, and you start sales. Just send your buyers the links to their purchased images in your public Dropbox folder so that they can download them.
Obviously this isn’t ideal for a long time, rather it’s a simple, hassle-free way to sell downloads.
4. Dropbox to access necessary files, wherever you are :
Dropbox acts as your digital suitcase. You can take needed files with you, so as to access them on any device. Check out Mobile Dropbox now. When you install Mobile Dropbox on your iOS, Android, Blackberry or Kindle Fire, you have access to everything in it, no matter where you are.
You can use this to work on business documents at home. You can achieve this by just copying the files. If you create files on your home computer, and save them, you can access them at work.
You can even use Dropbox on third-part computers. “Send to Dropbox” is a great free third-party service combining email and Dropbox. You receive a unique email address to send your files to it. Your files are placed in Dropbox/Apps/Attachments.
5. Dropbox for security : back up your most important files to Dropbox :
No matter how careful you are, and how often you back up your computer, things can go wrong. If you have files which you can’t afford to lose, copy them to Dropbox. Some apps will automatically back up to it. So check your favorite app to see whether there’s a Back Up to Dropbox option.
6. Dropbox as a photo archive :
You can use Dropbox to manage your photos. All the images which you’ve saved to it now appear in an image archive. These images are sorted by date. You can create photo albums, so that you can easily share important photos with friends.
Want to use your images on the Web? Just drag the image into your public folder and grab the link.
7. Publish a website on Dropbox :
Can you create a website in Dropbox? Yes! you can, with Pancake.io. Get as fancy as you like, or just publish plain text. You don’t need to worry about domain names and hosting to create a super-quick website. Pancake.io supports popular files types too, such as MS Office documents, PDFs, and images.
Want to get fancy with Pancake.io? You can. Check out the Help files here.
8. Digital nomad? Dropbox for all your documents :
You can make access to all your files everywhere. For that, you need to create a documents folder in Dropbox. Make that your default documents folder across all your computers. Of course, if you have a huge documents folder, you’ll want to get extra storage from Dropbox to make sure that you have sufficient space for all your files.
This is useful if you’re using computers with small hard drives.
9. Sync your iTunes library between your home and work computers :
If you want to play your music and videos everywhere, you can sync your iTunes library to Dropbox.
Just move your iTunes library to a folder in this application. Then hold down the Shift key on a PC, or the Option key on a Mac, when you start iTunes. iTunes will ask for the new location of your library: browse to your folder.
10. Save space on small computers with Selective Sync :
If you’re using a computer with a small hard drive, turn on Selective Sync. This option lets you choose which folders you want to be synced to a computer. Access this option via Preferences/Advanced/ Change Settings, and you can choose which folders will be synced to the computer you’re using.
11. Back up apps to Dropbox :
Many apps, especially those which work across multiple devices, will back themselves up to this if you choose it as your backup location. Check out the backup locations in the preferences and settings of your favorite apps to see whether they offer this option.
Two of my own favorite apps, Scrivener and 1Password, back up seamlessly to Dropbox. So here you have 11 DropBox tricks to make your life easier.
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