Drop Box - THANK YOU! - A quick story
Jul 18, 2011
Hello,
Have you heard of Drop Box? If not....check it out. It just saved my @ss!
Drop Box is a 'cloud' style file storage system that allows you to put files in a folder to share with other computers (yours or other people). We use it to share files and folders between employees and partners.
We are collaborating on a course at the moment where several people have access to the file. Last night, one guy deleted ALL 300 files in the folder, then canceled his access to the folder. At the moment, we are trying to figure out if this was on purpose or an accident.
Either way, Drop Box saved me...they archive old versions and deleted files. All I did was go in and restore the files. If he did it on purpose, he has no idea that the only thing he did was waste 10 minutes of my time, give me a small heart attack and piss me off. If it was an accident all he did was waste 10 minutes of my time and give me a small heart attack.
Anyway....check out their stuff. You get something like 2 GB of space for free, but you can gain more free space by adding people. Of course you can always pay for more space as well.
Thanks Drop Box!
Cheers,
Dave
19 Replies
Here's hoping that it was the latter. I'm guessing that we won't wanna see Dave when he's angry
Dave I can't say enough good things about dropbox myself. Recently I have been using my home PC to do some video editing and so I am working on 2 computers at work. I work on my Laptop to edit the video files then put them in dropbox and open the files on my Work PC. this way there is no stick, card or other transfer just open the folder. It is great! It is also a savoir when I am doing an approval meeting and there are technical difficulties.
If only,
my organisaion blocks dropbox!
Arhg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello,
Come to find out their is no hanky panky going on.....he is moving offices, but the computer stays. What he did was delete the file and folder from his desktop which in effect deleted them from everybodies! Time to educate him.....
I have since restored all of the files and also restored a normal heart beat...although I am switching to decaf for the day.
It all worked out in the end because Dropbox is the shizzy.....
-Dave
Cool story, Dave. Thanks for sharing. I'm a big fan of Dropbox, too.
Here's a related screencast:
Good stuff Gabe.....
My MD was freaking out this morning big style! When he called, I had a feeling it would be ok....I told him let me take a look. He called me back 3 minutes later to see if I knew anything. I advised him to give me a few minutes and I will sort it.
He was ready to start calling all sorts of people to stir it up....
"Dropbox...DONE!"
Cheers,
Dave
Glad to hear it all worked out, Dave!
So, does drop box provide an easy way of us using the same files between 2 PCs (both having Articulate studio 09)?
It does, Richard. I sync up all my development files between machines without problems (knock on wood).
Of all the file sharing apps out there, Dropbox is by far the most natural and unobtrusive. You work from a folder like you would any other folder. The backups are a lifesaver. I wish they offered something between Pro and Teams for upgrades.
Another option, recommended by Robert Kennedy, is SugarSync. Apparently it offers more flexibility than Dropbox. I haven't tried it but will sometime soon
@Steve - Our team used SugarSync for a while but found it didn't handle simultaneous syncing of multiple machines as well. On more than one occasion I found files hadn't completed syncing because of versioning conflicts. I still have my account with SugarSync, but don't use it for active projects like I do Dropbox.
SugarSync does offer more ways to share folders and subfolders so that's a big plus. I also like SugarSync's 250gb plan option. Dropbox caps out at 100gb (116 if you get the referrals) but that's a little low.
I am interested in learning how others use it in a production environment.
Since you guys are talking about dropbox...
I just signed up and would like to share a published course. Can anyone tell me what files I need to put into dropbox for someone else to be able to view it?
I know that's probably a really basic question, but all I know is my routine which is ftp the published file to our LMS and then someone else takes over. Time to expand
Hi Natalia,
Depends on which files you want to share. If you're looking to sync with another developer (they can read AND write to the sync) then you'll want to share the folder with them using the dropbox website or by right clicking the folder you want to share and following the menu.
If you want to share something in a public folder and have someone hit it via a link (to view work for a review or to download a document) all you need to do is create a folder within the public folder of your dropbox folder. Right click the file you want to share (index.html, for example) and select "Copy Public Link". This adds a URL to your clipboard that you can drop into an email. Keep in mind that this is completely public. Anyone that has the link will be able to access the file you dropped into the public folder.
HTH,
Steve
Thanks, Steve! I think the answer I need is there, but let me make sure.
What I want is for another person to be able to view a finished Presenter course and have access to/download the source powerpoint files.
Which files from the published articulate course do I need to put in that folder and how do they view it? I know I'll share the folder, but what do I tell them to click on, player.html? When I tested this in dropbox and clicked the player.html file it just opens a blank screen. I figured that means I need to include more files.
I have a feeling I may be over complicating this...
or maybe I'm just missing an important step
Any takers?
You'll want to do a couple of things. Once you publish your Publisher files, you'll want to copy all of the published files (Player.html, launcher.html, data folder, player folder) into a folder in your Dropbox public folder. Let's say you have a folder named SecretSquirrel. Your folder will look like this:
SecretSquirrel [within dropbox public]
- player.html
- launcher.html
- player [folder]
- data [folder]
You'll right click player.html and select copy public link. It'll look something like this:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19820702/SecretSquirrel/index.html
When you're ready to add your source files, zip your PPT and PPTA files and any other files you want to have the person grab. Add this zip to your public folder and follow the same right-click > copy public link. It'll look something like this:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19820702/SecretSquirrel/superAwesomeSourcefiles.zip
Steve
Ahh, looks like Steve and I were going about it at the same time.
Here's a quick Screenr on the same process Steve described above:
https://player.vimeo.com/video/149185910
You guys are the best. Thanks so much
Just a small but important point about dropbox (we use it across7 offices, 3 countries and 2 continents for our work daily) it only saves deleted files on a BOUTGHT subscription not on the free ones (as far as I am aware)... SO what we do is we have a main person who has a paid for subscription (with the option to ghost all deleted files added in), then everyone else has a free subscription. The person with the paid for dropbox manages all the files for others as they need access to them... so if we are working on a big project, the creative team get the folder as they are doing the drawings etc, then the translation team get that same folder once there is something to translate. Once the creative team have finished with that folder, I can take them out of it and give them the next folder etc. We couldn't work in this way without it!
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