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
Zara Ogden

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. 

Dave Newgass

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

Dave Newgass

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

David Anderson

@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.

Natalia Mueller

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  

Steve Flowers

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

Natalia Mueller

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?

Steve Flowers

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

Clare Stead

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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