If you asked Macworld editors
to name the technologies they can't live without, you’d inevitably hear about Dropbox. This
file-synchronization service lets you access your files from anywhere—not just
your Mac, iPad, and iPhone, but also any Web browser. It provides easy
cloud-based backup, too. But all that’s just the beginning. Here are five of
our favorite ways to use it:
1.
Share big files
Anyone who passes around photos,
videos, or other big files has most certainly discovered the puny file-size limits
of most email servers. Dropbox can help. First, make sure you’re running the
very latest version of the app by downloading it from Dropbox’s website. Then,
in the Finder, find a file in your Dropbox folder, and Control-click,
right-click, or two-finger-click it. In the contextual menu that appears,
select Share Dropbox Link. (In older versions of Dropbox, choose Dropbox -> Share Dropbox Link.) Select this option to copy a shareable URL for
the file in question to your clipboard, ready for pasting into an email message
or a chat window. Recipients don’t even need a Dropbox account to use links.
There’s no quicker way to share large files.—Lex Friedman
To
share a big file, just Control-click an item in your Dropbox folder and choose
Share Dropbox Link (circled) from the contextual menu.
2.
Synchronize app settings across Macs
If you maintain more than one Mac,
you know the annoyance of setting up the same app again and again to work just
the way you like it. That’s where Dropbox can help. Store an app's preferences
in Dropbox, and as you make changes to settings on one computer, those
settings also get updated on your other computers. Not all
apps let you store preferences in Dropbox, but some notable ones do, including
AgileBits’ $50 1Password,
Running With Crayons’ free Alfred with
the £15 Powerpack add-on (about $23), Bare Bones
Software’s $50 BBEdit,
and Smile’s $35 TextExpander.
Once you get used to it, you’ll wonder why more apps don’t support this great
feature.—Dan Moren
3.
Share a folder
Need to collaborate with a group of
people who use Macs and PCs? Dropbox offers an easy way—the shared folder.
First you need everyone to sign up for a free account at Dropbox.com. Then, in the
Finder, Control-click (or right-click) on a folder inside your Dropbox folder.
In the contextual menu that appears, choose Share This Folder. (In older
versions, choose Dropbox > Share This Folder.) Your browser
will open to Dropbox.com, and a window will prompt you to type in the group
members’ email addresses along with a short message for them. Once this is
done, the group can add, delete, and edit files in the folder, and the files
will stay synced. Since you can access Dropbox through a browser, group members
don’t need to download any software to participate.—Scholle Sawyer McFarland
You
can see all your shared folders by clicking the Sharing link (shown on the
left) at Dropbox.com.
4.
Compile a photo album of an event
Lots of people upload pictures to
Facebook or other services, but not everybody’s Web savvy. For example, at a
relative’s recent 50th wedding anniversary, plenty of folks were snapping
pictures, but they weren’t sure how to share all of them. My solution? I used
the free service Send to Dropbox to create an email address where
people could send photos, which I collected into a folder. Then I sent everyone
a link to that folder. Easy peasy, and everybody with an email address and Web
browser can take part, without having to install any software.—Dan Moren
Need
to collect photos from a group of people? The free ‘Send to Dropbox’ service
lets them email their images directly to your Dropbox folder.
5.
Resurrect previous file versions with Dropbox
Have you ever accidentally deleted
an important file from your Dropbox folder, or pressed Save and immediately
regretted it? Then you’ll be glad to know that Dropbox automatically saves
versions of your files from the last 30 days, letting you roll the clock back
to an earlier version, or even restore a completely deleted file.
To find earlier versions of files,
Control-click (or right-click) on one in your Dropbox folder in the Finder and
select View Previous Versions. (In older versions, select Dropbox
> View Previous Versions.) Or if you’re viewing your Dropbox folder on
the Web, choose Previous versions from the contextual menu. You’ll see a
list of numbered versions in reverse chronological order. Dropbox includes
other useful information, too: who edited the file, the device on which that
editing was done, the date the snapshot was made, and the file size. You can
see the contents of any version by clicking its name (Version 44, for example).
When you find the one you want, select the radio box next to it and click Restore at
the bottom of the screen.
Dropbox
automatically saves versions of your files from the last 30 days. Select one
and click the Restore button to roll back the clock.
If you want to resurrect a deleted
file, the process is slightly different. Visit your folder on the Dropbox
website and click the trash-can icon immediately to the left of the search box.
This toggles between showing and hiding all deleted files. Deleted files and
folders appear in gray and with the Kind deleted file, deleted document, deleted
folder, and so on. To bring back a file, click it and find the version you
want. Then select that version and restore it.
If you end up using this feature a
lot, consider signing up for Dropbox’s $39-per-year Packrat
service. It saves unlimited undo history and is available for Dropbox Pro and
Dropbox Business users.—Jonathan Seff
