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Pete, an IT Consultant, shares his tips for new Dropbox users
Meet Pete, an IT Consultant and advanced Dropbox user. Take a look at Pete’s tips for those of you who are new to Dropbox… What brought me to Dropbox I was seeking a secure and collaborative, cloud based solution that was reliable and fast. I needed a way to always have my files available on any computer or device that I was working on and also needed to make sure that my files were safe and always up to date. Tips for new Dropbox users I like to use Dropbox for business and personal Dropbox, both available on the desktop platform. This allows for a better flow and separation for business and personal matters. I also appreciate the admin console for better understanding the big picture from a dashboard environment. Keep in mind API limits, file system limits, and the fact that data bloat is creating more difficulty with laptop hard drive (local) and cloud syncing. Online only has assisted in this process, however, be sure to brush up on what you need versus what you think you need. Consider directory structure and organization up front. Like any file system, the more objective and clear the structure, the easier it is to work with, especially when problems occur. Consider long term data growth trends. I recommend putting together archival strategies and user license forecasting into the 6 month, 12 month, and 36-48 month future. Do you use Dropbox in a similar way? Have questions for Pete about their workflow? Reply below with your thoughts!Jamie saved days of time by storing video production files in Dropbox
Meet Jamie, Head of Post Production on a Video Production team. This is Jamie’s story… What brought us to Dropbox We had no way to share files easily, but needed to share files in the office between our machines, to our home machines or portable devices, and with clients and freelancers. We would spend days sending drives, or uploading zip files. It made versioning problematic. How we use Dropbox Setting up shared folders has been revolutionary. We can have one for clients, one for freelancers, and above all we can keep files on cloud or local depending on the machine. For every video production we set up a folder with a series of sub folders. Different users then choose which of those are cloud based or local. For film shoots an entire project can upload to Dropbox servers overnight. This means our decade old worry of keeping footage secure and off-site is solved with a simple drag and drop. The footage is distributed to key sites automatically for each freelancer to work on. The footage is in our master folder, which is then referenced by editors, motion graphics artists and composers. It’s all seamless and secure. Tips for the community: Undeleting has been a savior. Going online to past projects to unearth a crucial file has saved my skin a few times! Comments and collaboration are so handy if a client is viewing on the go. No matter how big your files are Dropbox seems to Hoover them up. No more FTP or file sharing websites! Keep as much as you can in Dropbox. It’s the safest place for your work. Do you use Dropbox in a similar way? Have questions for Jamie about their workflow? Reply below with your thoughts!Anca never needs to worry about losing files on a crashed computer again
Meet Anca, an online education designer who uses Dropbox so she never has to worry about losing files on a crashed computer again. This is Anca’s story… What brought me to Dropbox My forever love relationship with Dropbox started during my second semester of my master’s degree. I was enrolled in an online course that was saturated in essays, reports, and all sorts of assignments that needed countless days of research and writing. This major report was soon due, and I was juggling this assignment between a teething baby, 40 hours of work, family time, and some sort of social life that was very short, let me tell you. The due date was so close, and I was feeling the need to ask for an extension. We were allowed two breaks during the course and I had never asked for one. I finally gave in, knowing that I was not able to finish in time and the professor was gracious enough to give me not 24 hours, as I had asked for, but a 48-hour extension. Ecstatic about my extra time, I started plugging along and my 20-page paper was finally coming to its final edits. There was very little to do, and my baby needed me. By the time I came back, my computer screen was blue. I never thought this could happen to me. I saw a lovely blue screen and the news that came later was also very blue. All that work, saved only in one place, on my crashed computer! How I use Dropbox My lovely husband came up with a solution, to avoid ever losing a document again. He suggested I save everything on Dropbox. He told me I could work on essays from home or from work and it would all be saved in one place, with no chance of ever losing an essay due to a computer crash. My documents are now safely synced across all my devices. I do not have to track down my last draft. I know exactly where to find it. Tips for the community Plan out your folder structure. Create a consistent file naming pattern. Do you use Dropbox in a similar way? Have questions for Anca about their workflow? Reply below with your thoughts!Amanda creates filing structures to access work and personal files with ease
Meet Amanda, who collaborates at work and at home with Dropbox. This is Amanda’s story… What brought me to Dropbox I started using Dropbox to share documents at work. I was either emailing documents back and forth (bloated inbox, totally inefficient as a filing system!) or using a shared drive that was only accessible from inside the office or via a VPN. How I use Dropbox Being able to share different folders with different people makes it easy to have a home folder where my husband and I keep notes and documents, and to use Dropbox for multiple collaborative projects. I try to create intelligent filing structures and primarily use Dropbox to share documents. My account syncs to my home computer, work computer and phone. I have a "Print Me" folder so if I need to print something I can just toss a PDF in there and print it when I'm at the office. I also have a "Travel" folder that has copies of any travel itineraries so I can always find my travel documents. Selective sync means my travel documents always sync to my phone, but I don’t keep my whole Dropbox on my phone. Tips for the community I have a "Miscellany" folder with yearly folders inside it. That means that random stuff that doesn't have a better home at least gets filed chronologically. It's okay to reorganize but be diligent about putting things in folders. Do you use Dropbox in a similar way? Have questions for Amanda about their workflow? Reply below with your thoughts!How Andy took his life off of flash drives with Dropbox Folders and Paper
Meet Andy, a Dropbox devotee who has moved his personal and work files from flash drives to Dropbox. This is Andy’s story… What brought me to Dropbox Before I used Dropbox, it was such a pain transferring files between by devices when I was on the go, or needed to do work somewhere that wasn't my main computer. I have a similar story to Drew, really. I never left my flash drive anywhere by accident, but it was a pain to carry flash drives or external hard drives around, and constantly copy data to and from them to transfer. With Dropbox, for both me, and our media production, I don't have to think about it anymore. How I use Dropbox Even for personal use, I've been using Dropbox for more than 8 years now, and Dropbox as a whole has just made everything so much simpler. Especially when collaborating, I find Paper to be a big help. I've used Selective Sync a bit, but as far as actual core productivity and help goes, the big two are just the application itself, and collaborating with Paper. In Dropbox, for the most part, I don't really have a structure. I have general folders for related things, but it's sort of all over the place, since it's all personal for the most part anyway. As far as Paper goes, I don't have a lot of structure. For work, everything tends to be organized into folders, and the main folder is shared between everyone. Because of how small our company is, we don't have a whole lot to organize. I myself don't have a lot of organization either. I certainly am glad Dropbox has the features it has, and I use most of them at least sometimes. Tips for the community Plan ahead and keep organized. Know what you want to do, and know your options before you actually do anything. Do you use Dropbox in a similar way? Have questions for Andy about their workflow? Reply below with your thoughts!How Peter and his team prepare slide decks without email
Meet Peter, who uses Dropbox to collaborate with his team on weekly slide decks. This is Peter’s story… What brought me to Dropbox We were using e-mail to share slide decks back and forth. E-mail limitations blocked our slides and forced us to use work-arounds to reduce their size. How I use Dropbox When I want to see if the materials I need for my weekly slide deck are available all I have to do is check the recent updates from my system tray, and the rest of the team can likewise see when the new deck is available, too! Moreover, needing to be done at the end of the week means that it's very helpful to be notified when new/updated files are ready for use. Notifications when files have been uploaded or changed saves me a ton of time! Tips for the community Shared Dropbox space uses up space in each and every account that files are shared with. You can get an old copy of your file from the Dropbox support team if you accidentally overwrite important info. Don't just move files to a shared Dropbox folder, work on them there, too! If you're using the free subscription, remind everyone on your team to invite other people -- get some extra shared space! Do you use Dropbox in a similar way? Have questions for Peter about their workflow? Reply below with your thoughts!How Raymond uses Dropbox sync to access his files on any device at any time
Meet Raymond, a seasoned Dropbox user who works in tech and uses Dropbox as his one stop shop for file storage. This is Raymond’s story… What brought me to Dropbox I needed a way to always have my files available on any computer or device that I was working on. In addition, I needed to make sure that my files were safe and always up to date. Ensuring that files were up to date and available between a phone, tablet, laptop, and desktop was nearly impossible. In addition, when I used a flash drive as an attempted source of truth, I would often misplace or lose it, making my files unavailable and potentially lost. How I use Dropbox I consider Dropbox to be the new "My Documents" folder. Every document that I work on is saved to Dropbox and categorized into folders, much the same way I categorized docs into folders before Dropbox. When accessing files from other devices, I can choose to use the mobile app, web client, or desktop app to ensure that I'm always able to get access to the files that I need at any time. The three features that have been the most impactful include: Syncing files between computers and devices: Every file that I work on now lives in Dropbox and I always know that my latest version is available to me on any device. Easily generating shareable links: When I have to share files with other people, I can easily generate a link to that file. The link (as opposed to a file attachment) will always be automatically updated when I save a change to a file. Smart Sync: On my laptop, I'm able to save space by enabling Smart Sync. This ensures that only the files I absolutely need are locally downloaded, but I can access any of the other files in my Dropbox at any time. Tips for the community Give Dropbox a try. It's painless (you can even change it so the documents folder is automatically the Dropbox folder), comes with 2 GB of storage free forever to try it out, and gives you peace of mind to know your documents are always safe. Do you use Dropbox in a similar way? Have questions for Raymond about their workflow? Reply below with your thoughts!
