Dropbox Puts Your Files in the Cloud
I was reading through some older blogs this evening. You ActiveRainers never cease to amaze me with the wonderful ideas and tips! I ran across a blog by Marc Davison. Admittedly, I was a little sceptical about the simplicity of Dropbox. Sure...it's easy....it's free....what's the catch, right?
Well, this evening, I took the plunge and have completed a sync with Dropbox. Just like that, I'm sharing my files! My wife (who is working for my business) and I have separate laptops, separate mobile devices, and a home PC. Dropbox is allowing us to upload pictures from a camera, phone, laptop, or PC all to one shared location.
I must tell you that I felt like running out and throwing away the dozen flash drives, memory cards, and external devices we have been trading! Dropbox is a fantastic way to centralize your documents into one easily accessible online location.
What's even better is that you can create folders. So, instead of having to search my phone for a picture, my laptop for a link, and my external hard drive for a contract, I can now keep everything - literally all electronic media - for a client in one file that I can access from my phone, laptop, or PC.
Thank you, Marc, for the post! I encourage anyone who makes use of electronic media to take advantage of Dropbox!
The real estate transaction is freighted with documents. You fax them. You print them. Sometimes you even drive them around in your car like clients.
It's crazy. There is a better way.
While blogs, mobile devices and social networks have claimed the tech limelight over the past few years, document management has been quietly transformed.
Dropbox is a great example. It's a dead-simple application that lets you store your files securely in the "cloud." Dropbox makes sharing documents, presentations and photographs a breeze. Best of all, it's free (A free account nets you up to 2GB in storage space; "Pro" accounts expand your storage capacity up to 50GB and 100GB for $9.99 and $19.99 per month, respectively.)
Download the Dropbox application, create an account, and once up and running on your computer your Dropbox folders show up like any other folder on your desktop. Simply drag a file into the folder and it's automatically synced to Dropbox's remote servers.
Get in sync
Need to work on the road? Drag a file from your home computer or save a file you're working on to your Dropbox folder and it will be instantly accessible through the Web or on another computer linked to the same account. Your files are even accessible on an iPhone via the Dropbox app.
Free file sharing
Sharing files with team members and clients is easy too. Drop a file in your "Public" folder, right click to copy the public link and drop that link in an email message or IM and you're done. The same URL can be used over and over to point to files you may want to share repeatedly.
Finally, here's a handy power user tip: Dropbox can also be used to create simple Web albums of your photos. Simply create a sub-folder in your "Photos" folder for a particular property, listing or neighborhood; copy in the photos you wish to share and distribute that link.
Dropbox's simplicity has won it many kudos, including the 2009 Crunchie Award for Best Internet Application.
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