Tip #21: Get Dropbox

1. You have more than one computer (e.g. desktop and laptop), and you often find it troublesome to move files between the two.
2. You are working on a team project, and you want to share files with group members and keep the files always up to date.
3. You want to share some files for downloading from your blog, using a public link like this, but your file is too big for certain online file hosts. (e.g. Rapidshare has a limit of 200MB per file)
4. You just want to store your files online so you can access them away from home.

If any of your needs look like the ones listed above, you need Dropbox. Dropbox is an online file storage service which gives you 2GB (up to 5GB via referrals) for free. You can use this 2GB to store any of your files, synchronise them among your computers (and iPhone), and share them with others who may or may not be using Dropbox.

Using Dropbox's web interface is a breeze..

You can use Dropbox entirely from its web interface, to upload, download and manage your files. However to take full advantage of Dropbox, Dropbox has an application which you can install on your Windows, Mac and Linux computer or iPhone. This app will create a folder named My Dropbox on your computer. The contents of this folder is automatically synchronised with your online storage and other computers with Dropbox installed. To upload a file, you just need to literally drop (move or copy) the file into your My Dropbox folder. And when you upload a file to Dropbox via the web interface from elsewhere, your computer(s) will automatically download that file the next time you go online.

If you are already interested, you can create an account on Dropbox and download the app to get started. Otherwise, feel free to continue reading about what else Dropbox can do.

My Dropbox folder in Mac. When a file or folder has a blue spinner, it means that
it's synchronising. When it has a green checkmark, it means that it's synchronised.

With Dropbox, you can create shared folders which are shared with other people using Dropbox. Suppose you just came back from a vacation trip with several friends. Each of you had your own cameras, and took quite a lot of photos of each other. Facebook would be great for just showing off the pics, but what if you wanted to share the high-resolution original photos? (for printing and archiving) No problem. Just get everyone to use Dropbox, then create a shared folder and invite them all to the shared folder via email invitations. Now tell everyone to just drop their photos into the sharing folder - and voila! Everyone has everyone's photos!

If you want to share files with people who don't have Dropbox, no problem, just drop that file into the Public folder. Files in this folder will each have a special link you can share with others for them to directly download the file from Dropbox's website. Just right-click on any file and choose Copy public link, and paste it in any IM window or email to share.

As you can see, I have earned an extra
1.8GB of online space!

Another awesome feature of Dropbox is that it keeps revisions of files, as well as deleted files. Suppose you are working on a project with a team, and one day somebody accidentally changed an important Word document in the shared folder. No problem. Just right-click on the file in your Dropbox folder and choose Show previous versions, or go to the Dropbox web interface and choose Previous versions. And if a file was accidentally deleted, you can Show deleted files and restore it. Previous versions and deleted files are not kept forever though, you'll need a paid account for that.

If you have already created an account and downloaded Dropbox using the link above, right click on the Dropbox tray icon. Notice that, instead of 2.0 GB, you have 2.3GB!! (2.25GB to be exact because Dropbox rounds off the number) That's because you used my referral link to register. When you invite someone to Dropbox by using referrals (i.e. sending invitations or sharing a referral link), and they do register and download Dropbox, both of you will get an extra 250MB of online storage. Yes, BOTH of you (not the one who sent out the invite alone). Via referrals, you can earn up to an extra 3GB of space, meaning your Dropbox can have a maximum of 5GB of storage, with no limits on individual file sizes!

If you have changed your mind, here is my referral link again for you to register for Dropbox and to earn an extra 250MB ;)