Dropbox is Easy Sync & Backup

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: I love Dropbox.

Now that that’s done, allow me to elaborate.  Put simply, Dropbox is a program that automatically backs up your files online to the web, as well as to any other computer where you have Dropbox installed.  There are versions for Windows, Mac, Linux, and even iPhone.  With a basic free account (which is what I use) you get 2 GB of online storage for your files, although you can increase that to up to 5 GB with referrals or even pay for more storage if you need it.  For just backing up documents, though, the free version should be more than enough for most people.

Online Backup of Your Files

Once you install Dropbox on your computer, it will create a folder called “My Dropbox” that looks nearly identical to other folders on your computer.  Any files that you place in this folder automatically get synced and backed-up to the web.  If you log on to the dropbox website from another computer, all of your files will be there for you.  If something ever happens you your computer, you have an automatic, free, online backup of your files!  That’s the basics.

Super Easy File Syncing

The next real advantage is that you can install Dropbox on more than one computer at a time, and it will sync your files seamlessly between each computer.  For example, let’s say you have a school computer and a home computer.  Install Dropbox on both of them.  Then, if you edit a lesson plan or Powerpoint on your home computer, as long as that file is in your Dropbox folder, it automatically gets sent to your school computer’s Dropbox folder.  No more emailing files to yourself or copying files via a thumbdrive to get that work to school.  It happens automatically.  It’s almost as if you’re accessing the same folder in both places.  I use this to keep all of my work files synchronized between my school laptop and my home computer.

Instant Online Photo Albums

Want to share those photos of some cool project that you did in class or school event that you orchestrated?  In your “My Dropbox” folder, there’s a “Photos” folder.  When you create sub-folders in it, they instantly become online photo albums for any photo that you drop in there.  Instead of emailing all those photos, just copy them into your Dropbox Photos folder, right click on the folder, select “Copy Public Gallery Link”, and email that link to whomever you want.  It will take them to a nicely formatted online photo gallery of all the photos you put into that folder on your computer.

Share Any File with Anybody

Finally, there’s file sharing.  Your “My Dropbox” folder has a “Public” folder in it.  You can put a file into the Public folder, right click on it, and get a web link to that file that you can email to other people, put on your class website, or whatever you need!  Remember how annoying it is when someone emails you a huge file attachment?  (It eats up your email space and takes forever to download, grrr!)  Instead of being that annoying-attachment guy, you just copy the file into your Public Dropbox folder and email the link.  I’ve also used this feature to email my lesson plans as a link to my substitute teacher.  Now, I know Google Docs can be used in this way, too, but it is limited to document-type files only; Dropbox can share any type of file!

Dropbox also has a second type of file-sharing, although I haven’t tried it personally.  If you know someone else with a Dropbox account, you can share entire folders with each other, and they get synced to each of your My Dropbox folders.  In this way, you can collaborate with your colleagues.  Again, Google Docs does this very nicely for docs, spreadsheets, and presentations, with the advantage of not having to install anything, but Dropbox allows you to share any file type, including pictures, videos, programs, or whatever you want!

As a final note, remember that I said you can increase your Dropbox storage for free using referrals?  If you sign up using my Dropbox referral link, then we both get an extra 250 MB of storage space.  Sorry if that sounds a bit solicitous, but if you’re going to try it, you might as well get some extra space, right?

If you are already using Dropbox, or want to get a better idea of how powerful it is, Lifehacker has a lot of articles on additional uses for Dropbox.

So, in conclusion: I love Dropbox, and so should you.