Updated May 24, 2023
Introduction to Dropbox
It is a cloud-based productivity tool built for individuals and a team that enables them to save and store documents, files, or pictures across the cloud, and the same can be shared with others as needed.
The best thing is that it offers an amazing storage and sharing capabilities suite. It is also known as an online backup service because all our files are needed to keep backup those important files and to ensure that we never lose those files permanently, preferably stored in more than one place; we use Dropbox. This comes free of charge. Dropbox is Hosted in the cloud. To use it is not complicated. You need to download the app on your preferred device ( the app is available for all platforms, for example, Windows, Linux, and Macintosh desktop operating systems even apps are for iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, and Android devices.), next step is to create an account and start sharing content as required. It is like you synced local storage with Dropbox account data; data will always be available to you, and even offline can use them.
Key Features of Dropbox
In brief, we can talk about its features which are any device accessibility, Automatic updates, Automatic organization and backup, File storage, Efficient syncing, File sharing, Large file sharing, Offline access, Manually set bandwidths, Online backup and file recovery, Simple link-sharing via chat, email or text message, Preview and download security lastly.
1. Free Storage
It provides free storage of up to 2GB and 100 GB on various for-fee plans. The 350 GB free storage for Teams provides by it.
2. Encryption Security
The most important feature is security; while we share the most confidential files, it is essential to share securely, so it uses the 256-bit AES encryption security.
3. Extend Storage
It allows extending the storage space to 100 GB based on pay cost.
4. Access
Users can access all stored files anytime and from anywhere since Dropbox stores them on remote servers and allows access via the Internet.
5. Security
It stores all the files securely, and only the authenticated person can give access with the help of using user name and password. You wish to by using a password and username.
6. Backing up Data
As it stores all data and files remotely, while you may need to back up, it backs up instead of storing everything on your computer.
7. Sharing
Another best thing is you can share files with others. To share the files with others, we need to place the files in a Dropbox folder designated for sharing with specified users or the general public.
8. Tool Availability
The tool is available for all the platforms like Windows operating system, Linux operating system, and Mac operating system. The device is even available for the Android operating system platform as well.
9. Share Screenshots Quickly
The screenshot feature reduces the work for screenshots; we do not need to take a screenshot, drag it into it, and copy the share link. We need to enable the screenshot-sharing feature on your Mac or PC.
10. Add Comments to Files
As we know, Sharing this folder is very easy; right-click on the folder or file that we decided to share and invite people to join our folder, or another way is just to share a link to people of the file. Now with the help of the commenting feature, we can add comments to the shared files, such as using email or chat to discuss your changes to the file. And this way, we can easily keep the conversation about our files in the same place.
11. Edit Microsoft Office Files Online for Free
Dropbox’s feature integration with Office Online is a free basic version of Microsoft Office that runs in your browser. We can open and edit Office files from Dropbox without installing a copy of Office.
12. Use Selective Sync to Save Space
The users can select the most important files to save or sync by using the Selective Sync feature of it.
13. Go Back in Time with Previous Versions
By mistake, if we save the file by different versions to recover it, we can back up the file/s to its Previous Version with the help of the Previous Version feature of it.
14. Find Everything you’re Sharing
We all the shared history we see just by opening Dropbox.com and selecting the Sharing or Links button in the left sidebar.
15. Back up all your Pictures to Dropbox
The Carousel feature of Dropbox organizes all the photos you’ve uploaded based on date and location into shareable albums.
16. Customize your Dropbox Notifications
As we share and comment on many files, Dropbox’s email and push notifications can get overwhelming, but no problem. Users can customize Dropbox notifications and choose to enable or disable email and push notifications.
17. Request Files via Dropbox
The new feature FileRequests in it is a simple tool that enables the user to send a request for files from others and have them automatically show up in your Dropbox folder.
Dropbox offers two types of accounts, Professional and Business Standard, which officially increase storage space for customers and allow them to save and host their most important files. The Professional account holders of Dropbox will get a 2 000 GB (2 TB ) of storage and shared space. In contrast, the Business Standard teams account will receive 3,000 GB (3 TB) of storage and shared space, which helps businesses simplify their tasks easily.
How to Use Dropbox?
The first step is downloading and installing the associated Dropbox application to work with or use. Once installed and after logging in, we can see the Dropbox folder. We can use this folder to save all important files to the folder and drag and drop the system files from folders just as we do with the local storage; we can add folders, delete files or folders, etc. The Files we saved into the Dropbox folder with an Internet connection can be accessed from anywhere. In short, we must log in to our account and upload files, download any files, and share files.
How to Share a File?
To share a file, first, we need to upload a file into the Dropbox folder, generate a URL from the Dropbox website, and share the generated URL with others to whom we want to share the files. The others with whom we share the files also should have a Dropbox account and sign up to access the files or folder. The shared files or folders show up in the folder system of the recipients; they can access and make changes to shared files. It enables us to store and share files of all versions. IT professionals, post offices, banks, libraries, video stores, and other institutions widely use it.
Advantages
The following advantages are explained below.
- Work without Limits – We can keep all our projects at our fingertips without eating up our hard drive with Dropbox Sync.
- Free up Desktop Space – All our desktop data photos, files, videos, and all can be uploaded to Dropbox directly from our desktop and deleted to free the desktop space. Doing this will give us more space to store the other data.
- Free up Phone Space – All our phone data photos, files, and videos are uploaded to Dropbox directly from our phone and deleted from the phone to free the phone’s precious space.
- View any File without Installing Extra Software – The file preview tool is one of its more handy features. If we want feedback on an Adobe file, and the rest of our team members don’t have Adobe installed, then no worries. The browser is the only software required, as it can preview various types of files.
- Present Large Files – Large files must be sent to clients for review in an enterprise or sector. With other services like Gmail and others, we cannot send such large files, but with this service, we send large files, and even without downloading special software with any web browser, anyone can mark up previews. And if we have a Professional plan, we can share files as tailor-made presentations with the help of Dropbox Showcase.
- Keep Our Files Safe – The best advantage is that we can keep all our files safely, and when required, we can take them.
- Community – The community of it is one of the best things, which creates your shared file, and when the system available file we edited, all who have the credentials will receive an instant notification when the updates have been made and can see it. In this kind of community, communication, discussion changes, and teams must edit a file as teamwork can all perform at a minimal cost.
- Automatically Backs up Camera Photos – The automatically backs up camera photos make it a unique, which automatically backs up camera photos from our mobile or computer device. You need to sign in, and the system automatically stores all camera photos and albums chronologically, allowing you to back them up whenever needed; we can take the backup. If we delete files from the system by mistake, we can recover them and take 30 days to undo history. This is another way of data security precautions.
How Much does it Cost?
The cost for a free trial Plus is $11.12 per month, or we can get a yearly subscription for $99.99, and for the professional is $27.81 per month.
Conclusion
- We built a cloud-based productivity tool for individuals and teams that enables us to save and store documents, files, or pictures across the cloud, and we can share the same with others as needed.
- Features of this are any device accessible, updates automatically, organization and backup automatically, file storage, syncing efficiently, file sharing, sharing a large file, offline access, manually set bandwidths, backup or file recovery online, Simple link-sharing via chat, email, text message, etc., Preview and download and security, etc.
- The advantages of this are working without limits, Freeing up desktop space, Freeing up phone space, viewing any file without installing extra software, presenting large files to keep our files safe, and automatically backing up camera photos.
- To share a file, first, we need to do login to a Dropbox account and upload a file into the folder, and then we can generate a URL from it on the Dropbox website and share the URL with others to whom we want to share the files.
- The cost for a free trial Plus is $11.12 per month, or we can get a yearly subscription for $99.99, and for the professional is $27.81 per month.
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