The Sheer Joy that is Dropbox

Dropbox should pay me for how much free advertising I give them. Or at least give me their great services for free. Which they do!

Dropbox is a web-based service that sets up a folder on your desktop (or wherever you choose to keep it) and automatically syncs whatever you put in it to the internet, and/or to folders on other computers that you set up. Essentially, it means that if you have two or more computers (say, home and work), you can have an identical folder on each computer.

Seriously?

No more carrying around a thumb drive? Exactly!

No more emailing files to myself and then editing them and forgeting which one is the latest version? Precisely!

Plus, they have a nifty online version of your folder (password protected, of course) so that if you can't download the program on your computer (like I can't at work), you can still see all your Dropbox files on the go.



And if you think that's it, oh no! There's more!

You can share files with other people on Dropbox. For example, my husband and I have shared folders for our budget stuff, insurance documents, and pet docs. My parents and I had a shared folder when we were planning our wedding, to keep track of our wedding budget, guest list, vendor contracts, and to-do lists. Our wedding DJ had a shared folder with us where he would drop in music for us to give him feedback on, which was much faster and more convenient than having him email us songs every day.

You get a bunch of space for free when you sign up, and if that's not enough, you can pay to get more space. Personally, I haven't run out of space yet, and use my account pretty liberally. As for safety goes, it is password protected and seems perfectly safe to me, but I don't have truly sensitive information uploaded, such as other account passwords or banking data.

There are lots of other uses for Dropbox, I'm sure, and I know there are plenty of features I don't use. Try it out and see if you don't squeal with glee at how much easier Dropbox makes your life!