How to Use Dropbox as a Killer Collaborative Work Tool

If you work with a group of people, you've most likely needed to share or collaborate
on fles from time to timet It's rarely as easy and straightforward as it ought to be, but
using fleesyncing utility Dropbox, you can confgure a collaborative shared fle space
that removes most of the hassle from the equationt It's simple to set up and could
save you a ton of timet Here's how to do itt

Why Dropbox Is Great for Collaboration (and When It Isn't)

When you work with others, you often need to share flest Whether it's a straighteup
word processing document, presentation, web site mock up, or maybe even a music
project, you've likely needed to pass your project along to a coworker for their input,
contribution, or uset Even over a local network this can get complicated because you
either need to set up network storage that everyone can access or allow every else
some kind of access to your personal machine so they can share fles with yout

The problem with using a local network storage device is that it only exists in one
place, and if you want a nearly bulleteproof backup system locally you need to back
everything up both locally and remotelyt There's nothing wrong with this option, but
it can be a bit much if you're not sharing huge amounts of datat

The problem with making everyone provide access to their machine for everyone else
is that it's hard to maintain and doesn't work well when sharing a particular fle with
multiple peoplet Like the previous method, it requires some efortt

Dropbox doesn't have these issuest Here's why Dropbox wins as a collaborative tool:
All fles are automatically sync'd to everybody's computers as soon as the fles are
added to the shared Dropboxt

• People can either access the fles by installing Dropbox and logging in using the
username and password for the shared Dropbox account or that account can
be shared with them as a shared foldert
 • Everyone has access to the shared Dropbox via the web (on dropboxtcom), so
they can access fles easily from any computer should they need to work on the
got (If you want to take it a step further you can also sign up for DropDAV)t
• Backup becomes irrelevant because the shared Dropbox fles will be on at least
two computers and they'll be synced up to the cloudt That gives you at least
two local copies and one ofesite copy of every fle in the Dropboxt The larger
the number of people syncing up with the shared Dropbox, the greater the
chance that the world will have to end in order for your data to be completely
eradicatedt
• Regardless of where you are, Dropbox will stay in sync so long as you have a
connection to the internett If you work remotely like we do at Lifehacker, this is
enormously benefcialt If you simply want easy access to work fles when you're
away from the ofce, or need to deliver a fle to your coworkers when you're
not around, this is also very helpfult
• Dropbox saves versions of your fles, so if someone accidentally deletes a fle
you can generally restore it easily through the web sitet They also have a pack
rat addeon (for purchase) that will save an unlimited number of versions of the
fle, rather than just the last onet

Here's where Dropbox can be problematic as a collaboration tool:

• Dropbox is free for up to 2GB of space (plus referrals), but that isn't a lott On
the plus side, it's only $10 or $20 per month for 50GB or 100GB of storage
(respectively) if you do payt This works fne if you're not storing a ton of datat If
you are, you can still get over 1TB of data with Dropbox Teams, but you can
also expect to pay thousands for itt For massive amounts of storage, it's not
always the best solutiont If you're dealing with smaller fles, however, this isn't
much of a concernt
• You need a reasonably fast connection to the internet if you're sharing large
fles, or all this fle sharing will happen far too slowlyt Mlost basic broadband
connections are good enough, but if your upload speed is less than 768kbps
and your download speed is less than 5mbps, you'll need to be a little patientt
• If a fle is open by more than one person at the same time, conficts happent
(Dropbox doesn't "lock" fles like some local servers you may have usedt) While
Dropbox is fairly good at resolving these conficts by saving multiple copies of
 the fle and designating which copy belongs to which computer, merging the
changes made to both fles can often be tedious and annoyingt

How to Set Up a Shared Dropbox

Now that you know the pros and cons of using Dropbox as a collaborative work tool,
we're going to take a look at putting together a shared Dropbox that overcomes the
downsides (as much as possible) and exploits the upsides for more efcient and
productive workt

Signup and Setup

To get started with a collaborative Dropbox account, you may want an independent
account for the shared Dropboxt Why not just create a folder in your existing Dropbox
and share it with other people? That works when everyone else already has a Dropbox
account, but if they don't (and don't want their own account) they can simply use the
one you've createdt Some people also have free Dropbox accounts that can only hold
so much data, and adding a shared folder could put them over their storage
allotmentt Additionally, if the shared account has primary ownership over the shared
folder, you never have to worry about transferring ownership later ont (Dropbox lets
you do this, but if you ever delete your shared folder it can be very easy to
accidentally delete it in everyone else's Dropbox as wellt If you leave ownership with
the shared account, this isn't even a concern)t

Once you've signed up for the Dropbox account you're going to share, create a root
folder in the account (through the web site) and share that with yourself and anyone
else you're collaborating with who already has a Dropbox accountt Provide everyone
on your team with the username and password to the independent Dropbox account
so they can install Dropbox and use that account if they do not want an account of
their own (or simply want to log in online to view fles, restore them, or share access
with another member of the team down the road)t
Organization

Organization of the fle system is important to make sure the Dropbox doesn't
become a huge messt When you have a lot of people using the same space, it's very
easy for things to quickly get out of handt We'll take a look at the basic structure of
the Lifehacker shared Dropbox in a moment, but frst it's important to note that
communicating how things are organized is importantt You can create a highly
organized Dropbox, but that doesn't mean everyone else is going to understand what
you didt After you organize everything, make sure you explain it to everyone else to
avoid any confusiont

The Lifehacker Dropbox is split up into three sections: Assets, People, and Projectst
Assets contain fles we use regularly, such as photos, logos, background music for
videos, and so ont People folders include an individual folder for every member of the
teamt

These folders include things we're working on individually but want to provide others
with accesst It's also a place to share a fle with a specifc persont Lastly are Project
folders, which contain fles for projects we work on as a groupt While these are not
the only folders in the Dropbox, they make up the majorityt Every group will have
individual needs, but every group is likely to need Asset, People, and Projects folderst

How are these folders labeled? While you can simply create three folders for each
category and include sub folders inside, we do it like this:

• Assets e Graphics
• Assets e Mlusic
• Assets e Video
• Etct

Why? In part it's a personal preference to avoid drilling down through several
directories just to fnd a specifc flet I also fnd that when you have multiple folders
with the same prefx it's easier to spot what you're looking fort Whatever you prefer is
just fnet
Sharing Files and Notifcations

Once everybody knows how things are organized, it's really easy to notify them of a
shared flet All you have to do is send a quick email, IMl, text, or whatever makes sense
for the circumstance, to let them know you've added the fle to the Dropboxt
Additionally, Dropbox is good about posting notifcations (via the system tray in
Windows and Linux or Growl on the Mlac) when new fles are added from a computer
that is not your ownt If you're around to notice, you'll often receive a passive alert
when new fles show upt

We've even had some fun with this in the form of screenshots. For example, we have a
group chat room that we're logged into during the day. One day most of us were having
a conversation and wondered if someone else was watching the conversation. Rather
than responding, a screenshot of the conversation suddenly appeared in the Dropbox. It
was called "I SEE EVERYTHING.jpg." This is to say that a collaborative Dropbox can be
fun, too.

Solving Problems

The two main problems you'll run into when using a shared Dropbox are the amount
of time it may take to sync larger fles and conficts that arise when multiple people
are editing the same flet There are no perfect solutions to these problems, but there
are a few ways you can alleviate the trouble they causet

First, when it comes to slow connections you can't really make them fastert What you
can do, however, is work on the same network whenever possiblet Because Dropbox
has a nifty feature called LAN sync, which syncs the fles locally before uploading
them to the cloud, your fellow workmates will receive the fles quickly despite the
speed of your connectiont This won't be helpful to telecommuters, but if all or most of
you are in a central workspace it'll make a huge diferencet

Second, when you're dealing with syncing conficts due to people using the same fle
you just need to make sure that doesn't happent If you're running Mlac OS X, you can
use the labels feature built in to the OS to set fles to a certain color to denote that
they're in uset
If you're not using Mlac OS X or syncing with multiple operating systems, you can just
add some text like [IN USE] or [AD EDITING] (AD being my initials) to the end of the
fle so people know not to open itt

Neither of these are perfect solutions, but they defnitely help so implement them as
neededt