I do this all the time, simply as a side effect of having my desktop machine and my laptop both set up with Dropbox. Machines “A” and “B” need not be in the same place.ĭropbox works across the internet, so if machine A and machine B are in two different places (but connected to the internet), then Dropbox continues to keep the folder contents in sync. Offsite storage without a second thought. Each time they’re updated on disk, they’re uploaded to the web.

Every time I save, or exit the editor, the files are updated on my hard disk. I store the manuscript I’m working on in my Dropbox folder. I do this for the books I write as I’m writing them. One approach is to make your Dropbox folder your “working” folder. Dropbox for backupĭropbox also makes the files you place in that folder accessible via your account on the Dropbox web site. It’s a great way to back up important documents off-site. Now, based on that simple concept, we start adding features for different scenarios. That alone is a very powerful concept if you have more than one machine. Imagine simply keeping your documents automatically copied between several machines.

Create a folder on A and the folder appears on B. “Shortly” depends on the speed of your internet connection and the size of the file, but that’s the fundamental operation: update a file on machine A, and Dropbox updates it on machine B. On each, I point the Dropbox software at a folder to keep synchronized between the two machines.įiles I place in my Dropbox folder on machine A shortly appear in machine B’s Dropbox folder. Here’s the basic idea behind Dropbox: I create an account on Dropbox, and install the Dropbox software on two machines: A and B. One of the common questions I get is “how do I share with my without using email, and without having them show up on the public internet?” I’ve been using Dropbox for a quite some time now, and was recently reminded of a compelling reason to finally recommend it to you.

Share files via dropbox