As more of our work and collaboration has moved online, most of us have a Dropbox account (or three) kicking around. I use my UP Office 365 OneDrive account to store and access most of my work, but there are also specific times or use cases where Dropbox comes in really handy! My favorite is the File Request feature.
If you ever have a need to collect a file from somone else and are having difficulties (mybe the file is too big too email, or they don’t know how to share the file themselves) you can take the initiative and create a file request in Dropbox. When you email them the request link, they simply click on it and add thier file as an upload. They don’t need to change any settings or sign-in, they don’t even need a Dropbox account! Once they have uploaded you will find their file in your Dropbox account in the File Requests folder.
For me, this has been very useful to collect guest audio when recording podcasts with outside experts at distance for the UP Techtalk podcast – guests could record their own (high quality audio) audio while we chatted over Skype (low quaility audio) and submit to me via a Dropbox request. What might you use it for?
Dropbox: What’s a File Request and How Do I Create One?
Did You Know?
If you have intensive data storage or frequent professonal sharing needs outside of the University, you can purchase access to UP’s Dropbox Enterprise account. This comes with unlimited storage in Dropbox at a significant discount. Inquire with the Help Desk if you would like a quote! (Any account, including free accounts, may use the File Request feature).