2. • Drew Houston the founder of Dropbox conceived the Dropbox concept
after repeatedly forgetting his USB flash drive while he was a student
at MIT.
• In a 2009 "Meet the Team" post on the Dropbox blog, he wrote that
existing services at the time "suffered problems with Internet latency, large
files, bugs, or just made me think too much.“
• In June 2007, Houston founded Dropbox, Inc. and shortly keep seed
funding from Y Combinator.
HISTORY OF DROPBOX
3. • In 2008, Dropbox was officially launched at TechCrunch Disrupt, an
annual technology conference.
• The official domain name of Dropbox was "getdropbox.com" until
October 2009, when it developed its current domain to "dropbox.com".
• In October 2011, there was an interview about TechCrunch's "Founder
Stories“, and Houston explained that a demo video was released during
Dropbox's early days, with one viewer being Arash Ferdowsi.
• Ferdowsi was "so impressed" that they formed a partnership. In regards to
competition, Houston stated that "It is easy for me to explain the idea, it is
actually really hard to do it."
5. • Share Screenshots Quickly
• Add Comments to Files
• View Any File Without Installing Extra Software
• Edit Microsoft Office Files Online for Free
• Use Selective Sync to Save Space
• Favorite Files to View Them on Mobile
• Go Back in time With Previous Versions
• Keep Your Files Safe
• Find Everything You’re Sharing
FEATURES OF DROPBOX
6. • Share Screenshots Quickly
All you need to do is enable Dropbox’s screenshot-sharing feature on your
Mac or PC. Open your Dropbox app preferences (click the Dropbox icon in
your menu bar, click the gear icon, then select Preferences), select the Import
tab, and check the Save screenshots as normal, and Dropbox will save them to
/dropbox/ screenshots and copy a share link to your clipboard automatically.
You can paste the link into your chat app, email, or wherever else you want to
share it.
HOW TO USE THE FEATURES OF
DROPBOX
7. • Add comments to Files
To add comments to any file, just right-click on the file in your Dropbox
folder and select Comment on this file. Alternately, just open any file in
Dropbox.com. Either way, you'll see a preview of the file online, with a
sidebar on the right to add comments. Type out your comments, and add your
colleagues' names with an @ symbol to mention them in a comment. They'll
get a notification in Dropbox or their email inbox, and you'll see the
comments appear in real-time as they're added.
8. • View Any File Without Installing Extra Software
Speaking of previews, Dropbox's file preview tool is actually one of its
more handy features. If you want feedback on an Adobe Illustrator file,
and the rest of your team doesn't have Illustrator installed, no problem:
Dropbox can preview dozens of file types online, so the only software
you need is a browser. You can read full PDF documents, flip through
PowerPoint presentation slides, preview Adobe Photoshop and
Illustrator designs, and watch full-length videos right from
Dropbox.com. There's a zoom tool to dig in deeper—especially handy
for larger design files—and even a print button to make a hard copy.
9. • Edit Microsoft Office Files Online For Free
Just select any Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file in Dropbox, then on the Open
button you can choose to open the file on your computer or in Office Online.
Alternately, just go to Office.com, select the Microsoft Office app you want to
use, and browse your Dropbox files for Office documents to edit.
10. • Use Selective Sync to Save Space
Just open your Dropbox preferences, select the Account tab, then click
the Change Settings… button beside the Selective Sync entry. There, you can
select the folders and files you want to sync to your computer. Everything else
will stay online, where you can still view and comment on it.
11. • Favorite Files to View Them on Mobile
Dropbox includes a favorites feature in its mobile apps. Just find the files you
need to view offline, swipe to the right, then tap the star icon. Dropbox will
download the files to your device, and you can view them anywhere—even
offline—from the Favorites menu in your Dropbox app.
12. • Go Back in Time With Previous Versions
Dropbox has your back with its Previous Version feature. Whenever you
realize you've messed up a file, just right-click on the file and select View
Previous Versions. Or, if you deleted a file and want to bring it back, find its
parent folder in Dropbox.com and click the View Deleted Files button in the
top.
13. • Keep Your Files Safe
Dropbox still has your back with several features to keep your data safe. First,
with any Dropbox account, you can add a password to your Dropbox mobile
app. That way, if you do lose your phone, someone will need to hack your
phone password and your Dropbox pin number before they can get to your
files.
14. • Find Everything You’re Sharing
The Sharing screen will show you all of your shared folders, along with the
time they were last modified. Select the Options link to see who can access the
folders, and remove or add contributors as you like. Then, the Links screen
will show you every file or folder you've shared individually with a link. You
can then see when you shared it, or delete the sharing link and take that
embarrassing photo offline.
