Higher Ed Utah

Have you ever been on your way to school only to realize that you left your homework at home? Maybe you forgot to add that homework assignment to your USB jump drive or simply copy it from your desktop to your laptop computer so you ended up not having your homework with you when you arrived at school? Well, with online file syncing applications such as Dropbox, accidentally leaving your homework at home could become a thing of the past.

By installing a file syncing program such as Dropbox on both your desktop and laptop, you’ll be able to access and update files from either computer by saving the file to the “My Dropbox” folder that Dropbox adds (when installed) to each computers’ “My Documents” or “Documents” folders. You can also have files from particular folders sync with Dropbox automatically to ensure that the latest versions of your documents are always available to you from anywhere without any extra effort on your part after you perform the initial setup. You can also access your documents from any computer with an Internet connection from the Dropbox website if you only have access to a public computer at the school library or computer lab.

Even though online file syncing software could very well eliminate any need for you to carry around a USB jump drive, you can install Dropbox on your portable drive if you prefer to access your documents that way. The best part about it is that Dropbox is FREE for up to 2GB of storage space. If you want any additional space, it’s gonna cost ya.

Firefox and Chrome also have Dropbox browser extensions that make it easy for you to manage and access your files from within your web browser and you can even access your files from your cellphone through a mobile app or by accessing them through Dropbox’s mobile-friendly site: http://www.dropbox.com/m/.

In addition, because Dropbox is based online you can use it as an online backup file system and for document collaboration on group projects. Dropbox even allows you to restore previous versions of files with 30 days of undo history available for free or unlimited restoration capability if you decide to pay for the additional functionality. You can even work on documents offline and the files will sync automatically once the Internet connection has been restored. Dropbox is currently compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux systems.

Dropbox is just one of the terrific file syncing tools  out there and signing up is easy. However, there are other great applications that provide similar functionality, such as: box.net and mesh.com that you should check out as well to decide which file syncing tool best fits your needs.

Are you aware of other useful file syncing programs or apps? Please share them in the comments.