Your creative Dropbox applications

by Francis
(May 31, 2013)

All you need to create content is your mobile phone and a virtual assistant

I have found an android app which makes it even more easy to record blog posts on the run. It is called SkyRecorder.

Why Is This App So Cool?

The cool thing about this app is I need only 2 taps to:

1. Create a recording,
2. Upload it to my Dropbox,
3. Have it transcribed,
4. Proofread,
5. Formatted,
6. Illustrated,
7. And uploaded to my blog

Each Step in Detail:

Step 1 – I open my app.

Step 2 – I tap on Start Recording.

Step 3 – I record my blog post.

This can be anywhere. It can be in my car, I don’t need my hands. It can be anywhere when an idea strikes me.

Step 4 – Tap a second time to stop the recording. That’s all!

Step 5 – The app synchronizes with my Dropbox in case wireless LAN is available. That’s important because it doesn’t use my data connection too much only when I’m having wireless available. Then the app synchronizes with my Dropbox right away.

Step 6 – My Dropbox folder where the recording is synchronized to, is being shared with my virtual assistant.

Step 7 – My virtual assistant sends the recording to my transcriptionist.

Step 8 – My transcriptionist creates a transcript from the blog post.

Step 9 – My virtual assistant proofreads, illustrates, integrates the post and creates it on my website.

Step 10 – The work is done.

Time Savings of At Least 90%

I think it’s a conservative estimate to say that I save 90% of my time when I’m creating blog posts this way.

Sure, the blog posts are not as crafty as an article where I’ve sit an hour above and re-wrote and re-edited it without end. But it is a valuable written content.

Record Your Ideas While They Are Fresh

How often have you had an epiphany – a moment of absolute genius?

A great thought that crossed your mind. Did you have a pencil and paper ready to jot that thought down?

If yes, did you do it every time?

How many good ideas have been lost forever because you didn’t have a tool handy to push that great idea out into the world?

Well, for me, I feel I have found the solution.

The combination of great gadgets, the never endingly useful tool, Dropbox, and a clever use of a team of virtual assistants makes great productivity and works that content creation possible for me.

What do you say? Is this a method you would like to use?

Please leave a comment in the section below.

by Francis
(November 02, 2012)

The Dropbox is not the best tool for multiple, simultaneous cooperation on the same file

The Dropbox is a must have tool; hands down, no discussion.

However, in some cases, it can be more of a bother than a help. That is when you have a group of people collaborate on the same documents, files and folders; only to create a big, huge mess.

I see that from time to time when I work at the same files as my virtual assistant in a Dropbox and then a duplicate file is saved.

I can only imagine the horrors of what would happen if 10 people, at the same time, would edit this document. But to be honest, the Dropbox is not created to work simultaneously with big groups of people.

There is a much better free tool if you need to only do that.

Just use Google Documents or Google Drive, as it is now called.

It is free.

The only thing you need is a Google account and you can actually work in real time at the same document. It works extremely well.

If you are very ‘techy’, then you might remember another product from Google called Google Wave. As of now it has been discontinued but it was the first major tool that really was used for real time cooperation of multiple people within the same document.

Google Docs has this functionality and it works wonders. After you are done with your document, it is a question of two clicks of saving the finalized document again into the Dropbox.

This is what I would suggest if you regularly have teams of people working on a document in the Dropbox;

1. Export the file into Google Document.
2. Work like crazy with hundred people at the same time on the same document. Well, I never said a hundred. Please don’t get angry at me if it doesn’t work with a hundred. But get three people working at the same time in Google Documents and it will be fine.
3. After you’re finished and everyone has agreed with the changes, one person takes the file and saves it back into the Dropbox which will then sync the data with everyone else.

This is the best solution I can think of.

If you have had this problem and know more about this challenge, feel free to chip in in the comments.

Comments for Look Out When Using the Dropbox with a Big Number of Collaborators

by Kittycat

Dropbox: very useful to drop stuff in it and share with your friends

I started using Dropbox a few years ago. Back then I was mainly using it to access different kind of data via other computers.

But nowadays more and more people have a Dropbox-account and this made it possible to do a whole lot more useful things with it! 😀

Now I do scientific work there, that had to be accomplished in collaboration with other people.

Our group took turns in writing and we didn’t have to send the newest version every time via email, because everybody had permanent access to it, yay!

Also, I started to exchange photos with Dropbox.
But that was when I began to wonder: how do they handle data privacy… I did some research on the internet and found some slightly concerning reports…

Well, I don’t really mind, if the people working for Dropbox or some hackers see my data. It’s of no interest to them and I have nothing to hide.

But IF someone is using Dropbox and DOES mind, it might be useful to encrypt the data. Then it will be safe enough!

Anyway… I looove this handy box! thx for inventing. ;D

Comments for A handy box to do loads of stuff!

by Francis
(September 19, 2012)

When I was writing my PHD thesis I was working on two computers, my office computer and my laptop at home. Often I needed to review some of work at home or bring it to the workplace.

To be sure that all the information was up to date all the time as well as to make sure that all my work was backed up into the internet, the Dropbox was of immense value to me.

Not only did I not need to carry my external hard drive with me all the time, it also allowed to relax because I knew that if I would lose some changes, I could always rebuild the original content from the Dropbox back-up.

That’s because the Dropbox automatically saves changes of your files, even older variations of your files are also backed up for 30 days I believe.

The only challenge I had with using the free Dropbox account was that its free capacity was about 2 to 4 gigabytes. I cleverly circumvented this problem by expanding my Dropbox to 18 GB using a very simple outsourcing trick.

Click on this link to learn about how I did it.

So all in all, the Dropbox is not only useful for my communication and common projects with my virtual assistants but also for good old office work.

Comments for The Dropbox is Tremendously Useful When Working at Two Workplaces