How to best use Dropbox?

[P3NGU1N]

Dropbox is spectacular, but another tool you might want to look into is Evernote. It's also free, but it has editing and search tools built into it so you don't necessarily need to go over to word/excel/whatever. You can share notebooks with other team members, and if you use the mobile version you can record audio notes directly with it or take snapshots right into it. If you really got into it, they sell scanners for about $100 that will scan directly into evernote and do on-the-fly ocr - might be a licensing nightmare to do that with scripts, but with all your other paperwork it might be amazing.

On that note, of Evernote, you might also want to think of using Google Docs.  We have a GMail account for our school's Theatre Dept. and we use the Docs portion quite a lot and from the issues listed about Dropbox, I would say Google Docs works a lot better.
Just something to consider.

[Skulking]

Dropbox is spectacular, but another tool you might want to look into is Evernote. It's also free, but it has editing and search tools built into it so you don't necessarily need to go over to word/excel/whatever. You can share notebooks with other team members, and if you use the mobile version you can record audio notes directly with it or take snapshots right into it. If you really got into it, they sell scanners for about $100 that will scan directly into evernote and do on-the-fly ocr - might be a licensing nightmare to do that with scripts, but with all your other paperwork it might be amazing.

On that note, of Evernote, you might also want to think of using Google Docs.  We have a GMail account for our school's Theatre Dept. and we use the Docs portion quite a lot and from the issues listed about Dropbox, I would say Google Docs works a lot better.
Just something to consider.

I use Google Docs for a lot of things with my shows and it works very well for me, but Google Docs just updated to Google Drive which is supposed to compete with dropbox and icloud etc.  Right now I am in the middle of rehearsals for a show, and I am being paranoid about not accidentally updating and breaking links.  Has anyone gone through the update process yet?  Do you know how links are being handled?  Are there any other things to watch out for with the update?  Sorry for kind of taking this off topic but I think this is enough in the vein of the thread to not need a new thread. 

[P3NGU1N]

Dropbox is spectacular, but another tool you might want to look into is Evernote. It's also free, but it has editing and search tools built into it so you don't necessarily need to go over to word/excel/whatever. You can share notebooks with other team members, and if you use the mobile version you can record audio notes directly with it or take snapshots right into it. If you really got into it, they sell scanners for about $100 that will scan directly into evernote and do on-the-fly ocr - might be a licensing nightmare to do that with scripts, but with all your other paperwork it might be amazing.

On that note, of Evernote, you might also want to think of using Google Docs.  We have a GMail account for our school's Theatre Dept. and we use the Docs portion quite a lot and from the issues listed about Dropbox, I would say Google Docs works a lot better.
Just something to consider.

I use Google Docs for a lot of things with my shows and it works very well for me, but Google Docs just updated to Google Drive which is supposed to compete with dropbox and icloud etc.  Right now I am in the middle of rehearsals for a show, and I am being paranoid about not accidentally updating and breaking links.  Has anyone gone through the update process yet?  Do you know how links are being handled?  Are there any other things to watch out for with the update?  Sorry for kind of taking this off topic but I think this is enough in the vein of the thread to not need a new thread.

I'ms assuming when you say links you mean links to the individual files or 'collections'? As far as I'm seeing all of my files are still connected to their old links.

[Skulking]

I'ms assuming when you say links you mean links to the individual files or 'collections'? As far as I'm seeing all of my files are still connected to their old links.

I mean the links you get when you publish to the web. 

[CMProsser]

I agree with all of the above, but I'd like to add two other features which work really well. One thing I love about Dropbox is that you can set up RSS feeds for each folder so that you get emailed updates of who has changed what and when. This is particularly handy for me as I have Dropbox folders with a few different companies simultaneously so I can easily see if it's a change I need to pay attention to.  It's more detailed than the little pop-ups you can set up to appear at the bottom of your screen each time somebody makes a change to the folder you're sharing with them.

The other thing which I don't think has been mentioned is that you can have Dropbox on your phone or tablet.  So if you get one of those calls or emails while you're away from your computer and you need get hold of that information pronto, you can.

And finally, Dropbox (or any of the other file-sharing systems) is a life-saver for touring shows.  It makes it so much easier for the staff on the road to get the info they need from back home and vice versa without having to worry about a thousand different versions of each document getting emailed back and forth.

[cbandes]

One other little-known and super-useful aspect of dropbox is that it keeps a history and previous versions of your files. So if your assistant flakes out and deletes half of your notes, Dropbox has a previous version saved that is still in its pre-flakeout state. (This has completely saved me on two or three occasions. (Sadly in all of these cases, the flaker-outer was me :/ ))

It also keeps track of conflicts, so if someone else edits the file you're working on, both copies continue to exist. It's certainly not ideal for collaboration, but it is better than you might think

[juliec]

Actually, Google Docs does a lot of the things Dropbox does (keeps a history, reversion, sends email notifications, mobile access) - I don't know if they have RSS alerts though.  I haven't found that any of my links have broken with the GDrive transition.  I prefer it for regular team collaboration and content creation, whereas Dropbox is solid for single-authorship file-sharing.

[KMC]

Actually, Google Docs does a lot of the things Dropbox does (keeps a history, reversion, sends email notifications, mobile access) - I don't know if they have RSS alerts though.  I haven't found that any of my links have broken with the GDrive transition.  I prefer it for regular team collaboration and content creation, whereas Dropbox is solid for single-authorship file-sharing.

Based on my experience using the two I'd say Google Docs does a much better job of the things you mention - revisions, history, etc... as Google docs is a purpose-built cloud-based collaborative suite of applications.  Dropbox is primarily geared towards storage and client-side editing.

The one thing to be careful about with Google is their data mining.  There is a reason everything google offers is free - they mine all of your data to better refine their advertising services, which is their primary source of revenue.  For things like props tracking, rehearsal schedules, etc... - big whoop as these are not likely to have sensitive information, but could be concerning if you're getting into things like contact sheets and emergency contact forms. 

[Maribeth]

Another great use for Dropbox is an online dramaturgical "packet", or a folder for actor info. One recent show that I worked on used a dropbox folder for this- files and articles were put in a dropbox folder for the actors to access so that paper copies weren't needed. We also used it to get sound files to actors (for dialect work, etc)- saves a lot of CD burning and is easier than constantly emailing MP3s.