Notes, links and conversation

I am one of those raving Dropbox¹ users. File backup- and synchronisation across computers and users becomes a no-brainer, and with it, sharing and collaboration techniques that rely on it.  Here are 3 tricks that I use on Dropbox:

Your private or public file-based wiki with Tiddlywiki

A TiddlyWiki is a self-contained wiki in just one html file. When opened, javascript takes care of pages, versioning, navigation…  Since it is just a file, you can have a running wiki editable by any user you share the containing dropbox (sub)folder with.  If you put it in your Public Dropbox folder, it’s published on the web.

Setup your Shortcut keys just once for all Windows machines you work on

AutoHotkey is a Windows utility that lets you define shortcut key combinations (“hotstrings”) in a .ahk (text) file.  Put it in your Dropbox folder, create a link to the .ahk file in your Startup folder, and voilà: you never have to type that full signature or “Best Regards, X” again…

Publish private screencasts/screenshots

I use Jing on Windows to record my screen or take screenshots and annotate them.  Instead of mailing the movies or screenshots, save them in your Public Dropbox folder, and pass on the link. No need for ftp, email or a video/photo sharing that requires login.

 

Extra: Dropbox makes your iPhone a pdf e-reader

Getting pdf’s on the iPhone to read is a bit of a hassle (although it seems to have improved on iOS4 with Stanza).  The Dropbox iPhone app has its own pdf reader – so just keep that collection of your ebooks and whitepapers in a “to-read” Dropbox folder and read them in your spare moments on the iPhone (Dropbox, BTW, is also the quickest way I know to get a picture from your phone on a regular computer).

1. Yes, the link contains a referral ID [↩]

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This entry was posted in Windows on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 23:08 and tagged as: Dropbox, lifehacks, onlinestorage, productivity, publishing, sharing, synchronisation, syncing, windows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.