Posts tagged Free Software
Free Online Backup and Sync: Dropbox
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Do you need a quick way to backup your writing files? Do you use more than one computer in your writing? Do you have a backup plan that you often forget to use? If you said “yes” to any of these questions, please take a look at Dropbox. It’s free, downloadable, and easy to use.
A Blog4Writers subscriber, Andrea Graham, recommended that I try Dropbox, and am I glad she did! I got a netbook for Christmas to help me manage writing on the run. At first, when working on the netbook, I would email a copy of the file in progress to one of my free webmail addresses. When I was ready to work on the file on the home computer, I’d log into the webmail and download the file. It worked, but it was slow and sometimes confusing, especially if I had multiple versions of the file.
When Andrea suggested Dropbox, I went to the site and followed directions:
- Take the video tour at Dropbox.com.
- Download the software.
- Set up a username and password for Dropbox.com.
- Download the software to your other computers.
- Get two gigabytes of storage free.
Dropbox put an icon in my system tray and on my desktop. I can click open the Dropbox folder and drag files to it from anywhere on the computer. Once the file is in the desktop folder, Dropbox automatically syncs with the online account. If I take the netbook on the road for a day, I just open the Dropbox folder, and the file I put in Dropbox on my home computer is right there for me to work on. When I save it there, it will sync to my home computer, and the file will be updated and ready for me to work on again. Warning: If you delete a file from the Dropbox folder, it is gone. To save a file on your computer, just drag it out of Dropbox onto the desktop.
Even if you only work on one computer, the Dropbox folder is a good work-in-progress folder. And, the best feature is that you’re backing up your file online every time you save it to the Dropbox folder.
I’ll probably never need more than the two gigs of free space, but if I need more, I can upgrade to a paid plan. Check out pricing for paid plans here. I’ve used it for a couple of months now, and it’s just what I needed. I encourage you to give it a try.
Readers, if you use another service like Dropbox, comment on this post and give us the URL. If you have extensive experience with such services, contact me about writing a guest post on Blog4Writers. Email: akinemily@gmail.com.
Email subscribers: I haven’t figured out what’s going on with Feedburner subscription service, but sometimes the links in subscriber emails do not work. If your links don’t work, please go directly to this post on Blog4Writers. Copy and paste this URL: http://emilyakin.com/free-online-backup-and-sync-dropbox/
Consumer Reviews of Dropbox:
FREE Software Solution for Writers
0Writers, especially beginning writers, often don’t have money to spend on 
software and equipment for their writing projects. Experienced writers may get tired of spending money of software upgrades to keep in step with the publishing industry. Microsoft Word has become the standard for the publishing industry, and keeping up with the upgrades is a challenge.
The solution? Open Office 3.1.0.
It’s “open source,” which means it’s FREE. It’s a software suite that functions much like MS Office. Included are a word processor (files interchange with Word), spreadsheet (like Excel), presentation software (similar to Powerpoint), database (Access), and a draw program.
Video on new features: http://www.openoffice.org/dev_docs/features/3.1/index.html
Although I have MS Office 2007, I wanted to test-drive Open Office, so I downloaded the suite. Warning: if you decide to download it, give yourself plenty of time. It took my system between 45 minutes and an hour to download everything. I can’t say that I’ve done a complete evaluation, but I wrote this post in OO Writer, and, so far, it seems to work like Word. You’ll need to get used to the toolbars and menus, but that’s a small price to pay for free software, in my opinion. I tested some of my old Excel files on the spreadsheet program, and I had no trouble opening or saving the files after editing them. I don’t use presentation, database, or draw programs much, so I can’t evaluate them. However, you don’t have to take my word for it. Here’s a review from the Computer World blog.
http://blogs.computerworld.com/review_of_final_openoffice_3_why_buy_microsoft_office
I asked some of my writer friends for input on Open Office, and I got this from Tracy Crump.
“I began using Open Office when I joined my first online critique group. In my experience, the comments/track changes features, essential for online critiquing, work as well as MS Word although there are some differences. Open Office uses different terms, which may take some getting used to for those accustomed to Word. The comments (or “notes” as they’re called by Open Office) appear as tiny yellow boxes you mouse over to see instead of comment balloons in the margins. I actually like the box method better—the comments only appear as you need them, and it’s easier to tell which part of the sentence it applies to.
The only problem I’ve had with critiquing is that an occasional critiquer’s comments won’t show up as boxes. I get around that by printing out the comments with the “print-options-notes only” feature and compare them by line number. We’ve never determined why some critiquers’ comments don’t show up, but others who use Word have also complained of sporadic problems, especially when using laptops.”
If you’ve been thinking about upgrading your software suite, don’t spend any money until you have tried Open Office. You can download it (free) here:
http://download.cnet.com/OpenOffice-org/3000-18483_4-10263109.html
PS—-For writing and marketing tips and story call-outs, sign up for Tracy Crump’s FREE e-newsletter, The Write Life, at TracyCrump.com.
