Dropbox for Education - Tips and Tricks!

If you are an ASU faculty member, staff, or student worker, and have not yet joined ASU’s Dropbox for Education, please request your account today at http://links.asu.edu/dropbox.

Once you have access to your account, or even if you have used ASU's Dropbox for Education for some time, follow these helpful tips to maximize the functionality of your Dropbox:

  • Use SmartSync in the Dropbox desktop application (download instructions here) to easily manage whether your files are synced locally to your computer, or cloud-only in Dropbox.
  • File Requests - Have you ever needed to quickly gather files from multiple people, internally or externally? If so, use File requests, which allow you to receive files, big or small, from anyone right into your Dropbox.
  • Shared links - Ever get frustrated trying to use e-mail to send large attachments?  File to big?  Dropbox shared links solves those frustrations. With Dropbox’s shared links, you no longer need to add attachments to your e-mails, IMs, texts, etc.  When you want to share some files (regardless of size), simply create a link and share it however you prefer.  The recipient will then have view-only/ download access to the specific file(s) associated with that link.
  • Share a folder in your ASU Dropbox when you want specific people (internally and externally) to have access to all of the content within that folderWhen inviting people to a shared folder, you can choose whether each collaborator has permission to edit, or will have view-only access. To set these permissions in Dropbox, simply click into one of your Dropbox folders, then click the blue Share Folder button at the top-right of your page and you will see these options.
  • Use the Dropbox badge to easily collaborate on Microsoft Office files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) with your ASU colleagues and students! The badge gives you easy access to some of the best Dropbox features:
    1. See who is viewing or editing a file
    2. Update to the latest version of a file
    3. Instantly share the file you're working on with a shared link
    4. Comment on your files 
    5. View version history to find content you changed or deleted
    6. See the badge in action here on YouTube: https://youtu.be/PUz4cHhJrnM