Sharing your (writing) files online
That’s something I’m not always keen on. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against sharing. It’s just that things can go badly.
I prefer to use a wiki or Google Docs to collaborate. But not everyone I work with thinks like me, or is comfortable with the range of tools that I’m comfortable with.
And to be honest, email doesn’t really work. Too many bad things can happen to attachments:
- They can get stripped from messages
- They can get corrupted
- It’s easy to get confused about the current version of a file if multiple revisions are floating around
Whenever possible, I try to get editors and clients to work with an online file sharing service. These services are cheap, efficient, and easy to use.
Putting it on the Web
A while back, I wrote an article about some of the better online storage and file sharing services available on the Web. If I was going to recommend any for use by a writer, I’d point to DropBox and drop.io.
Why those two? First off, they’re the ones that I have the most experience with — obviously, I’m going to recommend them. But they’re also easy to use and have some interesting features. With drop.io, for instance, you can set a drop (what the service calls a file that’s being shared) to expire on a certain date. Once the drop expires, it’s deleted from the drop.io servers.
Doing it yourself
If you have a Web site, you can upload a file to a folder on the server that hosts your site. This isn’t the best option, mainly because it’s not secure. And while someone can come along and download the file you’re sharing, they can’t upload any changes or edits without knowing your Web site’s log in information. That’s something you probably don’t want to give out.
If you’re of a slightly more technical bent, and your Web hosting company supports it, you can set up an FTP site. This is a separate directory on your Web site that you can give others access to, without letting them get near the rest of your site.
Remember the article I linked to a few paragraphs ago? In it, I mentioned another option: a Web Disk. What’s that? It’s a feature that some Web hosting firms offer, and is:
… a secure directory on your portion of one of the company’s servers. You give the directory a name (don’t make it too obvious!) and assign it a password. Once it’s set up, you can drag and drop files from your desktop computer or laptop computer to the Web Disk, right from your operating system’s file manager. The best part of a Web Disk is that it’s bundled with a Web hosting plan – you don’t have to worry about paying extra.
How do you share files with your collaborators and editors? Feel free to leave a comment.
Photo credit: sasa_eh from stock.xchng
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Hey there, I’m Spencer. I work for a company named Syncables, and after reading through this, I think you might want to check us out. We make a localized syncing software that I’ve found makes a great offline compliment to dropbox. Our client is cross-platform, and it lets you keep your files, contacts and email synced between your computers over your home or office network, which is great for when you can’t get an internet connection but still need to transfer things between your machines. Additionally, Syncables includes a media component, which allows you to upload your media to any phone or usb drive.
Anyway, come check us out sometime at http://www.syncables.com!