Education and Technology in the 21st century are

getting closer every single day. There are thousands of

tools that are emerging continuously to make the art of

teaching more interesting for students and easier for

teachers.

The following guide was created with the purpose of

providing some help in the initial uses of Dropbox and

Box. The reader will find detailed information from how to

get into the websites until how to use some features of

those great systems. The steps are presented with real

captions of the procedure tracked on a Windows computer,

but it does not mean that the user has to strictly follow

those steps. Everybody has the opportunity to “Learn by

doing”, so do not worry to make mistakes and let your

curiosity flow!

Sincerely,

William, Meybel and Danilo.

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INTRODUCTION

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WHAT IS

Dropbox is a Web-based file hosting service

operated by Dropbox,Inc. that uses

networked storage to enable users to store

and share files and folders with others across

the Internet using file synchronization. It was

founded in 2007 by Drew Houston and Arash

Ferdowsi. (Dropbox Inc.)

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2. Click on “Sign In”

3. Type your first name,

last name, e-mail

address and set a

password.

4. Check the box “I agree

to Dropbox terms”

5. Click on “Create

Account”

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HOW TO CREATE A DROPBOX ACCOUNT?

1. Go to Dropbox.com

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1. Click on “Save File”

2. Wait for the file to be

downloaded and when

it’s done, double left

click on the installer.

3. Click the “Launch“

button

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HOW TO INSTALL DROPBOX IN A PERSONAL COMPUTER?

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5. When the installation is

completed, the window on

the left will appear. Click on

“I already have a Dropbox

account”.

4. Click on “Install“

6. Type the e-mail address

and password you set to

create the Dropbox

account.

7. Click “Next”

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10. Click on “Jump the tour”

8. Click on “2GB FREE”

and that is the initial

space you will have to

store your data.

(See Chapter 6 to find

out how to get more

space)

17. Click in “Following”

9. Click in “Typical” to

install the application

with the default settings.

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11. Click “Done”

And that’s it!

Now the Dropbox folder will show up in your screen and that is

where your Dropbox files will be stored. To open your Dropbox

folder, all you have to do is double click the Icon on the desk.

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Another way to upload files is by the “Drag and

Drop” function that Dropbox offers. To do this,

you must log in to your Dropbox account on the

explorer and open the folder where you want to

put your files. Then, select the files in your

computer and keep holding the left click of the

mouse while you move the files to the window

of the internet explorer. When the window pops

up, just release the left click button and done!

The files will be synchronized.

There are three ways to upload your files into

Dropbox. The first one is just “Copy and

Paste” any file to the Dropbox folder in your

computer and it will be automatically

synchronized to the cloud, which means that

these files will be available anywhere you sign

in into Dropbox.

The other alternative that you have to upload

files is by simply using the Dropbox web

interface, and the steps will be detailed below.

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HOW TO UPLOAD FILES TO DROPBOX?

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2. A pop-up window will

appear. Click on “Choose

files”.

1. Once you have logged

in to your Dropbox

account, you will find the

main page as in the left.

To upload a file (or

several files), you must

click the “upload” button.

3. Select files that you

want to upload from your

personal folder by clicking

on them. If you want to

select multiple files, hold

the “Ctrl” button and click

on the file. After you have

selected them, just click

on “Save”.

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4. Another window will

appear showing the

progress of uploading.

You will know that a file

is uploaded when is

checked with a green

circle as in the left.

5. If everything went

well, all the files that

you selected will

appear in your Dropbox

home page or in the

selected folder in your

account.

You’re done! Now that you have some of your files in

your Dropbox, you can start sharing them with your

friends, family, colleagues, students or anyone.

In the following pages, it will be explained the

different ways to share a file or a folder from your

personal account.

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1. Once you have selected

the file you want to share,

just right click over the file

and a pop-up menu will

appear.

2. Click on “Get link”.

3. A new tab will show up in

your explorer with the file

you selected.

4. In the address bar, select

the URL and right click

over it. On the pop-up

menu, select “Copy” and

paste it on an e-mail, a

blog or wherever you

want to share it.

As soon as the people you sent the URL clicks on it, they will have

access to the file from which you created the link and they will have

the option to download it if they want.

“Simple sharing” is the Dropbox’s motto, and indeed, sharing has never

been so easy. Let’s start trying to share a file through a link.

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HOW TO SHARE FILES AND FOLDERS WITH OTHERS?

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Now that you know how to share a file, let’s try with folders:

1. On the Dropbox

home screen, click the

“Share a folder” button.

2. On the pop-up window, you will

have the option to create a new

folder or select one of the folders

you have created before. Let’s

check the first option, write the

name of the folder and click “Next”.

3. After you have created the

folder, you must enter the e-mail

addresses of the people you want

to share it with. You also have the

choice to enter a personal

message or instructions of what is

that folder for.

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Hopefully you are engaged now with this amazing Cloud Storage and Sharing

system, but from now on you must let your curiosity flow and find all the

incredible features that it has to offer. We will finally give you just two of them:

Dropbox gives you 500

Mb of extra space in

your account if you invite

another friend that is not

using Dropbox yet! So

hurry up and invite your

students, friends and

family.

Do you have a Smartphone or

Tablet? What are you waiting

for and install Dropbox on it!!

Dropbox is available for

IPhone, IPad or IPod Touch,

any phone with Android system

and also for Blackberry. So

forget about USB flash drives

and viruses, and let the new

technologies come to your life.

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FEATURES

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WHAT IS

Box is an online file sharing and Cloud

content management service for enterprise

companies. The company has adopted a free

business model, and provides 5GB of free

storage. Box was founded in 2005 as a

college business project by Aaron Levie and

Dylan Smith. (Box)

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1- Go to box.com

2- Click on “Sign up”

3- Look at the option called

PERSONAL. This is the

only free storage plan.

4- Click on “Sign up now”

5- Set up your account by

filling in the blank

spaces on the right.

When done, click on

“Continue”.

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HOW TO CREATE A BOX ACCOUNT?

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6- Confirm your account by

verifying your e-mail.

Enter to your e-mail and

check the received mails.

Click on “Verify Email”

7- Click on “Log in and get

started”. The home page

will appear.

BOX HOME PAGE

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1- In the home page,

click the button

“New”.

2- In the pop-up menu,

click the option “New

folder”.

3- Write the folder’s name.

4- You’ll have the option to keep it

private or invite people to

collaborate. Check the second

option

5- Write the e-mail addresses of the

folder’s collaborators.

6- Select the type of access your

collaborators will have.

7- Finally, click on “Create Folder”

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HOW TO CREATE A NEW FOLDER?

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1- In the home page, click

on the folder where you

want to upload files.

2- Before uploading files, you

can write a short description

of the folder so the

collaborators will know what

the files are for.

3- Click on “Save”

4- To upload a file to

the folder, click on the

“Upload” button.

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HOW TO UPLOAD FILES TO A FOLDER?

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5- On the pop-up window,

select the address where

you have the files stored

on your computer.

6- Select the file

7- Click on “Open”

8- The file is now uploaded to your Box folder. You can

add a task or a comment, thus you can interact with the

collaborators of the folder.

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The simplest way of sharing is by inviting others to collaborate in a folder

(see features). But what if you want to privately share a file only with ONE

colleague?

1- Go to the BOX

folder where you

have uploaded the

file you want to

share. Double click

on it.

1. Double click on the

file. It will be opened

in the explorer.

3- Click on “Get a link

to this file”

HOW TO SHARE FILES WITH OTHERS?

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4. Copy and Paste the

link to your e-mail and

send it to the person

you want. You can also

paste it on a website or

blog to share it with

others.

5. You can send it to more

people at the same time

directly from your BOX

account by clicking the

“Send” tab in the same

pop-up window.

6. Write the e-mail address of

the person you want to

send the file.

7. Add a personal message if

you want.

8. Finally, click on “Send”

That’s it! Now you can start uploading more files and sharing

them from your BOX account.

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1. On the home page,

double click on the

folder you want to

share with more

people.

2. On the right panel,

write the e-mail

addresses in the

specified space.

3. After you finished

writing the e-mails,

click on “Invite

Collaborators”.

FEATURES

INVITE MORE COLLABORATORS TO A FOLDER

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1. On the home page,

click on the “New”

button

2. Click on “New web

document” on the pop-up

menu.

3. Write the name of

the document.

4. Click OK.

CREATE A WEB DOCUMENT

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The document will be opened in a new tab on the browser. You can

edit the document as if you were working with basic functions of

Microsoft Word. Your collaborators will be able to edit the document

but only if you permit it. All the changes will be automatically saved to

BOX.

You can synchronize your favorite apps in your smart phone or

tablet with your personal BOX account. “Google apps” is one the

most complete suite of applications that are related with BOX.COM.

SYNCHRONIZE BOX WITH OTHER APPS

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Dropbox Inc. www.dropbox.com. 2007. June 2012. <https://www.dropbox.com/tour>.

Box, (survey online), accessed, March 15, 2006; available from,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Box.com

REFERENCES

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