File hosting service Dropbox introduced on Monday new productivity tools such as document scanning, a Microsoft Office quick button, and improvements for managing camera uploads. Other features include sharing files from the desktop on Mac and Windows and adding comments to files.
The company headquartered in San Francisco is reforming how the cloud storage service works, as it reaches half a billion users in the world. Document scanning serves to capture and manage scans from documents, whiteboards, and sketches.
Microsoft has allied with many tech companies, to merge its documents software with other internet services. Recently it added a button for Shutterstock. Dropbox has added a new plus button to create PowerPoint, Word and Excel Files instantly.
All Microsoft Office files will be automatically saved when using the Dropbox app. It is only available for the iOS app.
“It will help people work better together, wherever they are,” said Rob Howard, Director of Office Marketing at Microsoft.
The company lead by Drew Houston is also adding new benefits for primary users who use the cloud service to store their photographs. The latter is now allowed to manage, organize and delete pictures from their computers.
Cloud storage services seek to attract who want to store their images on the Internet. Google offers free unlimited storage for saving photos of up to 16-megapixel. Amazon Cloud Drive also offers unlimited storage for the same task, but only to subscribed users.
Dropbox wants to unify workspaces by creating new integrations
The Dropbox sharing experience has been improved on PC. When users right-click in a file or folder, they will have the option to share it immediately without having to access Dropbox on the Web, or without copying the link. This new feature is available for Mac and Windows 10 users.
Another function is capable of adding comments to a particular part of a file. For instance, someone can select a concrete object on a picture to write a note. This feature can be even accessed from a file preview.
“To turn ideas into reality, teams need to collaborate at lightning speed. But work is everywhere—it’s in the cloud, on our desktop, in email, and spread across devices. So we’re unifying the people, files, and apps that need to work together within Dropbox,” head of product Todd Jackson said.
New security features: “Users can recover files if accidents happen”
Version history, which is only available to Dropbox Pro and Education users, allow subscribers to revert to a previous file version or recover deleted files, even after a year of being edited or deleted. The app also shows preview prior file versions before someone decides to restore them.
Sharing options have been expanded. Users can choose to share a particular file with determined people, who will be requested to login, in order to access them. Free users are also able to select “view-only access” for shared folders
Source: Dropbox Blog