Just Add Dropbox: OneNote

Being the uber nerds that we are having multiple computers is a way of life; the home machine filled with software and videos, the work laptop containing only business approved apps *wink*, the lab boxes running one project after another. Keeping access to your precious files is easy when on the home LAN, but the moment you walk out into the real world things get a little trickier. Sure you could setup a VPN and deal with all that nonsense, but how many times have you been stuck with a crappy internet connection at some airport or hotel which barely gives you the Net let alone a stable connection? USB drives are a good alternative yet with their ever increasing shrinkage are becoming easier to lose by the minute. Email is slow and limited to 20MB attachments (if you have Gmail) at best.

For those looking for an easy, automated method of syncing files between machines, look no further than Dropbox. I’ve been using this service for well over a year now and love it, with the seamless integration into Windows Explorer, a solid web interface and 2.25GB of space for free (thru a referral link) which can go up to 5GB’s free. I tried Mozy (too limiting) and Evernote (the interface bugs me) with little success. Dropbox has been the Swiss army knife of file syncing I always wanted. If you’re just beginning to use Dropbox, I wanted to share some tips and tricks to get the most out of this fantastic service.

OneNote

OneNote _64 For the past 7 years I’ve used OneNote as my main writing tool. The flexibility of writing anywhere on a page along with the organizational benefits of a notebook design made me run from Word and never look back. Being a writer I’ve always had two major concerns, constant access to what I’m working on and having a secure backup of my files in case tragedy strikes my machines. OneNote was designed for collaborative work, natively including notebook (.ONE files) sharing via UNC in the GUI, but while good in theory, suffers from the same issues as any file on your home LAN and solve the backup problem. Thankfully I was able to leverage Dropbox to resolve both my concerns.

Constant Access

When creating a new notebook you have the option to point to a file location or UNC path.

Notebook Creation Screen 01

You’ll want to select "I will use it on this computer" because the second option uses UNC paths and the third option doesn’t pertain to this. The next screen will ask you where to place the file. As we can see in the image below here’s where we can utilize Dropbox. Sticking with the OneNote naming convention, I put my files in a folder label OneNote Notebooks.

*Side Note* The Dropbox file path above is the default for Windows 7, but in XP it installs under "My Documents"

Click Create and your notebook is ready to go. On your other machines using OneNote go to File –> Open –> Notebook and simply browse to the Dropbox location. Now whenever you edit the notebook it will have the most recent changes no matter what machine you use.

OneNote 03

If you have an existing notebook that you want to place into Dropbox simply do the following.

Right click the notebook tab on the left pane and select Close this Notebook
Move the notebook file (extension .ONE) or notebook folder to the Dropbox location of your choosing.
Select File –> Open –> Notebook and browse to the Dropbox location.
Viola!

Secure Backup

Once your files are in Dropbox there’s nothing else you need to do to ensure their backup. The Dropbox utility automatically starts up with Windows and monitors the Dropbox folder for any modifications.

OneNote 05

If changes occur it automatically syncs them up to your encrypted Dropbox storage location. While it’s transferring you’ll see a blue circle with spinning white arrows. When it’s complete the icon goes back to the normal green checkmark.

That covers your standard backup, but what happens if the file is deleted or changes were made that you want to revert? Dropbox retains multiple versions of your files by default. If you need to go back a version or retrieve it from the great Recycle Bin in the sky then log onto the Dropbox website.

OneNote 04

Under the Recent Events tab you can see any changes that have occurred to ANY FILES in your Dropbox. The example above shows me working on this very post using Windows Live Writer which is set to auto-save. If I wanted to go back to an earlier file it’s just a click away.

This is just one of the many ways Dropbox has made things easier for me. It has truly become an essential install for every machine I own. In my next post I’ll show you how do the same trick with Windows Live Writer (which is much harder than it should be).

Even though it has nothing to do with the above post, I think this video captures the spirit of RetroHack.