Here’s probably the simplest and most effective way to share files from your computer with others—without clogging up other people’s email inboxes or having them ask you to resend it because they deleted the email by mistake.
And without having to sign up for an account or anything fiddly. Promise.
First off, go to drop.io (pronounced dropeeoh, apparently).
You have the option of customizing the link your file(s) will be stored at: Type in your preferred name until drop.io finds one that hasn’t been taken already. Your URL will then be something like drop.io/loosewire.
Click on the green button below it to add files.
Select the file from the list (to select more than one file hold down the Control/Command key as you select the files).
Click OK and you’ll see the fuel-gauge-type bar to the right of the green button partly fill. You’re allowed up to 100 megabytes of space.
The next window lets you set a password for other people to enter if they want to view the files. (You don’t have to include a password if you don’t want to.)
You can also choose how long the files will be available for (from one day to one year.) And you can choose whether others just view the files, can add to them, and whether they can delete them.
Once you’re done with these settings (or have skipped over them) click on the red Drop it button.
The button will change briefly to grey and then to a message indicating your files are uploading.
You’ll see the fuel-gauge bar above change to indicate how far your files have to go before they’re done uploading.
Once the files are ready, you’ll be asked if you want to add another password—this one’s for you, so you can change settings later or delete the files. It’s also optional.
You’re done uploading. The only thing left to do is to let your colleagues/friends/family know the link you’ve sent these files to. (Select the link, right click the mouse and copy it to the clipboard. Paste the link into an email or your chat program, or however you intend to alert others to the files’ existence.)
Free tip(s)
You can easily leave notes for others on the page of files you’ve uploaded—a neat feature that could be helpful. Just click on the Notes link at the top of the page and type your note:
If you use the latest version of the Firefox browser (and if not, why not?) there’s an even easier way to do this (for both Mac and Windows users.) (You can see a screencast of this here.)
Install the drop.io Firefox extension (a small piece of code that plugs in to Firefox) and you’ll see a little red dot at the right hand corner of your screen. Drag and drop a file from your desktop or a Windows Explorer/Finder window. You won’t get any pop-up messages, only a moving graphic to indicate the file is being uploaded:
