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For many users, Dropbox is the go-to tool for storing and sharing files, photos, music and the like. Put simply, it keeps everything under one roof.
Well, almost everything. Until a couple days ago, Dropbox didn’t support one particular form of data: Web links. But thanks to a new update, now you can add URLs to your Dropbox account almost as easily as you do documents.
That could prove really handy, especially if you’re sharing some project-specific folders with co-workers and want a simple way to include links. It’ll be much faster and easier for others to find them in a Dropbox folder than it would if they were embedded in a document or e-mail.
Screenshot by Rick Broida/CNET
So how does it work? For now it’s strictly a drag-and-drop process, one that originates in your browser and ends in either a Dropbox tab or the Dropbox desktop client.
For example, if you want to save the link to this very page, start by opening a new tab and signing into your Dropbox account — or opening Explorer and clicking your Dropbox folder. Either of those will be the destination, the “drop” part of your drag-and-drop.
Next, back in this tab, click and hold the little icon to the left of the Web address, then drag it to your destination. If it’s an adjoining tab, hold it over that tab until the focus changes, then drop it in the desired folder. If it’s the desktop client, drag the URL to that window, then drop.
This is actually easier to show than explain, so check out this quick animation:
Dropbox
One thing I’ve noticed is that when I drag to a Dropbox tab, the URL doesn’t have a descriptive name; just the root Web address and “URL” tacked on. You get better results dragging links to the Dropbox client.
Needless to say, this is a desktop-only option for the moment. Although you can access these links via a Dropbox mobile client, you can’t create them there.
