Team work is often the cornerstone of a growing business. However collaborating on documents has never been easy and projects often get sent back and forth over email, inevitably leading to multiple copies and multiple head aches.

Two companies in particular, the web giant Google and a start up called Dropbox, make it easy to edit and collaborate on a document without the use of enterprise software like Microsoft Share Point.

Google Docs allows you to create documents online, in the browser or via upload, and you can then send a link to employees, team members, and anyone you’d want to share that document with. You can grant them access to edit the document and all edits will be shared and synced automatically. This can be a great tool as long as everyone is aware that it is a shared document and saved changes will overwrite the existing file.

Google Docs is a more interactive way to collaborate as you are all quite literally on the same page, allowing you will be able to see the “live edits”, which means collaborating more effectively than emailing attachments back and forth. But what if my browser crashes? Well just like MS Office, Google docs saves your document every few minutes automatically. They also offer this “cloud” service for spread sheets and calenders.

Drop Box is by far one of the most innovative products I’ve seen in the last 10 years and is a “cloud” document solution. However it does not “live” in the browser while your working on it. Rather, you download the Dropbox program on your PC or Mac, creating a Dropbox folder on your hard drive. If you copy all your documents into the new Dropbox Documents folder, you will never lose a document or any file again. Files saved in the Dropbox folder are simultaneously synced to the “cloud” which gives the user browser access, through the Dropbox website, in any location. Just make sure you remember to save into that Dropbox folder.In Dropbox you can also choose to share it folders with another Dropbox user. When they accept the “Shared” folder it will automatically sync the shared data from the “cloud” to the other users Dropbox folder.

Dropbox is free for up to 2 Gigabytes of storage and can be used to sync to multiple computers. However you may also refer people to Dropbox and in doing so receive an extra 250 megs per free sign up. Dropbox also offers a premium service of 50 Gigs for about $9.99/month or 100 Gigs for $19.99/month. But, for for text files you should be fine with the free version.

At Technology2Reality we recommend taking advantage of cloud services like these in order to achieve and maintain a more efficient and productive workplace. If there is any confusion on how to set these systems up or if you want to have the system implemented for you contact us at Marketing@technology2reality.comor through our Social Media.

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