Dropbox enhances its productivity tools across the board - sheffieldwiffand

Dropbox just dumped a ton of new productivity features on users of its file storage and collaboration service that are all aimed at making it easier for people to get work done within its applications.

Updates to the Dropbox app for iOS allow users to scan documents like a shot into the cloud storage service, and get started with creating Microsoft Office files from that app as well. The company also increased the ease and security of sharing files through Dropbox, and ready-made it easier to preview and comment on files shared done the service.

These launches mean that Dropbox will follow more valuable to people A a productiveness help, and not just a booklet to hold files. It's particularly crucial as the company tries to get the occupy of job users, World Health Organization have a wide mixture of competing storage services they could subscribe instead.

Dropbox iOS app add content menu — The Dropbox iOS app has a refreshing menu that lets users easy add depicted object to the sully storage service.

Starting Wed, users of Dropbox's iOS app will see a big plus button that they tail tap to add content to Dropbox from their earphone. To help with that, Dropbox is adding support for scanning documents with the iPhone camera, and saving them as PDFs. The scanning feature lets users upload multipage documents, and gives them the ability to adjust the settings of all scan so that uploaded documents are at their most legible.

Users can also upload photos from their phone using a rising photo upload workflow that will let them add individual images and besides all of the pictures arrogated connected a particular day into Dropbox. The service bequeath use machine learning to try and recognize when documents are the subject of uploaded photos (whether through the iOS app operating theatre other means) and fling to convert and physical process them to scans.

Dropbox Business customers will be able to search for text inside those scanned documents, thanks to unprecedented optical character recognition functionality that the company made available for its top tier of paying customers. It builds on full-school tex search capabilities that Dropbox already has available for digital documents uploaded to its service.

Victimisation the plus button, people canful as wel bulge out Microsoft Office documents from the Dropbox iOS app. First, users select the document type, where they neediness to save IT, and chip in it a computer filename, all inside the Dropbox app. After that, they'll constitute sent out to one of Microsoft's roving apps to edit the file they just created, with all the changes being blessed back to Dropbox.

Company representatives wouldn't say when users could expect Dropbox's Mechanical man app to get the similar features, simply said that the company believes in making sure that its apps have feature film conservation of parity across platforms.

share from desktop — Dropbox users now have more granular controls for communion files directly from a PC or Mack.

People WHO want to use Dropbox to ploughshare files will have an easier time doing thusly with new updates free Wednesday. The Dropbox apps for Mac and Windows now let users access elaborate file sharing settings from the Macintosh Finder or Windows Explorer. That agency users can set granular permissions for sharing documents without having to use the Dropbox vane interface.

On upper of that, all users john now share single files with special people, sort o than having to provide open access to everyone with a nexus OR giving a list of people taxon admittance to a folder. Users of Dropbox's free grade testament also be competent to share folders in study-just mode, something that was antecedently only available to paid customers.

comment anywhere — Dropbox users can now commentary happening the content internal a written document or ikon, so the people they're working with can know exactly what is existence discussed.

After sharing files, users wish at once personify able to comment on specific parts of a file in from their Web web browser. Previously, Dropbox comments weren't able to reference a specific depart of a file—now users can highlight an area and talk over it in particular.

In the approaching, Dropbox testament also allow users to attach Dropbox comments to Agency files within Microsoft's screen background productivity apps. It's planning an update to the Dropbox badge that will let people make live comments on a PowerPoint intro that show upwardly in Dropbox, without having to leave the file they're operative on.

Dropbox likewise gave business users a new security-centred feature. Dropbox Business administrators can now access a new audit log, which provides a immortalis of everyone World Health Organization interacted with a particular file. Those logs can be viewed through an online administrator console, only are as wel ready to hand through the companionship's API.

That means companies give notice choose to work with partners like-minded Splunk and Domo to monitor those audit logs and generate notifications if something weird is going away happening.

The news comes a hebdomad after John Drew Houston, the fellowship's co-founder and CEO, unconcealed at a conference that Dropbox is operative hard currency flow positive. It's a positive sign for the companionship, which hasn't been more than for announcing new, shipping features over the past year. These announcements may point a sea change for the company going forth—IT'll be interesting to see what comes next.