Overview: Learn how to keep your files in sync across multiple computers with this Dropbox Tutorial.

Do you work on multiple computers during the day? Perhaps one at work and one at home? Maybe one is a Mac and another is a PC? Well there are a lot of files that you may create or update on one machine that you suddenly need on the other. Sure, you could use a USB drive, but that is very manual and error prone.
If you need to have a common collection of files that are synchronized and instantly available everywhere, you should use Dropbox – Secure online file sync
. DropBox is a service that allows you to sync files between multiple computers via their servers.

I have a few computers in my house: A windows desktop in my Office, Windows laptop downstairs, a Linux Laptop in our Bedroom (My Wife’s) and a new MacBook Pro where I do most of my writing now. I have some files on my old Windows desktop and laptop that I need on my MacBook and newly created files that I want back on my PCs. The other problem is that I need to work with certain Windows or Mac only apps at different times. This allows me to move all of the files that I need back and forth to the machine where I need to work in “real-time”.

If I do a Screencast on my PC, I just put it into my DropBox and upload it from my Mac when I’m ready. If I make something in iMovie on my Mac, I just drop it in and open it on my PC later.

What exactly is Dropbox?

This is how DropBox describes their service:

Dropbox is the easiest way to share and store your files online.
Works like you do
No complicated interface to learn. Dropbox runs in the background on your desktop.
Worry-free syncing
Sync your files automatically to your computers and the web.
It’s everywhere you are
Sign in and access your files from any browser or mobile device.
Easy sharing
Sharing files with your friends and family is just two clicks away.
Photos
View your photos in a gallery and share them easily with anyone.

How to Use DropBox

1. The entire process is incredibly quick and simple.
2. Create an Account on www.DropBox.com
   
3. Download and Install the DropBox software on your computer.
4. Select a location for your DropBox folder. (I use the Desktop)
5. Move the desired files/folders into your DropBox.
6. Wait for blue arrow icons to stop spinning and turn into a green check icon.
7. Move any desired files/folders from your other computer(s) into your DropBox.
8. Repeat steps 3 through 5 on all of your computers.

There is a free account which limits your DropBox capacity to 2 gigs. You can add more capacity incrementally with a paid account.

Sharing Files via DropBox:

You can share your DropBox with other DropBox users via your “shared” folder.

1. Log in to your DropBox account on their site
2. Click on the Share tab at the top of the page
3. Give the share a name
4. Enter the email addres(es) of the people you are sharing with
5. Go back to your File Manager and drag files into the “share” folder
6. The recipients will receive an email allowing them to access the the shared files
7. You can delete the “share” when you want to stop sharing

This is very convenient if you’re working with a client or coordinating on a project with a colleague, client, or friend.

See How to Use DropBox in this Video

• Use DropBox to Sync Your Virtual Machine
• LifeHacker article on DropBox
• AppleBlog article on DropBox

Conlclusion:

I use DropBox every day on both of my computers at home. This is about the simplest way to synchronize files between your computers, no matter which Operating System(s) you use.

Note: May not work behind some firewalls.

The past few articles have covered using some web/computer based productivity tools. Stay tuned for the next article where I show you how to extend these systems by using your phone and Dial2Do to get things done.

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Creating your own Blog

So you want to share your thoughts with the rest of the world? Well, starting your own blog will give you the power and flexibility to publish text, photos, video, and much more to the Internet.

Now, you’re probably thinking that all of this power and flexibility comes with a high price tag and steep learning curve. Fortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.

I’m going to show you how to go from someone with interesting ideas to share, to a full-fledged blogger in no time flat. You will learn how to perform every single task involved in creating, configuring, writing, and maintaining very own fully customized blog.

Best of all, it will cost you *nearly nothing. ($5.00 or less per month)

Every bit of the process is covered through step-by-step explanations, annotated screen shots, and video demonstrations.

Why you should own your Blog

Many people have free blogs on sites like Blogger, Tumblr, or WordPress.com. These free services have simple, effective functionality, but they don’t have the flexibility and power that you may need. You can’t have your own domain name on these services, or customize to your heart’s content. Even more important; you don’t own your data.

If you want to have a blog that you own, has your own domain name, and allows you to make unlimited customizations, you need to host your own blog. This tutorial will show you how to install, configure, customize, and publish your own blog using free software and inexpensive web hosting.

Getting Started

Before you get started with software, servers, and writing, you need to get organized. You need to know what you are going to be doing. Let’s look at a few things that you need to consider before writing your first brilliant article.

Start by asking a few very basic, but critically important questions:

1. What is your blog about? This is the very first thing that you should consider.
2. What ideas and concepts are you going to write about? Laser focus or potpourri?
3. What categories will you use to group your articles? (Music, Art, Politics, Sports, etc.)
4. What interesting features do you want to have on your blog? (Photos, video, reader polls, etc.)

Once you’ve hammered that out, you should start to generate a few ideas for names.

What You Will Need:

You will need a combination of services and software to perform all of the subsequent steps in this tutorial.

Getting your Domain Name and Hosting

After you determine your concept and topics, start to brainstorm good domain names. Yes, the first few good ones that you come up with will already be taken. You should make every effort to get a domain name that is ends in .COM (.NET is worse, but acceptable) Try to make the name short, with keywords that relate to your topic. By all means, DO NOT get a domain name with a HYPHEN in it!

If you want to think long term, you may want to spend a few extra dollars to grab the .NET and .TV versions of your name too. This will allow you to extend your offerings down the road.

You can buy your domain name from lots of places. It will be less than $10 for the year. Many web-hosting companies give you one free domain name as part of your hosting package. (I would recommend this route.)

Web Services

Web Hosting: You will need to pay a web host to store your site’s pages and files on a server. There are thousands of web hosting companies available from $5/month on up.

Select one that has the following options:

• PHP Server: (this is the server software that processes the commands that make your blog work.)
• MySQL Database Server: This is the free, open source database that runs just about every blog on the internet
• FTP Server:  This is the service that will allow you to move files from your local computer to the web server.
• Scalability:  If your website takes off, you may need to move to a bigger server. Make sure that your host has several packages so that you can gradually move up the ladder as needed.

Desktop Software

Once you buy your domain and web hosting, you will need to set up your FTP software. Just about every web-hosting provider has a Help or FAQs section that will show you how to set up your FTP client. Follow their instructions so that you will be ready to start working.

• FTP Software: Your web host will have an FTP service that will allow you load your files to their server. You need an FTP Client (software on your computer) to connect to the server and move the files. There are several FTP clients available. Some are free and others are not. Every one has a camp of supporters and detractors, so I’ll just recommend the one I use. I like Filezilla, because it is free, Open Source and works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. (Get Filezilla here.) If you don’t like it, just search Google for another one that meets your specific needs.
• Zip Software: Most of the files that you need to set up a WordPress blog are contained in a Zip archive. You need an application to open and extract files in Zip archives. Mac and Linux have them built in. If you are on Windows, download 7-Zip. It’s free and works very well.
• Text Editor: The beauty of working Content Management System is that inexperienced users don’t “have to” get their hands dirty in any code. However, advanced users still have that option. You should still always have a good text editor at your disposal, ‘cause ya never know. All three Operating Systems (Windows, Mac, and Linux) come with built-in text editors, but there are better ones available for free.
• Windows – NotePad++
• Mac – Smultron or Text Wrangler
• Linux – Emacs, Vim, or Gedit
• *I’m sure that there are even better choices available, but these should handle your needs just fine.

Blog Software

Blogs are run on Content Management System (CMS) that store, organize, and display your information. The CMS software will reside and run on your server.

• WordPress: The Content Management System (CMS) software that will run your blog. WordPress is free, open-source software that you will download and set up on your web server.

Click here to see even more information on the next page; including multiple video tutorials.

When you start writing articles on your WordPress blog, you’ll probably want to change its appearance. The look and feel of a WordPress blog is controlled by Themes. A WordPress theme is a collection of files that include PHP Pages, images, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), and other files. These files create the pages that display the contents of your blog and apply styling and other functionality to the content.

Working With Themes in the WordPress Dashboard

You can easily control, add, and delete themes from the Themes Manager menu.

Click the Appearance heading on the left side of the Dashboard.

You will see the themes the “Default” and “Classic” that were installed with your WordPress software. You can activate a theme by clicking the Activate link under the theme’s thumbnail. If you want to see what the theme will look like first, just click on the theme’s thumbnail.

A preview of your Home page will display reflecting the appearance of that theme. There will be an Activate link in the upper left corner and an “X” in the upper left corner of the theme preview.

Click the “X” button to reject the theme or click the Activate link to apply this theme to your blog.

Once you activate a new theme, just go to your blog’s Home page and Refresh your browser. You will see the new theme applied to your blog.

Getting More Themes for Your Blog

When you install WordPress, there are two themes “Default” and “Classic”. They’re both boring and lame. You’re going to want to get yourself some new themes. WordPress.org has thousands of free themes that you can easily install on your blog.

Click the Add New Themes link under the Appearance heading on the left side of the dashboard. This will open the Install Themes menu.

can find new themes using numerous techniques. The default Search allows you to search by Color, Layout Options, and Other Features that a theme has. You can also view themes that are Featured by WordPress, along with New or Newly Updated themes. I like the Featured option because they are usually really nice themes.

Once you locate interesting theme, you can Install or Preview it effortlessly.

Previewing a WordPress Theme

Click the Preview link under the theme’s thumbnail.

Click the Install Now button to install the theme or click the “X” button in the upper left corner to exit the preview without installing it to your blog.

Installing a New Theme

Click the Install link.

A pop-up window will open that allows you to complete the installation.

Click the Install Now button.

The theme will be installed on your WordPress server.

You will have a choice of Actions that you can perform now that the theme is installed.

Click Activate to apply the theme to your blog.

Go to your blog’s Home page and refresh the browser to see the new theme in action.

Manually Adding Themes to WordPress

WordPress themes are each contained in their own folder. These folders are located in the “wp-content/themes” folder of your WordPress installation.

You can manually upload themes to this folder from your desktop using your FTP software. These themes will then be available the next time you go to the Theme Manager.

Finding High Quality Themes on the Internet

In addition to the thousands of free themes that are available on the WordPress.org you can find tons of great free and paid themes on the Internet. Just go to Google and search for something like “free premium WordPress themes”. You can also find numerous professional themes that will cost money by searching for “premium WordPress themes” or “professional WordPress themes”. They typically cost $20 to $100. (Sometimes more if you hire someone to design and build you a custom theme.)

See it in Action

The following video shows all of the steps in the process of Using Themes to Control the Look and Feel of your WordPress Blog.

See the Rest of This Series

This is the 6th article in a 7 part series of tutorials on Creating a WordPress Blog. View the rest of the series:

1. How To Set Up a WordPress Blog
2. Configure the Settings on a WordPress Blog
3. Writing a Blog Aritcle Using the WordPress Web Interface
4. Controlling the Look of a WordPress Blog Using Themes
5. Adding Extra Features to a WordPress Blog with Widgets
6. Extending WordPress Functionality with Plugins
7. Publishing WordPress Articles Using Third Party Applications

Plugins are tools to extend the functionality of WordPress. This article contains a list of plugins by category, and links to other plugin repositories. The core of WordPress is designed to be lean, to maximize flexibility and minimize code bloat. Plugins offer custom functions and features so that each user can tailor their site to their specific needs.

Plugins can extend WordPress to do almost anything you can imagine.

Managing WordPress Plugins

You can manage your blog’s plugins from the Plugin menu via the Dashboard.

From the Dashboard, click the Plugins heading on the left side of the page.

The Plugins Management panel will open.

You will see all of the plugins that are installed on your blog. There are only two that are installed by default:

Askimet: Eliminates spam from your blog’s comments. Probably the most useful plugin you can have.

Hello Dolly: Displays lyrics from the stupid song “Hello Dolly” on the top of your Admin pages. It is useless and must be deleted at once.

You can perform the following actions from the Plugin menu:

• Activate Plugins: Turn on plugins that are already installed.
• Deactivated Plugins: Turn off plugins that are installed and activated.
• Delete Plugins: Remove all the plugins files from your server.
• Add New Plugins: Load the files that power a plugin onto your server.

Let’s see how to perform each of these tasks.

Activating Plugins

When you open the Plugins Panel, you will see all of the plugins that are installed on your blog. There is an Activate link next to any plugins that are not already activated.

Click the Activate link to turn on a plugin.

Deactivating Plugins

When you activate a plugin, you may decide that you want to turn it off. This is simple. Any plugins that are activated will have a Deactivate link next to them on the Plugins Panel.

Click the Deactivate link to turn off a plugin.

Adding Plugins to Your Site

The two plugins that are installed on your site by default won’t get you very far. There are literally thousands of plugins available that will add just about any functionality imaginable to your blog. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that you can add new plugins to your site.

Adding Plugins from the WordPress Plugin Directory

WordPress.org has a massive directory of plugins that you can search, install, and research.

http://WordPress.org/extend/plugins/

The best thing is, you can search and install them right from your WordPress Admin Panel.

Click Plugins> Add New

This will open the Install Plugins page.

You can search or browse WordPress’ massive directory using the following methods:

Search for a plugin by name, description, or keyword.

Browse by Featured, Popular, Newest, Recently Updated, or Tagged criteria.

Once you find a plugin that you want to install, just click the Install link to the right of the plugin’s description.

A popup window will open displaying information and instructions about the plugin.

Click the OK button to complete the plugin’s installation.

Now you can Activate and Configure the plugin on your site.

Click the Activate Plugin link.

The plugin will be activated.

Adding Plugins from Other Web Sites

You can also find plugins on numerous developers’ sites. You can download these plugins to your computer as zip files.

Once you download a plugin, click the Browse button on the Install Plugins page.

Navigate to the zip file on your computer and click the Install Now button.

The plugin will by uploaded, unzipped, and installed on your site. Now you can Activate and Configure the plugin on your site.

Adding Multiple Plugins using FTP Software

You can also upload multiple plugins to your site from your computer in one step. Let’s say you have a bunch of plugins that you test on a local server. Once you determine the ones that you want to use on your web server, you can upload them all using your FTP site.

Plugin files are located in the following location on your Web server: Site Root> wp-content> plugins

Open your FTP client

Navigate to the Plugins directory on your web server

Select the desired plugins on your computer

Drag the plugins to your web server

If you are setting up more than one WordPress site or relocating an existing one, this can save you a lot of time.

Removing Unwanted Plugins

If you install a plugin, but no longer have any use for it, you can remove it in a few simple clicks.

Go to the Plugins Panel

Deactivate the unwanted plugin

There will be a Delete link next to the Activate link.

Click the Delete link.

A window will ask you to confirm your intention to delete the plugin.

Click the Yes Delete the Files button.

The plugin and all of its files will be deleted from your server.

See it in Action

The following video shows all of the steps in the process of Using Plugins to Extend the Functionality of your WordPress Blog.

See the Rest of This Series

This is the 5th article in a 7 part series of tutorials on Creating a WordPress Blog. View the rest of the series:

1. How To Set Up a WordPress Blog
2. Configure the Settings on a WordPress Blog
3. Writing a Blog Aritcle Using the WordPress Web Interface
4. Controlling the Look of a WordPress Blog Using Themes
5. Adding Extra Features to a WordPress Blog with Widgets
6. Extending WordPress Functionality with Plugins
7. Publishing WordPress Articles Using Third Party Applications

It seems that the biggest kiss of death that could ever hit a mobile phone is “iPhone Killer”. My wife is a Verizon die hard and refuses to switch to AT&T to get an iPhone. With the much ballywhooed release of the Motorola Droid, we were both excited for her to actually get an awesome phone for herself. I told her on Saturday morning that I was taking her to the Verizon store to buy her a Motorola Droid. I know, I’m kind of an awesome husband.

Hardware

Let’s make this short and sweet. When we got to the store, and tried the phone out, we were soooooo disappointed. Everything about it was just such a let down. The device had more jagged poking edges to scar a hand for life. It feels kind of flimsy and cheap in your hands.

Software Interface

The interace and user experience on this phone are horrendous. Everything you try to do is flakey and jumpy. Menus (if you can find them) are unintuitive and confusing. Stuff seems to mysteriously open and close as if controlled by some spastic prankster. Yikes!

The applications were even more confusing. I’m a huge user and fan of most of Google’s applications and thougth that this would really be cool. Well, I was wrong. The calendar is just a confusing affront to the senses. Ugly, confusing, and bad. Adding an appointment or contact was very frustrating. The maps application that I heard so much about was dreadful. You can’t figure out how to do anything in there. I can just see my mom and dad in the car trying to find a restaurant and just screaming at one another. Not good.

Video Review of the Motorola Droid

I took a few minutes to put my thoughts on video to express my disappointment in this product.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for an iPhone killer, keep looking. This thing is a Verizon/Motorolla Killer. The iPhone is supposed to be coming to Verizon in 2010, do yourself a favor and wait until then.