Dropbox is simply one of my favourite apps and so many people I know use it, however, there are many out there who are not sure about it or don’t know how to use the features like sharing and version histories.

Dropbox makes sharing easy on Windows, Apple Mac, Linux, iPads, iPhones, iPod touchs, Androids, Blackberrys and I’m sure the list will keep growing.

Getting started on Dropbox is free. If you want to sign up to Dropbox it is free and you get 2GB for that which seems to be enough for many people, however, you can get more by fulfilling some criteria such as inviting other people to join Dropbox and them accepting. You an also pay for more space, I do this and pay US$99 per year and get 100GB for that.

For many of us sharing files is useful with friends, family and colleagues. I find this really useful, I create a folder and share it, the individual or group I share it with can also add to that folder. Great for sharing, great for collaborating. If I add photographs they are easily viewable as Dropbox as a nice way to view the photos and by using the arrows move through the folder.

Version history can really get you out of a hole, it is a feature called Packrat in Dropbox and you do have to pay for it. What it allows you to do is recovery, easily, deleted files and you can also restore previous versions of files you have works on. So if you do something to a document you can go back to a previous version you saved. You don’t have to give each one a separate file name it just manages the versions for you. The neat thing about this is if you decide to add this feature it you will have to upgrade from the free version. What is neat is that when you do sign up files that have been changed or deleted in the 30 days leading up to you signing up will be there. Packrat is US$39 per year. I think that is reasonable for such a useful feature. Imagine no more lost files.