How To Save Documents Directly to Dropbox in Windows 7

BYTE -- Dropbox lets you share, back up and access documents from virtually anywhere. Here's how to save MS Word, Excel and other standard Office document types into Dropbox.

To save your document into the Dropbox folder. Click on File >> Save as

Windows Explorer opens. Select Dropbox from the right panel. You'll see a variety of folders and you have the option to create a new one. For now, select one of the folder it lists. Hit Save.

In my example, using Office 2007, I click Menu button >> Save as >> Word Document.

When Windows Explorer displays again, in the left panel select Dropbox, the folder you want to save it in, and click Save.

That's it. If you have notifications enabled, one will pop up in the notification area.

Now, open the Dropbox folder on any machine you have Dropbox installed, you'll see the saved document there.

Or browse to your Dropbox account online. Access is free.

You can access your files from any device that supports Dropbox. Here's an example of doing it from an iPad.

Brian Burgess is the executive editor at BYTE. Follow him @mysticgeek. Got a comment or idea? Send it to him at [email protected].