Dropbox Paper offers real-time editing for teams

Dropbox, the free cloud storage service provider, has launched a new service called Dropbox Paper. To use this service, you will have to use your Dropbox credentials since all the created documents will be saved in your Dropbox account, where you can check and share them right from your mobile device, even if you do not have the Paper app installed. Let us check out the features, tips and tricks of Dropbox Paper, which can be considered as a competitor to Google Docs.

Dropbox Paper review

Dropbox Paper lets more than one person collaborate while working on a single document. This is probably its best feature. For a small team that wants to communicate with each other from a remote location, this can be very useful. All collaborators will get access to the updated document in real-time, but no more than one person can edit the document at a time. This helps avoid conflicts.

Dropbox Paper offers real-time editing for teams

Like Google Docs, it is possible to play with some Link Settings to manage your documents’ privacy better. For example, you can let someone check your document or paper, but prevent him/her from editing your document.

This service supports rich media, so you can insert a video or audio in your document. You can also embed a link to a YouTube video or SoundCloud audio.

As far as Editing capabilities as concerned, you can create bold text, italic text or underline any text. It is also possible to insert a link, create a list, create bullet points, and add a checkbox or comments. All those options appear after selecting a text. For your information, the italic and underline options are not offered in the Menu bar – you will have to use keyboard shortcuts.

The View History feature lets you check document history. You can see the edits and changes made to the document by all users.

The Word Count option allows you to determine the number of words in a document, as well as the number of characters and emoji.

Print and Download are two other useful options to save and use the document offline.

You can easily insert a 2-column table in Dropbox Paper. In Microsoft Word, you may have to go through few steps, but Dropbox Paper can do the same in just one click.

You can insert an image into your document in two ways: You can upload it to your Paper or fetch an image from your Dropbox account.

How to use Dropbox Paper

You need a Dropbox account to use Dropbox Paper. After logging into the Dropbox Paper website, a Paper folder will be created in your Dropbox account.

To create a new document, click on Create new doc button and enter the title and text as required. You will see a Plus sign that will let you create different types of text or images. Check the following image for reference.

If you want to add simple text, start typing in the Now write something brilliant box. If you want to add links, comments, bullet points, checkboxes or bold, italic, or underline any text, you have to select the text to be able to see the options.

To add a YouTube video, Soundcloud audio, GIF animation, or image, copy the link and paste it into the given field. Paper will fetch the media automatically.

If someone has given you access to his/her Paper document, you will receive a notification. All the notifications can be found by clicking on the Bell icon at the top right corner of your screen.

It is possible to add Emoji in the middle of the text. But, there is no dedicated button to add them. To add any smiley, type on manually – ed “:)” and you will see a huge list offered as follows:

You can also add a Comment to a part of the text if you need to elaborate on something. To add a comment, select the text and press Ctrl + Alt + M. You will see a field to write your comment. If you want to add a comment to a particular section, click on that section to get the “Comment” button.

To share a document link with someone or to add a collaborator for your document, you can click on the Share button. Here you will see two options i.e. Link Settings and Copy Link. If you copy the link and send it to someone, he/she will be able to see your document without having a Dropbox account. If you select the People with the link option, anybody can view the document. The Only people invited option offers better privacy since only invited people can view your document. In the latter case, you can invite those with a Dropbox account only.