What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

[Don S]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

It's up to you, but having to join a site to see the "Good Stuff" is the norm on the net anymore. It's the price for seeing and using all the free stuff.
It's not that big a deal.

 

[Grandad]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

If you have a gmail account you can use google drive. If you don't have a gmail account it will only take a couple of minutes to create one.

Thanks sscatfish. Have you used this service yourself? I tried to get an outside view of Google Drive without getting directly into
signing up for something I may regret. Wikipedia made this statement in their description:
"Google Drive viewer allows one to preview the following file formats:"
So, it seems that all you get is a preview, I presume before optional downloading. I'd really like to find a service like Photobucket that invisibly opens a picture document on their server as if it was directly imbedded in a member's post. Clicking on the document as if it was an attachment is okay, but I don't like the need for website registering before viewing. - Grandad

 

[bruceb58]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

I like Dropbox but there are others like them offered by Google and Microsoft as well. The best thing about dropbox is that it shows up like a folder on your PC so you just drag and drop files. I use the app on my iphone all the time. When I travel, I store my travel docs and a pdf copy of my driver's license and passport in case I lose them.

 

[Don S]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

Yes, you have to sign up and sign in for google docs as well.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

Dropbox example. Needs to be in your Public folder

 

[Grandad]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

Here is a picture that is on my dropbox site:

Hey bruce, that looks promising. Are you able to post a PDF or xls document in the same way. If you can post the link and I can open the document by clicking on it without registering as a Dropbox client, I think we might have a winner. - Grandad

 

[bruceb58]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/83197541/OMC%20wiring%20all.pdf

Hey bruce, that looks promising. Are you able to post a PDF or xls document in the same way. If you can post the link and I can open the document by clicking on it without registering as a Dropbox client, I think we might have a winner. - Grandad

Not a problem. I send people those types of files all the time.

here is a pdf

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/83197541/OMC wiring all.pdf

 

[Grandad]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

Thanks bruce. If you are able to open this link, then you've help me find exactly what I wanted. It's great to have such support. - Grandad
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kx3nism65dkoetp/iBoats Ontario Members.pdf

 

[Don S]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

Well, I don't have dropbox, and I could open it and read it with no problem. Didn't even have to download the file to look at it, but had the option to if I wanted.
I may have to look into that site a bit more myself.

 

[Grandad]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

OK the previous link to a PDF won't open for me, so I'm posting a link to an Excel spreadsheet of the same info. - Grandad
https://www.dropbox.com/s/aqalvpqtgm8blw5/iBoats Ontario Members.xls

 

[Don S]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

I had to download that one (.xls file), but it worked fine and opened in Excel 07 with no problem.

 

[Grandad]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

Well, I was able to download the Excel file to see it just fine which is not too inconvenient. Since I documented the info originally in an Excel document, maybe I should just link to it, rather than converting to PDF and linking that. Would you guys have a preference, given your druthers?
- Grandad

 

[bruceb58]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

Just make sure you put it in your public folder. For some reason, that makes a huge difference.

 

[Don S]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

Not everyone has Excel, or a viewer for it, but Adobe Reader is one of those programs that is on about every new computer and readily available as a free download. It's very very common. The .pdf files also makes it very easy to resize

 

[sccatfish]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

Thanks sscatfish. Have you used this service yourself? I tried to get an outside view of Google Drive without getting directly into
signing up for something I may regret. Wikipedia made this statement in their description:
"Google Drive viewer allows one to preview the following file formats:"
So, it seems that all you get is a preview, I presume before optional downloading. I'd really like to find a service like Photobucket that invisibly opens a picture document on their server as if it was directly imbedded in a member's post. Clicking on the document as if it was an attachment is okay, but I don't like the need for website registering before viewing. - Grandad

I don't know of anything that would allow you to embed a txt or pdf file in a post like you can with pictures. I use google drive for work and a little bit outside of work. You can share basically anything with it. You can allow it to be searchable to anyone on the internet, make it available to only those with a link (such as a link in a forum), or restrict it only to certain people who have to use their email address (doesn't have to be a gmail address) to access it (permissions can also be applied by folder). Certain files can open in the browser with what is basically google's version of office and you can set up edit permissions like you set up access permissions. Beyond what you can open and edit within google, basically any type of file can be shared and downloaded to another's computer.

 

[Grandad]

Re: What's a Good Offsite File Storage for iBoats Post Attachments?

Thanks guys for all the help. "Dropbox" as suggested by bruceb58 seems to be working just fine. Opening a document with a click (and no additional registration) is probably the best way to access a document such as this that will perhaps be repeated throughout what may become a lengthy thread, given time. If the document was to open fully within the text of a post, the thread could become ridiculously bloated. - Grandad
http://forums.iboats.com/boating-ac...ons/calling-all-ontario-members-584004-3.html