Featured by Dropbox for Business blog: Research smarter with Dropbox-connected apps
It’s not everyday that our platform partners feature us in a blog post. But last week Dropbox featured Collected in a post on their Dropbox for Business blog that we want to share with you.
Source: Dropbox for Business Blog
While this in not an original #CollectedHack, it definitely falls under that category. Our partners at Dropbox share how you can leverage Feedly, Dropbox, and Collected to automate the collection of research and integrate suggestions of that research directly into Word, right when you need it.
Below is the post from the Dropbox for Business blog. (Special thanks to Josh Sandberg and Alex Feldman for coordinating with our team and authoring the post.)
There’s a whole lot of information out there. That means a whole lot of finding, collecting, and digging through data to get what you need. So when you have research to do, these apps can help. They connect with Dropbox to make all that information more discoverable, more useful, and most of all, more manageable.
Feedly (iOS, Android, Web)
If you find yourself checking the same blogs and news sites every day, Feedly can make your life a little easier. Add the addresses of your favorite sites — like this one — and you’ll get new articles delivered to one place, all day long. You can even set Feedly to automatically add PDF versions of saved and tagged articles to your Dropbox.
Microsoft Word (Windows, Mac, iOS, Android*)
Sometimes the best research documents are the notes you take. And what better place to take those notes than Microsoft Word? Connect Dropbox to the mobile editions of Word to access, edit, and share your research anywhere. On Windows and Mac, the new Dropbox badge lets you stay up to date without leaving the app. Want to get even more out of Dropbox and Word? Read on for another tip.
Collected (Windows, Mac, Web)
Collected solves a common problem: how to sift through a huge pile of research documents. Connect your Dropbox, pick folders for Collected to scan, and you’ll have your own personal assistant. As you type in Microsoft Office, Collected will display related content from your Dropbox, perfect for grabbing a snippet or a quote from a long-lost doc.
Getting a handle on information can be a lot of work. But with these Dropbox-connected apps helping out, you can make research a breeze.For more apps that integrate with Dropbox for Business, check out our apps page!
*Android access via the Word app for tablets and the Office Mobile app for smartphones
Collected can be a game-changer at your organization. Try Collected today and start receiving the most related content from your cloud accounts, right where and when you need it.
Collected works where you are - Word, Powerpoint, Google Docs, and anywhere on the web with our Chrome Extension, like Salesforce or Zendesk!
#CollectedHack: How to get your Gmail attachments in Collected
Ever find yourself combing through pages of Gmails to find an attachment? Maybe you can recall trying several combinations of search criteria only to come up empty handed? Or have you ever been frustrated trying to find the attachment nested in an email thread with 27 replies?
While Gmail is the email platform that most of us have chosen to use in our personal lives or at smaller companies, it certainly is not without its faults. But at Collected we can help improve one part of Gmail - recalling attachments.
With the #CollectedHack below, you can automatically save your attachments to your cloud service of choice: Google Drive, Dropbox, or Box. It combines products from Collected and Kloudless. Quick thanks to Kloudless for making this #CollectedHack possible!
How to set up this #CollectedHack:
This setup requires you to have a cloud account with Google Drive, Dropbox, or Box.
Step 1: Install Kloudless from the Chrome Extension store. Follow the setup process to link your cloud account. (A pop-up window will appear after Kloudless opens a new Gmail window when you install.)
Step 2: Click Kloudless and "Settings" next to your search bar after you complete the account setup.
Step 3: Under Settings, add "Automation" rules to ask Kloudless to save your attachments to a specific folder for you whenever a new attachment comes to your inbox.
Step 4: Signup for Collected. During the setup process, be sure to link the same cloud account that you used for Kloudless.
Step 5: Collected allows you to select the specific folders you want to see suggested content from and leave out the folders you don't.
Step 6: Download Collected for the applications where you need to reference and reuse your Gmail attachments like Word, PowerPoint, Chrome and Google Docs.
Bonus: With our Chrome Extension, you can see suggestions while you are writing in Gmail!
Find this hack useful? Please share it below!
What is a #CollectedHack?
#CollectedHacks is a series of tips geared toward helping you get more from your cloud-stored content. With Collected linked to your cloud accounts, you can easily rediscover and reuse all your content while you work. Find all our previous hacks in our blog archive using the tag or search Twitter for the hashtag.
#CollectedHack: If you still bookmark links, you're doing it wrong.
Bookmarks come in many shapes and sizes, but most bookmarks fall into one of two buckets - Quick Links or Useful Articles.
The first bucket is straightforward and convenient. These are shortcuts to your bank account, your cable subscription, or your email. Most importantly, these are largely bookmarks that you use frequently and effectively. I probably use this type of bookmark at least a dozen times a day.
The Problem
But those supposedly Useful Articles are a different story. We all have read great reference articles with useful commentary on a particular subject or interesting stats that we want to reference in our next presentation or paper. But how often do we actually remember to use them? Almost never. Most of us stash that link in our bookmarks bar or in a folder that we never open. If I had a more effective way to archive articles, I would probably save three times as many for future reference!
The Solution
Putting these articles in a cloud account linked to Collected can help you to recall all them when and where you need to. Also, by saving them in a cloud account, you'll still have a copy of the content even if the original page is removed or goes down. So how do we get these articles into a cloud account?
Say hello to Save to Google Drive. It's a simple Chrome Extension that lets you save webpages back to your Drive.
One quick caveat - the formatting in the Google Doc can vary a bit from one blog to the next and occasionally you have to clean up the Google Doc. But for this tip, the format is not what we came for. We're interested in the rich contextual snippets that Collected will now find and suggest back to us.
How to set up this #CollectedHack:
Step 1: Make sure you're using Google Chrome and have a Google Drive account.
Step 2: Install the Save to Google Drive extension from the Chrome Webstore.
Step 3: Configure the options for the 'Save to Google Drive' extension by navigating to the Chrome Menu > Settings > Extensions > Save to Google Drive > Options. Choose the destination folder you want to save articles in and make sure to select the 'Google Document' option under 'Save page as'.
Step 4: Link Collected to your Drive account and make sure to select the folder that you are saving your articles in.
Step 5: When you see an article you want to save, click the 'Save to Google Drive; icon in the top right of your Chrome menu. Open the new Google Doc and do any necessary clean up.
Step 6: Download your Collected plugin of choice (Word, PowerPoint, Chrome or Google Docs). When you start working, Collected will suggest back to you the most related snippets from your saved articles!
Find this hack useful? Please share it below!
What is a #CollectedHack?
#CollectedHacks is a series of tips geared toward helping you get more from your cloud-stored content. With Collected linked to your cloud accounts, you can easily rediscover and reuse all your content while you work. Find all our previous hacks in our blog archive using the tag or search Twitter for the hashtag.
