A few Dropbox hacks of mine
For most people that have used Dropbox it's been a great time saver. Personally when going from machine to machine nothing is easier and "just works" like Dropbox. I want to share a few ways that I use Dropbox to help me out
1. Symlink Folders
The title may put you off but I'll explain what this does and how this works. I have a folder on my work machine called 'Projects.' Now sometimes I remember to move some files that I really need to work on later at home in my Dropbox, edit them, then move them back in to place the next day. If I forget I'm out of luck and I don't want to move that folder just in to Dropbox because I'll end up always looking for it in the old place.
There's an easy fix for this when you're on a Mac or Linux box: Symlinks. A symlink is like an alias that points to a file or folder that's in another location. Open a Terminal on your machine and do this *
It's that simple! Now that Projects folder will always sync with your Dropbox account and it will stay in it's original location. (* Make a backup of that folder first just in case)
2. Shared Folders
I like to keep my work and personal work as separate as I can. While adding your own Dropbox account to your work machine seems like a good idea I just wasn't thrilled with it. If I end up unemployed all of my personal files will be on my work machine with no way to remove them. My solution to this is to have two Dropbox accounts. One is my personal account and the second is only for work. Now on my work account I have a shared folder called Work. I invited my personal account to use it and now what's personal stays personal and what's work can be accessed anywhere. This is great for when I take my personal laptop to work and need to share files between the two machines without switching accounts.
3. The same wallpaper everywhere
For a while now I've had random wallpaper setup on my macs. It's simple, go to System Preferences, Desktop & Screensaver, select a folder with a bunch of images inside, and set it to change the picture every few minutes. This way when I come across an image I like I can just add it to the folder. You get the added bonus of not looking at the same boring image you once liked six months ago. With Dropbox you can keep the same wallpaper rotating on any machine that you own. Just make a Wallpaper folder inside of Dropbox and point your mac to it.
And that's it. If you're not using Dropbox already just use this link http://db.tt/Rvk9DQK and we'll both get some extra storage space.

