Web-based Dropbox adds document preview and centralized image management

Dropbox recently unveiled two new features that it has integrated into its online storage service.

The first function - Document Preview - allows users to preview the content of files in PDF, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint formats. A small content window will appear when we click on the file name but Dropbox does not merely let us download as before. Document Preview does not support viewing Excel files and it does not work on mobile devices, however, Dropbox representative said the company will soon overcome these problems.

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The second feature is more interesting and it is related to image management. On the Dropbox website there is a separate section for us to see all the photos saved on our account. No matter which folder the photo is in, they will focus on a single place. From here, users can sort photos in chronological order, post photos directly to Facebook, Twitter or send photo emails.

Users can also create albums to group photos together and share, so that friends can always see the photos even if we move it to another folder in Dropbox. In fact, the album creation feature has been available for Android for a while, but now it brings it to its web platform. In the coming time, it will be iOS's turn to manage photos like the way mentioned above.

Document Preview and centralized photo management feature will be updated gradually for all Dropbox users " in the next month" . As a test, my Dropbox account has used the photo management, album creation function (click the Camera button in the bar to the left of the site), and the Document Preview is still not.

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Chris Beckmann, Dropbox's product manager, says new features reflect the company's way of thinking about files. Now, Dropbox sees what we upload as " user content" , not just a single file. Therefore, the company wants to find simple ways to express "content" and help users stay away from the traditional directory tree structure.

The feature to view all images in one place is the first step to this intention. Entering social networks is also a necessary move for Dropbox because it wants users to do more than just store content.

As Steve Ballmer said, Dropbox's 100 million users are still small compared to SkyDrive and it doesn't guarantee a successful future for Dropbox. Regularly adding user-friendly utilities will be a solution to help the company compete better in the cloud storage market, which has a lot of companies involved.