Latest Dropbox build introduces screenshot sharing

Martin Brinkmann
Jun 6, 2013
Updated • Jun 6, 2013
Internet
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If you are using Dropbox on your phone or tablet as an application, you probably know that it can be configured to save screenshots that you take on the device automatically to the cloud. The screenshots that you take this way are all added to the camera uploads folder on your Dropbox storage from where they are synced to all devices that you use.

I do use it to quickly transfer screenshots that I take on my Android device to my PC so that I can use them in articles that I write here on the site.

The latest experimental build of Dropbox introduces the same feature to the desktop computer. Once you have installed the new version you will notice that it will automatically map the print key to it. That's problematic for users who have the key mapped to another program on their system as it unmaps that connection.

When you select save screenshots to Dropbox all screenshots that you take using the print key are automatically saved to a new screenshots folder on your Dropbox. It is automated and works identical to how this works on mobile devices.

dropbox share screenshots

You can also use Ctrl-Print to take a screenshot, get it uploaded to Dropbox and copy the sharing url of it directly to the clipboard of your operating system so that you can post it online or share it with others.

Now, the problem for users who do not want the feature is that Dropbox maps the key to the application so that another app that you may have been using instead does not anymore. If you are using screenshot taking software and want to continue using it, you may run into issues because of this.

What you may need to do is open the program you are using and remap the keys to it so that you can continue using it the way you have before.

I'm not entirely sure if Dropbox won't map keys if you hit the no thanks button the first time the window appears on the screen. But since it appears the first time you hit the print key, it seems to map the print key automatically.

You can disable the screenshot taking functionality of Dropbox in the preferences under import.

dropbox import screenshots

Pro Tip: You can combine using your own screenshot taking application on the desktop with Dropbox's sync feature by simply saving your screenshots to a Dropbox folder. It may not be as automated depending on the program you are using but it makes sure that you can use the best of both worlds.

The screenshot to Dropbox feature is currently only available for Windows and Mac OS X.

The new experimental build introduces additional features:

  • Move to Dropbox is a new context menu item that you can use to move the files and folders that you have selected into the Dropbox.
  • Import from iPhoto, a Mac-only feature that creates iPhoto albums and events as Dropbox albums.
  • Download and upload speed improvements for large files.

You can download the latest experimental version of Dropbox from the official forum.

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Comments

  1. ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm
    Reply

    Doesn’t Windows 8 know that www. or http:// are passe ?

    1. Martin Brinkmann said on August 4, 2012 at 7:57 pm
      Reply

      Well it is a bit difficulty to distinguish between name.com domains and files for instance.

    2. Leonidas Burton said on September 4, 2023 at 4:51 am
      Reply

      I know a service made by google that is similar to Google bookmarks.
      http://www.google.com/saved

  2. VioletMoon said on August 16, 2023 at 5:26 pm
    Reply

    @Ashwin–Thankful you delighted my comment; who knows how many “gamers” would have disagreed!

  3. Karl said on August 17, 2023 at 10:36 pm
    Reply

    @Martin

    The comments section under this very article (3 comments) is identical to the comments section found under the following article:
    https://www.ghacks.net/2023/08/15/netflix-is-testing-game-streaming-on-tvs-and-computers/

    Not sure what the issue is, but have seen this issue under some other articles recently but did not report it back then.

  4. Anonymous said on August 25, 2023 at 11:44 am
    Reply

    Omg a badge!!!
    Some tangible reward lmao.

    It sucks that redditors are going to love the fuck out of it too.

  5. Scroogled said on August 25, 2023 at 10:57 pm
    Reply

    With the cloud, there is no such thing as unlimited storage or privacy. Stop relying on these tech scums. Purchase your own hardware and develop your own solutions.

    1. lollmaoeven said on August 27, 2023 at 6:24 am
      Reply

      This is a certified reddit cringe moment. Hilarious how the article’s author tries to dress it up like it’s anything more than a png for doing the reddit corporation’s moderation work for free (or for bribes from companies and political groups)

  6. El Duderino said on August 25, 2023 at 11:14 pm
    Reply

    Almost al unlmited services have a real limit.

    And this comment is written on the dropbox article from August 25, 2023.

  7. John G. said on August 26, 2023 at 1:29 am
    Reply

    First comment > @ilev said on August 4, 2012 at 7:53 pm

    For the God’s sake, fix the comments soon please! :[

  8. Kalmly said on August 26, 2023 at 4:42 pm
    Reply

    Yes. Please. Fix the comments.

  9. Kim Schmidt said on September 3, 2023 at 3:42 pm
    Reply

    With Google Chrome, it’s only been 1,500 for some time now.

    Anyone who wants to force me in such a way into buying something that I can get elsewhere for free will certainly never see a single dime from my side. I don’t even know how stupid their marketing department is to impose these limits on users instead of offering a valuable product to the paying faction. But they don’t. Even if you pay, you get something that is also available for free elsewhere.

    The algorithm has also become less and less savvy in terms of e.g. English/German translations. It used to be that the bot could sort of sense what you were trying to say and put it into different colloquialisms, which was even fun because it was like, “I know what you’re trying to say here, how about…” Now it’s in parts too stupid to translate the simplest sentences correctly, and the suggestions it makes are at times as moronic as those made by Google Translations.

    If this is a deep-learning AI that learns from users’ translations and the phrases they choose most often – which, by the way, is a valuable, moneys worthwhile contribution of every free user to this project: They invest their time and texts, thereby providing the necessary data for the AI to do the thing as nicely as they brag about it in the first place – alas, the more unprofessional users discovered the translator, the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, the greater the aggregate of linguistically illiterate users has become, and the worse the language of this deep-learning bot has become, as it now learns the drivel of every Tom, Dick and Harry out there, which is why I now get their Mickey Mouse language as suggestions: the inane language of people who can barely spell the alphabet, it seems.

    And as a thank you for our time and effort in helping them and their AI learn, they’ve lowered the limit from what was once 5,000 to now 1,500…? A big “fuck off” from here for that! Not a brass farthing from me for this attitude and behaviour, not in a hundred years.

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