Dropbox is one of the big names in the cloud storage market. The native function of this service is to store your files online. However, Dropbox has been working hardly to deliver more features to make its service be more useful.

In April 2015, Dropbox released the beta test of its note-taking app called Dropbox Notes. Few months later, in August 2016, the beta test of the app was released publicly and renamed to Dropbox Paper. And earlier this year, the final version of Dropbox Paper has been officially released by Dropbox.

Dropbox Paper is aimed to help creative people working with their team online without any limitation of space. Dropbox Paper is great tool for working collaboratively with your team on a specific project. If you new to Dropbox Paper and want to adopt it for your next project with your team, here is the complete guide of how to use Dropbox Paper.

A glance look of Dropbox Paper

You can access Dropbox Paper from your Dropbox dashboard. From the Dropbox menu that is located at the left side you should see the Paper menu. Just click on it and you will be brought to the Dropbox Paper page.

Dropbox Paper comes with a clear and convenient interface. You will be given some examples on how to use Dropbox Paper properly. If you have no idea about the thing you want to write in Dropbox Paper, you can use each example as a template so you just need to replace the contents with your own.

At the left side of the Dropbox Paper page you will see three menus: Docs, Folders and Favorites. Clicking the Docs menu meaning that you are going to see all of the documents you have created (including examples). While clicking on the Folders menu you will be presented the existing folders you have created. So do with Favorites. Clicking on that menu you will be presented all the favorites you have added. We are going to discuss more about each Dropbox Paper menu later. Here is the glance look of the main interface of Dropbox Paper.

Creating a new folder and add the collaborators

The first thing you need to do before going further with Dropbox Paper as a collaboration tool is creating a folder and share it to your team members. Creating a folder help your project be more manageable. You can ask your team to put any files related to your project to this folder in order to be discussed with the entire member.

To create a new folder in Dropbox Paper just click on the Folders menu at the left side and click the Create new folder button on the next page.

Click the Share button that is located at the right side and you will be presented a new pop. Type the email addresses of your team member that are registered to Dropbox and click the Invite button. Dropbox will be notifying your team member that you have invited them to join the folder. Now you can start working collaboratively with your team from any location.

Creating a new file/document

You have created your collaborative folder. Now it’s time to go. You can create or put any files on this folder and ask your team member to do the same thing. For example, you can ask your web designer to put his/her work before it’s be finalized and be executed. You can also create a file containing a checklist of the tasks that should be done by each member.

Dropbox Paper has a cool feature to enable you put the programming codes. The code will be displayed in a different style, some kind of block quote. You can also mention your team member within the file so it’s really nice if you wish a member to do a specific task.

Before creating or putting a new file be sure you have entered the right folder of your project. Click on the Create new doc link on the right side or at the bottom one.

You can write anything related to your project. To add a new element such as image, table, check list to programming code, just click at any blank spot within the workspace area and click the “+” button.

Mention someone within the file

Dropbox Paper allows your team member to mentioning each other within the file. Just like you usually do in the social media, to mention your team member just press the “@” button on your keyboard and type her/his name/email address. Dropbox will be notifying her/him for the mention.

Commenting on a specific part

Aside of mentioning each other, the other way to communicate in Dropbox Paper is by using a live chat feature. You can comment on a specific part of the file that is being discussed. To do this, block the part that you want to comment and click the comment option on the appearing pop up. While commenting you can also mention someone in your team.

Download the files as document

Once the project has finished you may want to download the file and turn it into document. Who knows you are going to need it next days. You can download and convert your file into a DOCX file in order to be proceed with Microsoft Word or other word processors. To do this, click on the three-dot icon right next to the Share button and choose Download.

Deleting files

Instead of downloading the file and turn it into document, you may prefer to delete your file once the project has done. To delete a file in Dropbox Paper you need to archive it first before deleting permanently. To archive a file, go to your collaborative folder and specify which file you want to delete. Hover your mouse over the document/file and click on the small box next to it. Click on the Archive button at the bottom.

To delete the file/document permanently go back to the Dropbox Paper main page and click on the Archive menu. You should see all files you have archived on this page. To delete a or more files just hover your mouse over each file and click on the small box next to each file as you did when archiving files. Click on the Delete permanently button at the bottom.

That was how to use Dropbox Paper as a collaboration tool to finish your project. If you have any comment, please kindly share your thoughts at the comment box. Good luck!