cloud computing

7 Advanced Dropbox Features You Didn’t Know

October 5, 2016 by selim Dizdar

By now you probably have a Dropbox account, and quite possibly, more just than one.

The beauty of Dropbox is its simplicity. Drop a file in a folder and it’s magically synced to Dropbox—safe, secure, and available when you need it.

Dropbox is so easy, in fact, that you might not be aware of some of the great features that have been added in the last few years. Let’s take a look at some of the features you might not be using (yet), but should consider:

1. Restore Previous Versions of Files

We’ve all done it: saved changes on a document by accident. Or maybe a team member accidentally erased the wrong file in a shared folder.

Either way, Dropbox can save the day:

Through the Dropbox web app, you can quickly restore accidentally deleted or over-written versions of your files. Simply hover over a file, select “Previous versions,” and then click the version you’d like to restore.

You can also view deleted files from the left-hand menu.

2. Quickly Find Recent Files

Dropbox recently added a “Recents” link, which is where you’ll find any recent document that’s been synced to Dropbox.

The power of this feature is that it doesn’t matter if you accessed the file from your desktop or through Dropbox.com.

If it’s a file that’s saved in Dropbox and you recently opened or synced it, you’ll easily find it in “Recents.”

3. Open Local Files from the Web

One of Dropbox’s slicker features is the ability to directly open files stored on your computer right from their web interface.

To do this, find the file through the browser from within your account at Dropbox.com. Double click to see the preview. Then click “Open” in the upper right.

It will immediately open on your desktop:

4. Edit Word or Excel Documents Online (Even if You Don’t Have Microsoft Office)

Have a team member who insists on using Word or Excel? Working on a computer without Office? No problem. Dropbox allows you to easily modify these files without having to download them.

Simply find the file in Dropbox, click the down arrow next to “Open,” and choose “Microsoft Word Online”:

The same trick works for Excel documents, too.

5. See Everything You’ve Shared

Quick: do you remember what you shared from your Dropbox account last year? What about five years ago?

If you’re wondering what you have still floating out in the web, you can easily see everything you shared in your Dropbox.

To get there, just click “sharing” in the right menu:

If you’d like to change sharing settings for any file, click the three dots (…) next to the Share button.

6. Instantly Share Screenshots

If you use a Mac, you can store screenshots directly to a “Screenshots” folder in Dropbox, instead of to your desktop.

On your Mac, open your Dropbox app preferences: Dropbox icon in your menu bar > gear icon > Preferences > Import tab.

Check “Save screenshots using Dropbox.”

cloudhq_blog_dropboxadvanced_4_screenshots

From then on, all screenshots will be saved in a folder in Dropbox, instead of on your desktop.

This means your screenshots from any device are always accessible—not stuck at home on your desktop.

7. Save Your Gmail in Dropbox with One Click

If you use Gmail, we’ve created a host of productivity extensions you can use to get your work done better— and faster.

One of our extensions is specific to Dropbox: “Save emails to Dropbox”.

Once installed, you’ll be able to save a copy of any email directly to Dropbox with the click of a button:

The Benefit

Dropbox does more than save static files in the cloud.

Whether you use these tips for work or personal files, they’ll help keep your digital life organized.

Save your emails to Dropbox and see how easy backing up important emails can be!

Save emails to Dropbox

Overwhelmed? 7 Ways to Be Productive Anyway

September 13, 2016 by selim Dizdar

Feel overwhelmed at work?

It happens to all of us sometimes.

Ironically, having too much to do can easily sap you of your motivation to do much of anything.

Here are some tips you can use to stay productive, even when it feels like you have far too much to do:

1. Choose the 3 Most Important Things—Then Delegate or Postpone Everything Else

Take a long look at your to-do list.

Does everything there truly have to get done today?

Usually, there are lots of things on your list that you badly want to get done, but that could stand to wait a day or two.

Go through your list, pick the top three things you have to do, then work only on those tasks.

If you get them done, you can go back to your longer list and work on other items.

2. Don’t Multitask

Multi-tasking is almost always less efficient than working on a single task at a time.

Except for automatic tasks like walking or chewing gum, your brain only has enough energy to focus on one thing at a time.

When you try to do two things at a time, you’re not actually doing two things at once. Instead, you’re switching back and forth, entering each task for only a few seconds.

The research on this is pretty clear. Multi-tasking well is a myth.

No matter how many items are on your to-do list, it’s better to attack one task at a time—and block out everything else.

3. Be Uninterruptible

A University of California Irvine study found it took an average of 23 minutes for knowledge workers to get back on track after an interruption.

That’s why it’s so important to shield yourself from distractions, especially if you already feel overwhelmed.

Remember to mute or turn off desktop, browser, and mobile notifications for a few hours.

If all else fails, tape a sign on the back of your chair to ward off intruders:

4. Put Tasks on a Calendar

Be realistic about how many hours you have in your day.

Take your top tasks and put them on your calendar, just like you do with meetings and appointments.

Then stick to your calendar, no matter what.

This will give you a realistic view of what you have to get done. And with practice, you’ll get a better sense of how long your tasks actually take.

5. Say “No”

Protect your time and energy.

When you’re overwhelmed, say “no” to every request you can.

Be polite, but be firm.

If you struggle with this, here are some easy phrases you can use to decline requests:

“Thank you for asking, but that isn’t going to work out for me.”
“I really appreciate you asking me, but my time is already committed.”
“I can’t do it, but I’ll bet Kevin can. Could you check with him?”

6. Unplug Every 90 Minutes or So

Short breaks can recharge your ability to focus.

A University of Illinois study found performance and attention dropped noticeably after focusing on a single task for a long time, but a small break can help you refocus.

Try to unplug every 90 minutes or so.

Get up and stretch your muscles. Or take a 10-minute walk around the building. Going with a friend is even better since you’ll get a little social interaction along the way.

7. Ask for Help

It’s okay to ask for help.

If you’ve prioritized, scheduled, and focused, but you still have far too much to do, it’s time to ask a boss, co-worker, or friend for help.

Your supervisor, in particular, needs to know if you’re falling behind.

Most supervisors genuinely want to help. And they might have access to resources you aren’t aware of.

At the very least, they should be able to help you decide what tasks are truly important— and which ones can wait.

Bonus Tip: Set Up Systems to Make Life Easier

When you’re already stressed out, losing 10 minutes searching your inbox for a client email can be maddening. Same thing if you’re trying to find the latest version of a file saved somewhere in your cloud storage.

Before things get overwhelming, put some systems in place to help you stay organized.

Make some time to set up a workflow system that make life easier. For example: automatically backup all your cloud storage files, so that you know they’ll be there when you need them.

The next time things get crazy, you’ll be glad you organized a plan.

Organize your cloud

How Sales Teams Use Gmail Labels to Close More Deals

September 8, 2016 by selim Dizdar

Recently we heard about how the company Rentec Direct was using cloudHQ’s Gmail Label Sharing Chrome extension to dramatically improve how they responded to inbound leads.

Rentec Direct sells property management software. Janell Kittleson is affectionately known as their “Master of Sales”. Here’s how she described their sales team’s old process:

“Prior to cloudHQ, incoming leads and sales correspondence that fell out of our CRM. We would forward emails back and forth between sales members to make sure we were all ‘in the know.’”

“With varying work schedules and staff responsibilities, this sometimes meant waiting until another team member was able to log into their email account and begin forwarding messages that had been sitting in their inbox.”

“In sales, the early bird gets the worm, so this was not a successful solution.”

Label Sharing Eliminates Endless Back and Forth Emails

Forwarding emails back and forth is a sign of a broken process — and an opportunity for improvement.

This is especially true when different members of your team are in different locations or work different hours.

Gmail label sharing puts an end to all those back and forth emails.

There are two options to set up Gmail Label Sharing for your team

Option 1: IT Admin Setup

If you’re an IT Admin, you can set up Gmail label sharing across your entire company, handpicking each user that can have access.

That way, your users won’t have to set up the label sharing on their own — and you won’t have to troubleshoot if they have problems.

You can see full instructions for IT admin setup here: Full Gmail Label Sharing Control for Admins.

Option 2: Have Team Members Install Label Sharing

To have team members install Gmail label sharing, have them follow these instructions:

Step 1: Have each team member create a Gmail label for their lead and prospect messages:

Step 2: Have everyone install cloudHQ’s free Gmail Label Sharing Chrome extension:

Step 3: Team members will share their label with everyone on the sales team:

Step 4: Use filters to apply labels to prospect communications:

You can route all inbound email to the label, or use rules to apply the label only to certain messages.

The Payoff

Once you’ve implemented Gmail Label Sharing, lead and prospect messages from your CRM will never be “trapped” in a team member’s email.

And you won’t have to forward emails back and forth to stay up to date.

If an email comes to a team member who’s not currently working, other team members can step in and answer the email directly.

The result?

Our customer said it best:

“Each team member understands the sorting policies we have regarding leads. We no longer have to wait for one person to delegate activity. I can tell that we will discover more ways we can use this tool than our initial impetus.”

Get Gmail Label Sharing Free

5 Quick Ways to Detox Your Digital Life (In 10 Minutes or Less)

August 4, 2016 by selim Dizdar

Clutter in life leads to clutter in your thinking. It’s true for digital clutter just like it is for physical clutter.

Here are five simple projects you can do today to help you clean up your digital life:

1. Have a 10-Minute Delete Party

Pick an area of your computer you know is a mess.

For 10 minutes, delete anything that’s old, outdated, or no longer relevant to your work.

For best results, sort your files by size first, moving the biggest files to the top of the list:

You’ll usually find three or four files that are giant compared to the rest of the files in that folder.

You might need to keep the giant files, or you might be able to delete them. Either way, you’ll be evaluating the biggest files.

This is a great way to free up storage space and improve the performance of your computer overall.

You can also sort by “Date” modified with the oldest files at the top. Often the oldest files are the ones that most need to be deleted:

2. Archive All Your Email (Yes ALL of It)

Despite the popularity of Slack and a dozen other messaging apps, email isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

If your inbox is home to hundreds or thousands of emails, it might be time for a massive one-time archive of all your messages.

Yes ALL of them.

Drastic?

Maybe. But what do you have to lose? All your messages will still be available in your archive if and when needed.

At the worst, you might have to keep three or four emails from the last day or two—messages that require some type of action.

Keep those. Archive the rest. Even better, make archiving email a daily or weekly habit.

Then enjoy the peace of having a (mostly) empty inbox.

3. Clear Your Downloads Folder

The downloads folder is often a wasteland of downloads, updates, and other random files—all taking up valuable room on your disk.

This can easily grow to consume many GB of space:

The download folder should be a temporary storage location, not a permanent archive. Move or delete anything that lives there.

Also, if you’ve downloaded software from the internet, it’s almost always okay to delete the installation files.

The software will still run on your computer, and if you need the installation files again in the future, you can just re-download them.

4. Make a Zen Desktop

The desktop tends to act like a “catch-all” storage location for many people.

Screenshots, downloads, documents you pulled out of email, pictures from friends—these all have a habit of landing (and living) on your desktop for days.

Take a look and see what’s there. If you don’t need it, toss it.

Look at your shortcuts too. Have any you don’t use anymore?

Once you’ve deleted unnecessary files and shortcuts, try installing a streamlined app launcher to further increase your desktop zen. Here are two you can use:

RocketDoc (Mac)
ObjectDock (PC)

5. Set Up Automated Backups of Your Documents

If you’re serious about decluttering your computer—but worried about deleting files you might need later—this is the solution for you.

First, choose a cloud storage service where you’ll want to save just about everything (Dropbox, Box, Google Drive, etc.). Then use our backup sync service to keep all your other cloud services automatically backed up to your master cloud storage service.

This can be done for one computer, multiple computers, or for everyone in your company.

From that point forward, any file you place in a folder will be copied directly to cloud storage.

This is a great way to create a permanent backup copy for yourself, your company, or your employees.

It also means you can rest easy when deleting files from your local computer. If you need them, they’ll be easily available in the cloud.

The Payoff

Decluttering your computer is good for your mind, your computer, and your productivity.

It doesn’t have to take long to improve things.

Take 10 minutes today and try one of these tips. We promise you’ll feel better because of it.

Set Up Your Automatic Backup

10 Google Drive Hacks That’ll Make You Look Like a Genius

June 30, 2016 by selim Dizdar

Lots of you use Google Drive for your business.

We do too. It’s simple, easy-to-use, and packed with features that make work easier.

It’s so powerful—and yet, you probably don’t realize all of Google Drive can actually do… especially with the help of a few Google Chrome extensions.

Let’s change that, shall we?

Here’s a top 10 list of our favorite Google Drive productivity features for business:

10. Translate on the Fly

Sometimes you need to translate a document—and fast.

In Google Docs, this just takes a few clicks.

Under “Tools”, select “Translate Document”.

Choose a language, click the “Translate” button. Google will create a new, translated document and save it in Google Drive automatically.

9. Save Any File Type

Google Docs, Forms, Sheets, and Slides are all easy to save in Google Drive. But you can also save any type of file in Google Drive.

That means for everything you need on a single project, you can create a folder and upload all your files to keep everything together all in once place.

You can also create shareable links to any of these files, just like you can with a Google Doc or a Sheet.

8. Research in a Single Window

If you’re working in a Google Docs, you might not have time to open a new tab or window to research.

In the drop-down menu under “Tools”, select “Research.”

A handy research area will open on the right side of the tab.

7. Search in the Link Box

Ever realize that you need to link to a source, but you haven’t looked up the source yet?

You could open a new tab or window and go hunting.

Or—because this is Google—you can select the text you want to hyperlink, then search directly within the link box:

6. Desktop Sync

Need to work offline? No worries. It’s easy to sync your Google Drive files to your hard drive.

You can sync all your data, or just selected folders. This gives you full access to your files, whether you’re online or not.

As soon as you reconnect to the internet, your updated files will be synced to the cloud.

5. Keyboard Shortcuts

Google Drive is already simple to use.

But if you want to be a true productivity ninja, there are keyboard shortcuts galore that can get you there.

To see frequently used Google Drive keyboard shortcuts, click “Ctrl + /” on Windows or “Command + /” on Mac.

cloudhqblog_6_keyboardshortcuts_original

4. Make a Fancy Email Draft in Docs, then Send it as a Gmail Message

Google Docs has a huge number of formatting tools, including charts, images, tables, graphs, fonts, etc.

Few of those features are available in Gmail’s editor, however. That means it can be a challenge to create a nice-looking email using only the Gmail platform.

That’s where the Chrome extension Convert Google Docs to Gmail Drafts comes in.

You can create an email message or newsletter—including all its beautiful formatting—in a Google Doc, and then click a button to convert the Doc into a Gmail draft.

Pro tip: If you regularly send a newsletter, this is one of the easiest ways to make it look professional.

3. Use the Web Clipboard

Google Drive has a powerful clipboard.

Instead of using “Control + C” or “Command + C”, use the “Edit” drop-down menu, then choose “Clipboard.”

From there you’ll be able to copy, save, and paste multiple items on the clipboard.

It’s a great little feature for storing multiple ideas in one place.

2. Save Gmail Messages and Attachments Directly into Google Drive

You’ll need the free Save Emails to Google Drive Chrome extension for this one.

Once you have it installed, with a single click you’ll be able to save any email (plus attachments) into a Google Drive folder.

cloudhqblog_9_email to Google Drive_original

1. Tag Anyone

Need a friend or coworker to answer a question about a project?

Just type “+yourfriend@theircompany.com” in a comment.

Google drive will notify them of the comment and send them a link giving them access to the document.

It’s one of the easiest ways to ask questions, collaborate with coworkers, or send something to your boss for approval.

More Productivity Tools

If you love hacks and tools, check out our full list of Google Chrome extensions.

Each one is designed to make your life easier—and your days more productive.

See Chrome Extensions

16 Free Chrome Extensions to Boost Your Productivity

June 22, 2016 by selim Dizdar

We’ve recently released a host of free Chrome productivity extensions for Gmail.

They are all free.

If you have Gmail or host your company’s email through Google Apps, you can use any of all of them.

Each one is designed to help you do more, faster, and better.

Here’s the complete list:

1. Gmail Label Sharing

This is our most popular Chrome extension. You can use it to:

Share a bunch of emails all at once with an unlimited amount of people who have an email address.
- How? Just create and share a Gmail label. You can put as many emails into your labels as you like. Anyone you’ve invited to share your label will have instant access to see it as a Gmail label in their Gmail too (or if they don’t use Gmail, in their email folder regardless of what email provider they use). This eliminates the need to send or forward any emails one at a time, which usually just gets confusing.
Chat about specific emails in your Gmail label with anyone that you’ve shared your Gmail Label with.
- Small caveat: Sorry non-Gmail users, to use this feature, you need to be using Gmail.

Install Gmail Label Sharing.

2. Slick Email Templates

Create beautiful emails using free, pre-designed templates. Great for:

Private announcements
Party invitations
Congratulations
Newsletters

Once you’ve chosen a template and personalized your message, you’ll be able to send it just like any other email you send with Gmail. New templates are added all the time.

Install Gmail Email Templates.

3. Gmail Shared Todo

Create a shared to-do list for you and whoever you’re writing an email to. Keep track of accountability and watch your productivity rise!

Install Gmail Shared Todo.

4. Edit Emails in Google Docs

Save a Gmail message to Google Docs with one click.

This is great for creating an email collaboratively with your team. Before sending off that important email, you can save it to Google Docs and collaboratively work on it with your assistant, boss, or your entire team.

When it’s really important, team feedback is a good idea.

Install Edit Emails in Google Docs.

5. Convert Google Docs to Gmail Drafts

This is kind of like a continuation of #4 above, but it works the other way around: convert a Google Doc into a Gmail draft with one click.

All the formatting from your Google Doc will automatically carry through to your Gmail draft. Just don’t forget to take advantage of Google Drawings, Google doc templates, charts, tables, and images! Really, the possibilities are quite endless.

Install Convert Google Docs to Gmail Drafts and keep your perfect formatting.

6. Save Emails to PDF

Easily save Gmail messages as PDF documents to your computer. Simply click the “Save to PDF” button. Your email will be converted to a PDF and immediately downloaded to your computer.

Install Save Emails to PDF.

7. Save Emails to Google Drive

Save your Gmail message (and attachments) to Google Drive with a single click. SO helpful.

Install Save Emails to Google Drive.

8. Save Emails to Dropbox

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Dropbox with one click.

Install Save Emails to Dropbox.

9. Save Emails to Slack

Save any Gmail message to Slack with one click. This gives you one complete record of a conversation around a topic, instead of having to search between Gmail and Slack to find who said what about a project.

Install Save Emails to Slack.

10. Save Emails to OneDrive

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to OneDrive with one click.

Install Save Emails to OneDrive.

11. Save Emails to OneDrive Business

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to OneDrive Business with one click.

Install Save Emails to OneDrive Business.

12. Save Emails to Box

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Box with one click.

Install Save Emails to Box.

13. Save Emails to Salesforce

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Salesforce with one click.

Install Save Emails to Salesforce.

14. Save Emails to SharePoint

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Sharepoint with one click.

Install Save Emails to SharePoint.

15. Save Emails to OneNote

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to OneNote with one click.

Install Save Emails to OneNote.

16. Save Emails to Egnyte

Save any Gmail message (and attachments) to Egnyte with one click.

Install Save Emails to Egnyte.

More Free Productivity Tools Coming Soon!

We’re hard at work on more free productivity tools for you and your team.

To see our full list of Chrome extensions, visit cloudHQ’s page on the Chrome Web Store.

See Chrome Extensions

Your Guide To Facebook Photo Sharing

November 2, 2015 by Graciela

With last week’s announcement, you’ve probably already tried our free “Get All Your Photos In Facebook” service. If you haven’t, cloudHQ will make a free copy of all your photos in your private album, in your Facebook account. You can choose to get those photos from any service you choose like: Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Evernote, and Gmail attachments.

Why did we choose Facebook? 2 simple, yet effective reasons:

Facebook will let you upload an unlimited amount of photos for free, and never charge you for storage.
Facebook provides you with a beautiful way to view your photos and to share them with one friend, a small group of friends, all your friends, all your friends and friends of friends, or publicly to anyone at all.

Once you enable the service, you’ll probably get hit with a walk down memory lane. Here’s how you can share your memories from your Facebook private album with whomever you like.

Step 1. Find Your Copied Photos

Log into your Facebook account and look at your photos.
Make sure the photos you’re looking at are under “Albums”.
Find the album that says “cloudHQ Photos” and click on it.

Step 2. Find Your Photo Settings

Click on any of your photos.
Find the little lock icon next to the date of your photo on the right hand side and click on it.
A drop down menu will show up where you will see the “Only Me” option is pre-checked for you. This means that only you will see this photo.
- This can be changed if you would like to share this photo.

Step 3. Know Your Sharing Settings

If you click on “Public”, you will publish this picture with anyone on or off of Facebook.
If you click on “Friends”, only your friends on Facebook will see your published photo.
If you click on “More options”, you will see a secondary dropdown menu with a “custom” option.
The “Custom” feature is voted as the very best option by everyone in our office. Read on to understand more about it.

Step 4. Your Custom Menu

In your “Custom” option, you can either share your photo with, or not share with people and lists.

Before we get into that, it’s important to understand the subset of your photo sharing population: You can only share your photo with either “your friends” or “your friends of friends”.

Sharing your photo in the “Custom Privacy” option will never be made available to the public at large, but can be made public to your friends or your friends of friends; depending what you choose. If you don’t want to share with so many of your friends, and maybe you only want to share your photo with one person, read on — this next one is for you!

Step 4. (More About) Your Custom Menu

If you don’t want to share with all of your friends, Facebook has an option for you: just share it with specific people. Only the people you physically list in the “Share with” box, will be able to see your picture. As you can see, I chose to share with Senad.

Step 4. Your Custom Menu (Still Covering This Section)

If you choose “Friends” or “Friends of friends” in the top half of this section, and define who not to share with in the “Don’t Share With” section, everyone you chose EXCEPT those people you defined, can see your picture. You can also include lists instead of, or in addition to, specific people’s names; like the people who work with you at your “company name”, your “Family”, or a “city location”. See my example below.

Facebook doesn’t look the same on mobile as it does on desktop. All of the above steps are described in mobile snapshots below to help you sort through any user interface changes:

Step 5. Know Your Headquarters. Your cloudHQ.

cloudHQ is so much more than just a free photo copying solution to Facebook so that you can have unlimited photo storage and easier photo sharing. It also has:

Free Gmail Label Sharing.
Do you have a bunch of emails that need to get forwarded to one person or to many people? Just put them all in your Gmail label on the left, and share that label out with anyone who has an email address. It’s simple, free, and great for keeping teams on the same page. Get it here.
Easy Teamwork For Freelancers.
Here’s where we get a little techie, but it’s kinda cool… or at least our clients think so. You can sync virtually any app together using cloudHQ for amazing teamwork results. Synchronizing apps is necessary for any remote worker who uses many apps, and who needs to communicate with the rest of their team.For example, if a remote worker needs to use GoogleDrive, but his client only uses MS Office365, the remote worker can sync them all together, by folder! This way, the remote worker can see what his team is doing in MS Office365, and his team can see what he is doing in GoogleDrive, all in real-time, regardless of which apps are being used! Try it here for a free trial and see the app selection below:

Free Teamwork Trial

Photo used under Creative Commons from KJGarbutt

Why Cloud Collaboration Will Be Integral to Every Type of Business

May 28, 2015 by Graciela

Cloud collaboration is rapidly becoming an indispensable part of modern business. Once hailed as a service relevant exclusively to the IT industry, Cloud Services have become integral to SME’s, hospitals, major pharmaceutical chains, and even disaster response services. As the cloud continues to grow in reliability and efficiency, its part in day-to-day business operations is flourishing. Let’s take a look at why:

: Image Courtesy of Shutterstock.com

Centralized Project Management

Thanks to Cloud collaboration, the days of document emailing are finally behind us. Instead of employees using a weary chain of email forwarding to share information, relevant documents and data can now be centralized through the cloud. Since the cloud can be accessed remotely by any employee with the necessary security clearance, business projects can be completed and stored more efficiently than ever before. As Cloud providers continue to offer improved project management services, the Cloud is well on its way to becoming an unparalleled asset to workflow optimization.

Data Security

Contrary to popular myth, Cloud storage is generally many times safer than local storage. The dedicated security teams involved in the management of Cloud services are almost guaranteed to exceed the resources of your own IT department. With Cloud storage, business data is not being transferred through various means of dubious security. Instead of risking document loss through computer outages, flash drive damage, and compromised email accounts, all data is centralized and secured by the Cloud. Although concerns over temporary Cloud outages have yet to be entirely resolved, many Cloud providers are working on implementing failover systems. Such systems would ensure continued Cloud accessibility, even through power outages and inclement weather.

Affordable IT Expansion

Instead of buying a $500,000 IT system, SME’s can now expand their computing power affordably. With Cloud computing, even start-up businesses can maximize their IT performance in a way that was once only possible through the supercomputing systems utilized by military and research facilities. Cloud computing technologies can even function as energy-saving tools. In fact, studies show that through adopting Cloud services, businesses have reduced energy consumption and lowered carbon emissions, all whilst decreasing capital expenditure on IT resources. One report published by AT&T in 2011 predicted annual Cloud computing energy savings of up to $12.3 billion

IT Support

IT support has long been a nightmare for small and large businesses alike. But with Cloud Computing, that nightmare can finally be outsourced. Instead of relying upon in-house IT support, companies can turn to the external IT services of their Cloud provider. That means 24/7 IT support from on-call IT specialists who are trained in the Cloud. For small businesses who do not have an on-site IT support team, this provision is of particular value, providing insurance against data loss through employee error. Cloud services IT specialists will often even help businesses with problems that are not directly related to the Cloud–failure to establish a network connection, for example.

: Image Courtesy of Shutterstock.com

Remote Employment

One of the greatest advantages of the Cloud for business owners is the ease with which it enables remote employment. In fact, as a direct result of Cloud services, remote employment is a growing trend amongst big and small businesses alike. Where once project sharing with remote employees was a process too convoluted to be consistently effective, the Cloud allows off-location workers to access up-to-the-minute project updates and information. By permitting such employee collaboration, the cloud contributes to increased workflow and productivity in businesses all across the globe.

cloudHQ is a service that helps promote cross-platform team collaboration, simple workflow management, and safe backup of your cloud. Click below to start your free trial, or reach out to one of our Cloud Integration Specialists.

9 Top Basecamp and Evernote Hacks to Simplify Your Life

March 25, 2015 by Graciela

Need to take work home?
Evernote it.

Giving staff tasks for next week?
Basecamp it.

Need to secure important documents?
Google Drive or Dropbox it.

When used the right way, cloud services can save you a ridiculous amount of time. We now have the the freedom to work from any platform, anytime, and on any device.

Here’s our Top 9 Best Basecamp and Evernote tips & tricks

Part I: Basecamp

On The Big Screen
Statusboard is a great way to manage projects as a team if you can access a big screen. No need to huddle around a laptop, tablet or iPhone – you can broadcast your projects, as well as Twitter mentions and Google Analytics for all to see. You can currently sign up for free during their open beta.
With an EasyInsight Integration
EasyInsight is a SaaS-based reporting tool which integrates with other project management software, like Salesforce (which also integrates with cloudHQ).
Instead of spending ages organizing data and trying to create reports, EasyInsight has a drop and drag functionality which saves hours when it comes to generating reports and dashboards your team can use.
Rappel
Rappel is said to be the best iPhone app for Basecamp, even with the $9.99 price tag. Rappel has the speedy functionality of an app, with all the Basecamp features of the browser version.
If you don’t want to pay the extra $9.99 fee, just sync Basecamp with Evernote or Google Drive through cloudHQ and you can still see all your upcoming tasks.
Archive Function to Keep it Tidy
The last thing you want is for a tool which helps keep you organized to get as messy as your inbox. Use the Archive function (which is located in your settings) to archive a project once all of the tasks have been completed. At least this way your clean and easy-to-navigate dashboard full of projects will stay organized, showing you only the projects you are currently working on.
Assign to-do tasks to a group
At present there’s still no way to assign to-do tasks (within a to-do list) to a group of people.
Basecamp is “still unsure how or whether to approach that one,” they advise in a blog. A great work around is to leave a task unassigned and notify everyone involved using the comment feature, which means the project team members will receive an email.

Part II: Evernote

Keep An ‘Ideas’ Notebook Easily Accessible
You never know when a great idea will pop into your head. The best way to keep track of them, unless you carry around a physical notebook, is to have a dedicated notebook in Evernote for your ideas. Either write them in the Text function (under ‘create a new notebook’) or write / dictate them in a native note taking app and save it to Evernote, within your ‘ideas’ notebook.
Create a Research Document For Each Project
Except for academics, research for most of us is a series of interconnected Google searches; usually resulting in more browser tabs, bookmarks, or pictures than you can count.
Rather than bookmarking everything, create a notebook in Evernote where you can save all of the links (and any notes you need to make) in one place.
Share Only What Others Need
Starting an exciting new project when there’s more ideas than time? Don’t be that guy bombarding everyone with emails.
Instead, save your ideas in a single notebook, and then share it to everyone who’s part of that project. Your team will thank you for helping them achieve an ‘inbox zero’ status.
Keep A Clean Desktop
During the working day, many people take notes in text files. Keeping and organising them can be a nuisance, and just like cleaning, the longer you leave it, the harder it can be to tidy up.
Make it a daily habit to Evernote your notes at the end of the day. This will give you a clean desktop for when you start tomorrow again.

Backup and Collaborate

Whether you use Basecamp, Evernote, or other clouds, you should sync your cloud so that you can be platform agnostic, collaborate easily across team members and platforms, while ALWAYS backing up your work. cloudHQ has an easy to implement wizard that integrates platforms like: Google Drive, Dropbox, Basecamp, and Evernote; which means that you can have your whole team working on projects at their convenience: anytime, anywhere, and on any device.

cloudHQ is already integrated with all cloud industry leaders, so now could be a great time to put these hacks to the test. If you need any help getting your syncs set up, go ahead and book an appointment with us by clicking on the button below:

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8 Tips to Protect Yourself and Get the Most Out of Google Drive

January 29, 2015 by Graciela

One of today’s most popular cloud services is Google Drive. It’s highly secure, but it’s also only as secure as you make it. Here’s some best practices on how to protect yourself and get more out of it:

1. Sniffing out the fakes.

Check all third party applications that are authorized to access your Google Drive, and disable any that you don’t recognize. Here’s how:

Sign in to Google Drive
Click on your picture in the top right hand corner and choose “Account”
Scroll down to “Connected Apps And Services”
Click on “View All” next to “Account Permissions”
Disable any suspicious or unrecognizable apps.

2. 2-Step Verification Makes it Harder To Hack Your Account.

Enable 2-step verification on your device for your Google account, but be sure to disable the voicemail feature. A common trick that hackers use, is that they’ll call your phone provider and pose as you saying that they forgot their PIN#. Most phone companies will far too easily give a new PIN number for your device. Hackers then access your Google Drive password by pretending they’re you on Google, and asking Google to send a voicemail of your password to your device, all the while having the PIN# to access your voicemails. Sneaky, huh? Here’s how to enable 2-step verification, and disable the voicemail option:

Sign in to Google Drive
Click on your picture in the top right hand corner and choose “Account”
Scroll down to “Signing in”
Go to 2-step verification, and click on “off” to turn it on. It’ll prompt you to go to this link to get set up.
Click on “Start Setup”
It’ll prompt you to verify your phone number
IMPORTANT: When Google Drive asks you where they should send the codes just below your phone number, make sure that “Voice Call” is not enabled.

3. “Authenticator” Makes it Nearly Impossible To Hack Your Account.

After enabling a 2-step verification, you might also want to enable another app to help your privacy: Google authenticator on any of your mobile devices. You’ll receive a timed code that changes out every few seconds, and you don’t need an internet connection or mobile service to get a code generated. So if you use this in conjunction with a 2-step verification, you’re locking down your account really well.

Find the Google Authenticator on the App Store or Google Play.
Install it. It’s free.
Everytime you log into your Google account, it’ll ask you for your authentication number. When you need to enter it in, just go to the Google Authenticator app, and type in the number that you see. *Note: When you see it turning red, you’re about to get a new code generated. When it’s blue, you have a bit more time to enter it in.
Tip: Google Authenticator is great for a slew of cloud services, not just Google! You can even use it to further secure your Dropbox account, Microsoft account, and many others.

4. More Storage Space By Deleting Your Trash.

If you’re running out of storage space, empty your trash folder… just make sure that you don’t delete something that you need (in which case it shouldn’t be in your trash folder). Did you know that Google Drive counts your trash files as part of your storage quota? Yeah. That’s what we thought too. 😉

Go to Google Drive and sign in if you aren’t already.
In your labels on the left hand navigation bar, you’ll see “trash”. Click on it.
Then, you can empty your trash by clicking on “trash” again to get the pull down where you’ll have an option to “empty trash”. You’ll feel so decluttered, and your storage space will increase too.
Tip: Dropbox, MS OneDrive, and Amazon Cloud Drive doesn’t count your trash towards your storage quota.

5. More Storage Space By Deleting Your File Versions.

If you have multiple versions of a file, the old version of the file is also counted as part of your storage quota. Say, for example that you uploaded a 1GB video. And then you uploaded a new, 2GB version of that same video. The original as well as the uploaded video (for a total of 3GB) is counted towards your Google Drive storage quota. Here’s how to delete previous versions of a file:

Sign into your Google Drive account
Click on “My Drive” in the left hand navigation side bar.
All your files will show up.
Note: On any non-Google document (like a downloaded Microsoft doc, or a png or pdf, etc), you will be able to manage your versions. On any Google documents, you won’t need to manage any versions because any documents made in Google Drive don’t actually count towards your storage quota.
Right click on a non-Google document, and a dropdown menu will pop up. One of the options in the menu is called “Manage versions”. Click on it.
Make sure there are no previous versions; and if there are any, you should delete it if you don’t need it.
NOTE: You’ll need to do this for each file, so it’s a long and tedious process.
NOTE 2: We found this support page for more details if you need it.

6. Check to See All the Files That You’re Sharing With Others.

Check who’s sharing your documents, and remove anyone that you no longer collaborate with. Or worse still, remove anyone’s name that you don’t recognize.

Interestingly, Google Drive’s new update removed an easy search query that allowed you to search for all your files that you shared. Here’s a handy workaround:

Sign into your Google Drive account.
Revert back to your old Google Drive by clicking on your settings icon in the top right hand corner.
In the drop down menu that ensues, there’s an option that says “Leave the new drive”. Select it.
Now that you’ve reverted back to your old drive, go to the top of the page to the search tool bar next to the magnifying glass. There’s an upside-down arrow, which is the “advanced search options”. Click on it.
There should be this neat dropdown menu, and here you can click on “Anyone with the link” and then once you get your search results, click on the upside down arrow (advanced search options) again and click on “owned by me”. Here you will see a list of all your files that you’ve shared with others.
Go through your files, and edit sharing access file by file, as you see fit. Remove sharing privileges immediately for anyone whose name you don’t recognize.
Think you’re done? Nope. Sharing files on Google Drive can also be made public so that anyone who has the link can access your document, even if you didn’t personally invite them.
- Go to the search tool bar at the top and click on the “x” next to “Anyone with the link”. This will leave you with files “owned by me”.
- Go back to the “advanced search options” (the upside down arrow), and select “Public on the web”. Repeat step 5 with your new search result list.
- When you’re done, just click on your settings icon in the top right hand corner and select “Experience the New Drive” to revert back to the new Google Drive update.

7. Malware in the Form of Chrome Extensions? Yes.

If you use Google Chrome, you need to look at your Chrome extensions. What happens is that any old app might have been bought out by another company that is questionable, or sometimes there are app extensions that you never installed! Look at the app list scrutinizingly because, and I quote: “Google Chrome cannot prevent extensions from recording your browsing history”. What does this mean? Browsing extensions can access anything you browse, including what you type in for your Google Drive password.

8. How to Get A Hard Disk Copy of Your Google Drive.

Anyone who downloaded their Google Drive to their Mac or PC, will have a hard copy of their pictures, and other documents that were not created with Google Drive on their Mac or PC. For example, an uploaded picture or a Microsoft file that was uploaded into your Google drive will download fine to your Mac or PC. However, any documents that you created using Google Docs, Google Sheets, or Google Slides will not be part of the download, and will therefore not be backed up to your PC or Mac. If you really need those documents, we suggest synching Google Drive with another cloud storage company like Dropbox. From there, you can download your Dropbox to your Mac or PC; where all your files, regardless of where they were created, can be easily downloaded on your hard disk.

We hope these tips help you get the most out of your Google Drive!

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