The image opens in Photoshop, where it is converted to a new color space and to CMYK (for book projects), and finally saved to the project folder.įor all of that to happen, the only thing I need to do is capture and save the screenshot to the Dropbox folder. tif), moves it to an Originals folder, and then opens the file using a Photoshop CS4 action droplet. The Automator action renames the file (changing the extension from. On that Mac, I assigned a Folder Action to that Dropbox folder, which looks for new files and, when it finds one, hands it off to an Automator action. The image is then automatically replicated on all of my computers that are running Dropbox, including my main MacBook Pro. On my test machine, I capture a screenshot using SnapzPro X ( ) (on the Mac) or HyperSnap (for Windows) and save the image to a folder within my Dropbox folder. Thanks to Dropbox, Automator, and Folder Actions, I do it all in one step. That involves getting the shot, transferring the image file to my main Mac, and running it through Photoshop to convert it to the right format. When writing my books, I often need to capture screenshots from other machines. For example, writer Jeff Carlson uses Dropbox and Folder Actions to automate a good chunk of his writing workflow: This opens up all kinds of interesting possibilities. You can treat your Dropbox folder like any other folder on your Mac-which means you can assign Folder Actions to them.

And remember: make that backup before you start messing around with vital program files. However, the Dropbox wiki strongly warns against trying to sync the data files associated with OS X’s built-in apps (Mail, iCal, and so on) I wouldn’t try it. Some Dropbox users claim they sync entire iTunes and iPhoto libraries this way if you want to try that, you’ll likely need the extra storage you get with one of Dropbox’s paid accounts. Other users sync their Web Receipts folders. You could, for example, sync entire Firefox profiles (not just bookmarks, but extensions too) or Bento databases. These same techniques could potentially be used for a range of other applications. The program data should then be the same on each machine. Whichever way you do it, repeat the process on your other machines.

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