Archive for the ‘Product’ Category

Using Groups in OfficeDrop

Friday, August 27th, 2010

With OfficeDrop’s new multi-user accounts you now have powerful means to share data.

When creating multiple users within a multi-user account, you can save time by creating Groups. Groups are a collection of access permission settings applied to individual folders that you can pre-set, so you don’t need to waste time assigning different permission levels to every single folder in your account each time you add a user. You can create a Group, such as Administrative or Sales, and as you add users to each of these groups, you can set their folder permissions to “Inherit from Group”, and the group settings you have previously created will be automatically applied.

Example of Setting up and Using a Group

Andrea has a small business with three distinct parts- administrative, sales, and accounting. She will be adding multiple users who work in each of these 3 sectors to her OfficeDrop multi-user account, but doesn’t want to continually set specific permissions to her folders with every new account. Andrea wants to start by creating accounts for Marta, Ginger, and Samuel, who all work in Accounting. Under her account tab in her administrator account, Andrea selects the ‘Manage Groups’ section of the menu to the left.

Setting up Groups in OfficeDrop

Setting up Groups in OfficeDrop

She then clicks ‘Add new group’.  She enters the group name, ‘Accounting’ into the box. Below, she sees a list of all current folders in her account, along with the option to the right of each one to set a specific access level that will apply to the entire group. Since this is her accounting department, the only folders they will need access to are the ‘Expenses’ and ‘Tax documents’ folders, which she sets to ‘Editor’. She sets the rest of the folders to ‘No Access’, as her accounting team will not require access to any of these folders.

editor-group

When finished, she selects ‘Add this group’. Once the Group has been created, she will see it listed in the Group List.Andrea wants to add Ginger Cadwell to the Accounting group, so next to the group name, she clicks the “0 Users” link. She selects ‘Add new user’.

Setting Up Group List

Setting Up Group List

She enters Ginger’s name, username, and email address. She then adds Ginger to the ‘Accounting’ group by selecting the group labeled ‘Accounting’ in the menu under ‘Add this user to one or more groups’.  Selecting the ‘Accounting’ Group will cause Ginger’s new account to inherit all the permission settings created for the group earlier. The default permission for all Andrea’s individual folders is ‘Inherit from groups’ so she doesn’t need to adjust each one accordingly. Ginger’s account will have all permissions of the Accounting Group automatically. She types a note and submits the new user. An e-mail is now generated to Ginger Caldwell and her account, once she logs in, is active immediately.

Apply Settings to Group

Apply Settings to Group

Andrea can now create the 2 other users associated with the Accounting group, and create 2 more groups, Sales and Administrative, to which she can assign various users.

group-list-success

New OfficeDrop Pricing Plans Coming Soon

Friday, August 13th, 2010

OfficeDrop is Updating Our Pricing Plans

I am pleased to announce that OfficeDrop will soon be releasing new pricing plans. But first, I have a message for existing customers:

Existing Paying OfficeDrop Customers Will NOT be affected by the NEW pricing

If you are an existing paying customer the monthly price you pay will not change. You will continue to receive the same set of services you have come to expect and your plan will remain the same. You can choose to switch to one of the new pricing plans, if you wish to take advantage of our new multi-user features, but the choice is yours. Stay with your current plan or pick a new one at anytime.

Users in Our 60-Day Free Trial Period Will Have Additional Pricing Options

New users who have already signed up for our 60-day free trial will have the option at any point during their trial to upgrade to one of the plans that were available when they signed up, OR they can choose one of the new plans. Again, the choice is yours. Upgrade options that were available to you when you signed up will continue to be available. You also have new plan choices.

Information on the New Pricing Plans

The new pricing plans take advantage of new features we will be releasing in the coming weeks. In particular, we will be launching multi-user accounts. This has been a highly requested feature and we are excited to add this capability to our service. With a multi-user account, a single OfficeDrop account can be used by multiple users, each with their own login. You can also define groups of users, set permissions on folders and documents & customize the OfficeDrop interface with your own logo. Multi-user functionality has been highly requested, and we think it will help our customers share data with their accountants, assistants, co-workers, and others. Other new features available with the new plans include increased storage, counting storage as GB (vs. the page count), and easier ordering of on-demand/one-off scanvelopes.

You will also see that we have a new line of self-scanning plans. These plans will take advantage of our simple to use ScanDrop scanning software, and allow offices to manage and share paper and digital files with our award winning online document management/digital filing system.

New customers will see different pricing plans very shortly. We believe that these new prices will better reflect the improvements to the service that we have made and are making, such as integrations with Google Docs, Our ScanDrop scanning software, more functionality in linking OfficeDrop accounts to Evernote, improved search, more storage, etc.

To preview our new pricing plans, please click here.

We are also working on a new pricing FAQ page, which I will link to as soon as it is ready.

Again, I would like to make it clear that we are NOT changing the prices that current users pay nor the plan they are on nor level of services that they receive. And users currently evaluating our service who are in our 60-day free trial period will be able to upgrade to one of the new pricing plans OR one of the plans they saw when they signed up (i.e. the “old” plans.)

If you have questions please contact us by phone at 888-674-6493, via our live chat feature which you can access at the top of our home page or you can email me, prasad (at) officedrop (dot) com or support (at) officedrop (dot) com.

Sincerely,

Prasad Thammineni, CEO and Co-Founder, OfficeDrop

Scan to PDF

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

There are a lot of choices when it comes to digital document format, but our undisputed weapon of choice is the PDF.

OfficeDrop Scans Documents to PDF

The PDF is a universal format, requires no exclusive software to be read, and maintains a consistent layout on any platform. This makes it ideal for sharing because it will view the same way for both parties. Also, since the PDF is so popular,  it’s pretty unlikely that a recipient doesn’t already have a program for PDF viewing.

There are plenty of other reasons we think the PDF is an ideal format for digital filing. To learn more about the benefits of the PDF, see our scan to PDF page.

OfficeDrop and Josh Zerkel Webinar 2

Monday, July 26th, 2010

OfficeDrop has teamed up with Professional Organizer, Josh Zerkel, to guide you to a more productive, less paper, digital office. On July 15th we showed you the benefits of going paperless, and where you can get started in the first webinar, Saving Time and Money with your Paperless Office. Now it’s time to take the next step, and learn about the specific tools you can use in webinar 2, Online and Offline Tools to Master Your Paperless Office.

Register for Webinar Part Two: Online and Offline Tools to Master Your Paperless Office

Like the last one, this webinar is free, so all you have to do is register here. It’s kicking off on July 29th at 11am PST so hurry and get those registrations in. This is a great opportunity to learn about specific tools that will help you reduce paper, become more efficient, and lower costs.

Also, if you want to see the video from the first webinar you can visit our Digital Office page - the video is on the right!

ScanDrop Featured on Lifehacker

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

Check it out, OfficeDrop’s free scanning software, ScanDrop, was recently featured on Lifehacker.

Lifehacker is known for providing tips and tricks that make you more productive. That’s why we were psyched to see that ScanDrop caught their eye. ScanDrop lets you scan your documents directly to Google Docs or Evernote. Lifehacker thought that was a pretty handy trick, so they gave a quick outline noting ScanDrop’s “seamless uploading…to Google Docs, Evernote, or [OfficeDrop] itself, for free.”

If you’ve been looking for a way to get paper into Google Docs or Evernote, there are few easier ways than ScanDrop. Get to the OfficeDrop page and get the free ScanDrop download now.

Scanning Directly to Google Docs

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

Our link to Google Docs feature has been getting a lot of hype lately so we just wanted to remind you the two easy ways OfficeDrop lets you scan directly to Google Docs. Whether you want us to do it, or you want to do it yourself, OfficeDrop gets your paper out of those filing cabinets and into Google Docs.

Scan Directly to Google Docs (2 Ways)

1. Have Us Scan It

Hopefully you’ve heard that OfficeDrop provides mail-based scanning either in bulk, or with monthly scanvelope submission. When you have us scan, you have the option of automatic upload to our online digital filing system. Now that you can link your OfficeDrop account to Google Docs, you can configure your OfficeDrop account to automatically send every page we scan to your Google Docs account. Keep in mind that because you scanned with OfficeDrop, every document is converted to text-searchable PDF, ready to search on Google Docs.

2. Self Scan with ScanDrop

With our increasingly popular ScanDrop scanning software (free for download), you can turn your own personal scanner into a direct portal to Google Docs (*see below for compatible scanners). Configuring your scanner with ScanDrop allows you to view, edit, delete, reorder, and upload any scans right to Google Docs - all from the same intuitive application. You can even choose which Google Docs folder to upload to, and name your scans. However, keep in mind that documents sent directly to Google Docs through ScanDrop are not made text-searchable. See ScanDrop’s recent article on Life Hacker.

If you use Google Docs, then don’t miss out on these two simple and affordable ways to get all of your paper documents directly to Google Docs. Send to us or scan yourself and start putting your paper to work in Google Docs.

*Scanners ScanDrop is compatible with: (more…)

ScanSnap Software to Scan Paper to the Cloud

Monday, June 28th, 2010

OfficeDrop users have probably heard of our free ScanDrop scanning software that works with almost any scanner, including ScanSnap.

Now, you can find the ScanDrop ScanSnap software through ScanSnap’s user/help site, ScanSnap Community.

ScanDrop is now featured among other ScanSnap software both in the Tips & Tricks section and the Marketplace section

In the Tips & Tricks section ScanSnap users can learn how easy it is to ScanSnap directly to Google Docs with ScanDrop scanning software. In the Marketplace, visitors of the ScanSnap Community can find a list of helpful information management services including a link to the free ScanDrop scanning software for ScanSnap.

If you are a ScanDrop user with a ScanSnap scanner, we highly recommend the ScanSnap Community. Tips & Tricks is sure to help you get the most out of your scanner, and the Marketplace  is a great way to find useful ScanSnap software like Scandrop.

ScanDrop Now Scans to OfficeDrop

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Good news for OfficeDrop and ScanDrop users alike - OfficeDrop’s free scanning software/ document management application, ScanDrop, now scans your paper documents directly to the OfficeDrop system.

You can download the free ScanDrop Scanning Software here.

ScanDrop Right to OfficeDrop

It used to be that ScanDrop could only scan paper documents to Google Docs, excluding our own document management system. However, thanks to a recent upgrade, OfficeDrop users can now scan, edit, and upload their own paper documents right to their online OfficeDrop account.

OfficeDrop takes the hassle out of document scanning with our bulk and subscription scanning services, and now ScanDrop gives a third option: scanning from home with your own scanner.

Step 1: Choose which storage to upload to

Step 1: Choose which to Upload to

You can now choose either OfficeDrop or Google Docs

Step 2: Sign into your OfficeDrop account

Step 2: Sign into your OfficeDrop account

Sign into OfficeDrop right from ScanDrop

Step 3: Scan your paper, edit and upload with ScanDrop

Step 3: Scan your paper, edit and upload with ScanDrop. You can even apply OfficeDrop labels (pictured)

From ScanDrop you can edit scans, delete pages, and can even apply your OfficeDrop labels and upload to folders

OfficeDrop is designed to save you time by doing the scanning and uploading for you, but if your preference is scanning solo, ScanDrop is the next best thing. With ScanDrop, you can use just about any personal scanner as a portal to scan paper to your OfficeDrop account. Just configure your scanner with ScanDrop and any scanned documents can be viewed, rotated, deleted, and uploaded to your OfficeDrop account.

As always, any paper you scan gets converted to a text-searchable PDF so you can search everything online from your handy OfficeDrop account.

Get the ScanDrop application for free and start searching your paper documents from the convenient OfficeDrop document management system. Download free from the OfficeDrop website or get it just as free from the Google Apps Marketplace.

OfficeDrop Featured on CMSWire, “Puts Pressure On Microsoft”

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

With Microsoft’s new  Office 2010 featuring all new cloud functionality, including hosted document creation and sharing options (sound familiar?), Microsoft fights back against Google and their poplar Google Docs.

“OfficeDrop Puts Pressure On Microsoft”

That was a header featured on CMSWire that reported on hot new Google Docs functionality, the Microsoft Office 2010 general release, and OfficeDrop’s new Google Docs integration.

Author, David Roe, discusses new features of Google Docs such as added formatting options, a dictionary, as well as helpful tweaks to spreadsheet creation, the timing of which improvements doubtlessly intended to bolster competition with the general release of Microsoft Office 2010.

It seems OfficeDrop has been caught in this clash of tech titans due to our new Google Docs integration. Roe notes how “users can send paper documents to OfficeDrop,” and “automatically get their paper scanned and into Google Docs.” Google Docs does not currently provide OCR for non text-rich documents but OfficeDrop does. We aren’t choosing sides, but with the convenient document scanning and management features of OfficeDrop and our Google Docs integration, we effectively add features to Google Docs, and give more incentive for customers to choose Google Docs over Microsoft Office.

Thank you to David Roe for including us in this interesting discussion and for spreading the word about our new Google Docs integration. We aren’t sure how much pressure Microsoft is feeling from us specifically, but we agree with David that “competition for Microsoft and Office 2010 is going to be stiff as other companies start getting in on the Google Docs act.”

To check out our Google Docs integration for yourself, see our featured page at http://www.officedrop.com/google-docs-paper-management/ or our listing in the Google Apps Marketplace.

OfficeDrop and Google Docs: Linking and Sharing Tutorial Video

Wednesday, June 16th, 2010

You may have heard that OfficeDrop now links with Google Docs. You can see in our new snazzy video that it’s fast and easy to get text-searchable paper to Google Docs, or to link your digital files. Like what you see? Want to get step-by-step instruction how to do it? We’ve got you covered:

Learn Exactly How to Link Google Docs with our Tutorial Video

Now that you know how, you can sign on to OfficeDrop and start scanning paper to Google Docs as text-searchable PDFs.

Missed something? Sill confused?

For a full text explanation of the steps outlined in the video, click here.

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