As creative pros, we often need to quickly share an image, link, or document with our co-workers, clients, and friends. Could be a logo design in progress, an article on a topic we’re researching, or a case study PDF that’s part of our strategy. Fortunately for us, there are a number of software tools on the Mac and on the web that enable us to share these items quickly, or save them for future reference.
My two applications of choice are Dropmark and CloudApp. Dropmark bills itself as “Dead simple collaboration in the cloud.” It’s a great way to snag an image from a website or your local computer and save it to an online collection. This helps you conduct visual research on a certain topic, and share your findings with a collaborator. Accessing the collection online is a snap, as is examining an image itself or saving it back down to a local computer.
CloudApp is a simple app that lives in the Mac’s menu bar. Like Dropmark, you can quickly drag an image there to upload it. The difference — at least in my use case — is that a shortened URL is automatically generated and copied to the clipboard for easy web sharing. This is great for posting a quick screenshot with tech support, or adding something on social media without having to take a longer roundabout process of uploading it your own domain via FTP, or even assign it folder in Dropbox, etc.
Both Dropmark and CloudApp are freemium — there is a free basic version and a paid pro version with additional features. Go explore both apps on the Mac App Store, or on their respective websites.
There certainly are competitors in this space. Alternatives like Droplr and Jumpshare spring to mind. Collaboration and research can also be done on Pinterest via private pinboards. Pinterest may appeal to someone seeking to be more social with these same efforts. For long-term keeping, it’s likely that folks will develop a workflow of Evernote, Dropbox, or Google Drive — all of which take a bit more effort to get images and links out at a moment’s notice.
What do you use?
Do you have a go-to for quick-sharing with colleagues and internet pals? Have you found a single app to do everything? Are you simply using the built-in system tools? Leave a comment below to let us know.
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