Gadgetwise: Sharing Files With Dropbox

If I want to share a giant file on Dropbox with other people, do they all have to sign up for Dropbox accounts to see the file?

Although the company’s shared folders feature is handy when everyone has a Dropbox account, the online storage service has more than one way to share a file. For those sharing situations where not everyone involved has a Dropbox account, you can send a secure Web link to the non-Dropbox users.

This Web link directs a person to the shared files, where they can be viewed or downloaded. (Other storage sites, like Microsoft SkyDrive, also let you send links in this manner.)

If you have the Dropbox desktop program for Windows, Mac OS X or Linux installed, you can share a link to a file by right-clicking (or pressing the Mac’s Control key while clicking) its icon and choosing Dropbox and then “Share Link” or “Share Dropbox Link” from the contextual menu.

This action copies the link to the computer’s clipboard, where you can then paste it into a message to send to your friend. You can create shared links in a similar way by right-clicking selected files when you are logged into your account on the Dropbox Web site.