Like any project, when you are working on a website, you are most likely collaborating with several other designers and/or clients. You’re probably also creating many versions of the files associated with the project (namely, your OWS project file). We’ve found two great tools that enable you to interact and collaborate on your website projects with colleagues or clients. These tools can also be used for remote backup of your OWS project files, and any content associated with each project.
Dropbox
Dropbox is an easy way for you to interact and share files with clients for your website projects. Dropbox lets you create folders which sync to your online Dropbox account. If your clients or colleagues also have Dropbox, you can “share” these folders so that each member of the team has an identical copy of the project folder. You can use this to solicit content from clients in the form of pictures, body copy, etc. No longer will you need to email these files back and forth. Additionally, you can set your Dropbox folder as your Backup Folder within Webstudio. This scheme will ensure that your OWS project is backed up locally as well as on your Dropbox account. Best of all, Dropbox is FREE.
ExpanDrive
ExpanDrive offers a different model for the same goals. ExpanDrive lets you set up a FTP or SFTP connection that will behave just like a normal drive on your computer. But instead of connecting to proprietary server space (like Dropbox), ExpanDrive lets you connect to your OWN server. That means, in addition to uploading your published website to your hosting, you can also set up an ExpanDrive connection to the same server, where you can store the unpublished files such as your OWS project file, or various OVA single-page files. ExpanDrive has a free trial period, but does cost $39.
No, we’re not affiliated with these companies. We just think you might be interested. (We do use and enjoy both products for our own projects)
