WHAT!!! …did he say what I think he said…why he must be crazy…every office needs a file server…right?

Umm, wrong – at least not an in-house file server!

 While most offices do still and likely always will need a file server of some kind, it is time to start looking past the conventional idea of an in-house file server. Today you may find your office functions just fine – or even better – with an online file server.

 Should your office join the thousands of others that are realizing how easy and effective change can be in the cloud?  With advantages like no start up cost, no hardware costs, scalable usage and pay-as-you-go pricing, it is hard to beat an online file server like TrueShare – and with TrueShare’s exclusive Unlimited Users feature, the flexibility and value are unmatched.

 When you consider what you DON’T have to deal with if your use an online file server (Purchase the server, Set up the server, Configure the Server, Configure Users Computers, Protect the Server, Maintain the Server, Backup the Server, Setup remote access, etc.) – it is easy to see why so many companies are making the switch to storing their files in the cloud.

 The Cherry On Top of all this goodness is the fact that you can “test the water” before diving in head first.  It is very easy to begin using an online filer server without making changes to your current operations. Once you are convinced of the benefits, you can create a transition plan that will allow you to gradually replace your in-house file server – with no aches and no pains to your business.

One great aspect of TrueShare that I don’t think gets talked about enough is team collaboration.

That is what the TrueShare Unlimited Users feature is all about – Go TEAM!

As far as I know TrueShare is the only online file system that offers unlimited users – which is essential for doing business without constraints!

However, in this blog I’m talking about two other features that make teamwork so smooth in the TrueShare system – Workgroups and Forums.  These features work great as stand alone tools, or can be combined for seamless collaboration across your organization.

I’ll give you a brief explanation of each feature and then show you how to enhance your team collaboration with both features working together (check out our spotlight features or features page for a more in-depth look).

The Workgroups Advantage

Workgroups really takes advantage of the unlimited users feature of TrueShare.  A business that offers each employee, client, or all of the above a user account can easily use Workgroups to organize and delegate.   In fact, when you add a user to your TrueShare account, it automatically offers the option to include them in a workgroup from the start.

So why bother with Workgroups?  Like User Groups, which allows you to manage groups of user’s permissions as a single user, Workgroups allows you to manage user’s folder permissions just as effortlessly.  Once you add users to a workgroup, they then have access to workgroup specific folders with only the permissions you assign.  These specific folders can consist of both workgroup only folders which are only visible to users in the group, and public folders which are visible to all of your TrueShare users if assigned.  These folders allow for workgroups to collaborate on files away from other users or in conjunction with them, which is great for security and general organization.

Enhanced Communication via Forums

When conducting business across the country or even across the world, communication between teammates can get lost.  Emails get buried and phone calls get forgotten.  The easiest way to communicate about specific projects or files is through forums, which have been dominating web communication for over a decade.

The TrueShare forums act like any other forum site or application.  Users can create new forums, topics and posts, and utilize standard html text editing for custom formats.  The shining feature of forums, however, is the permissions and management system.  Within the forum editor you can assign forums to specific users, folders, workgroups, or user groups; you can manage active, inactive and locked forums, and monitor all posts and topics within each forum.

Now lets look at using Workgroups and Forums together for ultimate team collaboration.

Workgroups and Forums Team Up for Collaboration

With Workgroup organization and Forum communication used together in the TrueShare system, teams can collaborate more effectively than before.  When assigning users to a forum, one of the options is to assign a workgroup.  This allows users who are already collaborating on projects and files within their workgroup folders to communicate in their very own dedicated forums.  How could collaboration be any easier and well organized?

Even without the addition of other team facilitating features such as file versioning and folder syncing, Workgroups and Forums provide a superior collaboration experience for big and small businesses, and even students or families, one you can’t get with other file sharing and storing services.  So if you’re trying to organize groups online and are finding it difficult, or are just looking for a service that is dedicated to quality and a superior customer experience, check out the Forums and Workgroups features in the TrueShare online file system.  And look out for more blog topics on team collaboration in the future.

I find that when I am working on a file that follows me through the years or a piece of writing in general, I either end up losing original versions to the black hole on my hard drive, or a folder full of the same file with a different name.  I was recently working on my budget spreadsheet at home and realized that I had about 8 tabs in it with various versions of the data. A few examples of tab titles include old, current, 6/30/09, and others.  Sound familiar?  I think most people find themselves in this same type of situation but are at a loss of how to fix it. So the question is, how does someone go about organizing different versions of the same file, and what tools do they use?

In IT circles, file versioning has been around for quite awhile. Managing the various versions of code during development is a core challenge, one that forced companies early on to come up with a way to easily keep track of changing data.  The solution, of course, was file versioning.  So what is it? In short, every time you save a file that has been versioned, the previous version isn’t overwritten but moved to some other location and archived automatically. Any document or file that changes over time can benefit from versioning, and it saves people from doing the manual version of renaming original files with dates and numbers or using Save As features.

Tools for Quick and Easy File Versioning

Although it’s not as popular in a home or non-tech business setting, file versioning tools have found their way into the mainstream.  Many new operating systems now come with built in technology that provides a type of file versioning. TrueShare also provides versioning, allowing you to set the online file system to monitor any folders you choose. Whenever you upload a file to a folder in your TrueShare account with file versioning turned on, if that file has already been uploaded, the old version is archived and the newest is put in its place. And if you ever need to access an old version of the file, you can just click on the File Action Menu of the file in question and select Version History. All old versions of the file will be made available for you to download.

With TrueShare’s file versioning you can easily keep track of changing data while keeping your online and offline storage clean and organized.  You can even sync up folders between your hard drive and your TrueShare account with our Auto Tran feature.  Auto Tran will monitor changes in one folder and upload them to the other.  If the changes are a revised version of an already saved file then TrueShare file versioning kicks in and organizes it appropriately.  Using this method on the budget spreadsheet I mentioned earlier, I can now delete all of my extra tabs and extra file saves making my computer and TrueShare online file system clean and tidy while securing all of the data I care about.

If you are suffering from a similar situation of messy folders and lost file versions, give file versioning a shot.  And with TrueShare’s file versioning plus Auto Tran, you can store your files and all of their previous versions safely in “the cloud” automatically.  I especially recommend TrueShare file versioning to writers like me who need instant access to their hordes of rough drafts and revisions.

Tell us how you take advantage of TrueShare’s file versioning feature:

Here at TrueShare we are always looking to expand our features and usability. So with businesses and designers in mind, we are pleased to introduce the newest feature addition to the TrueShare online file system: Autodesk Freewheel

Ever thought it might be cool to publish interactive versions of your AutoCAD, Revit, Inventor, and Design Review drawings on your website or present them in a blog or newsletter? Autodesk Freewheel is a tool produced by Autodesk that allows you to easily present, collaborate, and share your 3D and 2D designs as DWF files.

Just like TrueShare, Freewheel is an application available to you without software downloads, and is compatible with Windows, Linux, Mac, and all popular web browsers.  Autodesk Freewheel integration now comes standard with all TrueShare accounts for easy and powerful review and presentation of your designs.

You can use Freewheel to access any DWF file in your TrueShare file system in either of two ways:

The first and fastest way is to simply log in to your TrueShare, navigate to the folder containing the DWF file, click the File Action Menu for the DWF file you want to open and then select the “Freewheel” option to load the DWF into a pop-up window (turn off pop-up blockers first!).

The second way to present DWF files in your TrueShare system via the AutoDesk Freewheel technology is to embed the Freewheel application in your website. The example below is a sample drawing from the Freewheel gallery and contains 29 different views of the drawing. Essentially, what you’re looking at is a DWF file presented via the Freewheel API. Coding couldn’t be simpler, it’s just an iframe containing a source for the API and a TrueShare Direct Link to the drawing.

Here’s the code for the example below:

< iframe src=”http://freewheel.labs.autodesk.com/dwf.aspx?path=http://www.TrueShare.com/DirectLink/FileAccess.aspx?DLID=82suOPTwBHfLxrMj2rWM” scrolling=”no” height=”450″ width=”500″>< /iframe>

The width and height attributes can be set to whatever you want, so it’s very easy to configure the Freewheel interface to suit your site.

Interact with this Live Demo

Once you have your DWF file displayed in Freewheel, you can zoom in and out, rotate it 360° on the x, y, and z axis, and pan up, down, left or right.  Not only does Freewheel let you view your design in these different settings, but you have the option to print or even share your DWF file in the viewer via email.

Autodesk Freewheel adds a powerful feature to the TrueShare online file system that can be an advantage to engineers, designers, architects, and many other businesses using and sharing CAD drawings. It’s a new component that furthers the collaboration and multipurpose uses of the TrueShare system.

To take advantage of what TrueShare and Autodesk Freewheel can do for your team, your clients, and your website, sign up for a free TrueShare 7-day trial business account. For more info on Autodesk’s Freewheel see www.labs.autodesk.com/technologies/freewheel.

In the first half of 2009 we increased our TrueShare marketing efforts in working with our Reseller Partners. We have learned much and have made many changes as a result of good people providing great feedback.

Throughout these changes we’ve had to balance our decisions between consideration of viability and value to TrueShare and opportunity and value to our Resellers.  It has been a pleasure to make these decisions and shape our Reseller Program with top priority given to creating an offer and an opportunity that enables our Reseller Partners to be successful and profitable.

We have learned that our Reseller Partners are ideally positioned to promote the advantages of TrueShare to their circles of influence.  Businesses around the world have a compelling need for TrueShare features like online file storage, online backup, and simple file sharing on a daily basis. Learning of a solution like TrueShare through a trusted business partner helps them see the value very clearly.

We have also learned that businesses love PhotoShare – the photo management feature of TrueShare – for secure photo sharing online and for easily embedding rich media into blogs, websites, and newsletters.

But the one thing we have learned above all else is that our Resellers are invaluable and insightful and we thank them and appreciate them any time and in every way that we can.

Follow this link for more information about the TrueShare Reseller Partner Program

TrueShare supports local organizations and events with its “Go Green,” environmentally friendly and easy to use online file system.

Overland Park, KS (PRWEB) August 27, 2009 — TrueShare.com, a leading provider of online file storage and sharing, is proud to announce its sponsorship of the Kansas City Irish Fest and the promotion of recycling and going green. The Kansas City Irish Fest is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the culture, music, and history of Ireland and the Irish population of Kansas City. It is also committed to the environment and the community it thrives in and is excited about the TrueShare.com sponsorship of recycling efforts at the festival.

While there were many compelling synergies between TrueShare and The KC Irish Fest, the most relevant was that of community. TrueShare interprets the position of ‘Go Green’ as making decisions with consideration to our environment and our community and the KC Irish Fest shares these beliefs.

In an effort to keep the streets clean and promote a more environmentally friendly event, TrueShare recycling street-stickers will be placed throughout the festival to bring awareness and lead festival goers to the many recycling bins spread throughout the event grounds.

When asked why TrueShare felt that the KC Irish Fest was a good match for its sponsorship, founder and CEO Eric Matt replied “While there were many compelling synergies between TrueShare and The KC Irish Fest, the most relevant was that of community. TrueShare interprets the position of “Go Green” as making decisions with consideration to our environment and our community and the KC Irish Fest shares these beliefs.”

The TrueShare.com online file system offers a wealth of features for storing, accessing, managing, and sharing your computer files, including collaborative tools and versioning features so you can easily work together with anyone from anywhere in the world, without printing on a single piece of paper. Even common activities such as sharing endless pictures with family and friends can be accomplished via TrueShare and its PhotoShare widget. It’s an innovative file system for businesses and the business minded, and for friends of the environment.

Look for TrueShare at the Kansas City Irish Fest, and be sure to snag a free “Go Green” t-shirt from the TrueShare team. For more information about TrueShare and the Kansas City Irish Fest, visit trueshare.com and kcirishfest.com. And don’t forget to recycle!

About TrueShare:

TrueShare (http://www.trueshare.com/) provides file storage, file management, and file sharing solutions to thousands of customers worldwide with their online file system. With no limits on file size or type, TrueShare enables individuals and businesses unlimited access to their files from anywhere, at anytime. The TrueShare online file system is compatible with all major operating systems including Windows, Mac, and Linux, and is accessible from all major web browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Safari. TrueShare is developed by SYSTEN L.L.C. (http://www.systen.com/) which is headquartered in Overland Park, KS.

Contact:

Eric Matt
877-700-4999
eric (at) trueshare (dot) com

Today there are many ways to share pictures with friends, family, colleagues and clients.  Images can be found everywhere online, and any social media site worth its salt provides a photo album or gallery application.  With such an emphasis on sharing pictures, and so many outlets to do so, it can be hard to decide where to upload your image files.

I am a bit more traditional, and maybe even conservative when it comes to posting photos of my friends and family on the web. It seems safer to just make copies of pictures and pass them out at the next family function. Unfortunately, that’s not very cost effective or timely.

Email has come a long way as far as using attachments to send large files is concerned, but it is very inefficient unless you have the time to send three pictures per email. If you’re trying to share a vacation’s worth of photos, email is not an option.  Online profiles usually provide an outlet for pictures, but they frequently limit images by size and sometimes dimension.  Dedicated photo sites are also great for sharing, but are often inadequate with security.  I’ve read stories of personal pictures ending up in advertisements in foreign countries despite strict copyright protection.

The solution for me is a widget within the TrueShare online file system called PhotoShare. Not only can I safely keep my pictures in online storage in their original resolution, but I can share them with friends and family without allowing the rest of the world to see. It’s actually a revolutionary concept: A photo album that doesn’t take up shelf space (or disk space for that matter) and is accessible to anyone I choose, at any time.

Here’s how it works: I use TrueShare to send a direct link that’s associated with the photos I took last weekend to my sister. Yes, this is cloud computing, but it’s simple and easy to understand. TrueShare, in this instance, acts like a virtual thumb drive or a virtual hard drive “in the cloud”. My sister just clicks the link and there are the 150 photos I wanted her to see, viewed from their online storage through a flash viewer that starts automatically. The images are also not downloaded to her computer (unless she wants them to be) so they don’t take up any space. No more worries about attaching pictures or navigating complicated websites where pictures can be stolen.

Of course sending a direct link is not the only way to use PhotoShare to share pictures.  If you have a website, a blog, or even a newsletter, you can link a PhotoShare album easily using a simple image tag.  There are also embedding options for website integration, and slide shows you are able to connect to your blogs, sites, and articles.  So if you’re like me, and need a way to share your photos efficiently and affordably, check out PhotoShare. It’s changing the way we view things!

Each PhotoShare viewer can be set up with a number of configuration options. You can:

• Allow viewers to download one or all of the (full-size) images from the viewer
• Set up a number of different picture transitions
• Allow printing of the image from the flash viewer

With terms such as cloud computing and online file storage cropping up among the news and media, its evident there has been a shift in the way businesses are approaching communication and technology. Much like the printing press, which innovated communication and documentation in the 20th century, online file storage and sharing is revolutionizing the way we handle information. The latest change has come in the form of internet filing systems such as TrueShare, which can be organized and presented to anyone in the world at any time.

Evolving with Cloud Computing

Sure, the concept of “working in the cloud” or cloud computing has been around since the 60’s, but it has only began to appear in connection to internet services in recent years. As the global economy has evolved, it has become more important for companies to be integrated with the rest of the world. Clients, customers, and employees need to be connected with each other, and able to store and share files at will. The advent of the TrueShare online filing system into cloud computing allows everyone to synchronize their efforts to achieve maximum business opportunities.

The Benefit of Online Filing

What makes an online filing system better than other electronic or paper filing systems? The answer is instant access to files and documents for anyone, anywhere in the world. Few companies have a business solution in place to meet constantly evolving business requirements, and instant access is proving to be a major player in business success. What we need is a true online filing system that provides a folder tree and multi-user access with controls and permissions, just like a traditional operating system. TrueShare is this internet filing system.

TrueShare.com and its Advantages

TrueShare online file storage and file sharing is designed to bring unmatched productivity. It allows a business to organize, manage, and deliver files to clients, employees, and even suppliers. TrueShare is accessible from all major operating systems and browsers, making it ideal for integration without changing current setups. It also offers mobile phone support for ultimate connectability. The system is easily administered, and comes equipped with high security and encryption options. An internet filing system like TrueShare can also help eliminate rising costs of information technology with low and competitive prices. The age of thumb drives, email attachments, and the excuse of “it’s on my work computer” is over.

Cloud computing is an opportunity waiting to be embraced, and it’s time we take ultimate control over our files and documents and use it to our businesses’ advantage. TrueShare is that ultimate control, and a must have utility for any evolving business. It is the answer to capitalizing on investments, and seamlessly merges into the global economy with features such as online file backup, email notification, work groups, website integration, unlimited users, transaction logs and more. Make TrueShare your complete business solution to an online filing system.

More and more we are seeing everyday computer tasks moving online.  Email has been online for ever.  More recently, streaming music and video has become common online.  Now-a-days even productivity applications are available in the browser (Google Docs and Zoho, for example).  There has long been talk of a ‘cloud’ OS.  A system that would remove ‘your’ computer from the hardware you use to access it.  With such a system, it wouldn’t matter whether you were at home, at a friend’s, a coffee shop, on your laptop, or your smart phone – your programs and files would always be there.  Well, we are seeing our programs move online, so what about file hosting and data storage?

Online file storage has been around for awhile, but it’s not really the same as an online file system.  You can upload songs or pictures, but most sites that offer this treat your files as media and give you ‘albums’ or ‘playlists’ for music or photo sharing but you can’t save other file types and there is not always a good way to organize and manage them. These sites are also more focused on sharing, so security tends to be an all or nothing proposition.  What we need is a true ‘online file system’, one that gives you a folder tree and multi-user access with controls and permissions just like a traditional OS does.

At TrueShare, our online file system lets you build a folder tree just like you would on your Windows©, Mac©, or Linux© machine.  Business accounts can manage multi-user permissions similarly to how you manage network drive access.  The next step is to build direct connections between your online programs (or  other websites that generate or require files from you) and your online storage.  Eventually, the hardware that you use will be reduced in role to just running the browser.  You could receive a large spreadsheet from a business associate, save it directly to your online file system, open it in the online spreadsheet editing software of your choice, edit it, save it back into your online file system, and then make it available to coworkers.  This could all be accomplished from a coffee shop computer or even your smart phone, since the file never has to be transferred to the local file system of the hardware you are using. We’re not quite there yet, but “total cloud computing” is approaching fast and an online file system is the missing link.

Here goes…my first official blog post…I hope it doesn’t suck…but sink or swim I’m diving in…

If I had to define the TrueShare Direct-Link feature in alphabetical order, I would say that it is a cool, easy, effective, efficient, flexible, fun, liberating, powerful, and secure way to share files on the Internet.

Any of the files stored on your TrueShare drive are accessible from anywhere you need them through a Direct-Link.  As the name implies, this feature provides a hyper-link to an individual file that can be used like any other hyper-link on the Internet. It’s too easy. Just click on the file action menu for a specific file and select the Direct-Link option to access a pop-up window that allows you to create (or delete) a link to the file. You can then copy/paste this link anywhere you need it.  For instance if you wanted to include a picture in a blog post you could simply paste the Direct-Link into the image tag of your blog editor and your image will present in your blog without having to upload it to your blog host.   There is also a Direct-Link Manager where you can manage links to all of your files so it is easy to store and manage links to entire collections of files.

You can use a Direct-Link for any files that you want to share on the net.

Here are a few examples of how you can use Direct-Link to provide access to your files:
Provide PDF downloads from your website
Embed a video in a newsletter
Email a link to a large file
Post pictures to Facebook

No matter what the use is, Direct-Link is an awesome feature that significantly simplifies and greatly extends the ability to share files online.

But don’t take my word for it, share a file with someone today and see for yourself just how fun it is.