Thursday, August 22, 2013

File Management Tools For My Classes

Hi there -

There are many basic tools commonly used in the industry for storing, sharing and managing files. We will be using many of them in our classes. Many of these tools require a login so if you're not comfortable using your personal email, create a new one.

Speaking of email...You must be able to use your George Brown Email account to receive grades, announcements and class cancellation notices. If you need help, contact technical support. You can forward your email by using these instructions (only works in Internet Explorer). If you write to me please include your email address as only your name shows up in my email.

You will be invited to join specific folders for your class into which you can upload documents, drawings, and videos for marking. I do not accept any email attachments for my classes or links to personal folders unless previously arranged. Once your file is online it will generate a public link you can add to an email if necessary.  As storage is shared among all users please keep your file sizes as small as possible but do not zip or rar them unless instructed. Shared folders are vulnerable to tampering so always keep your backups stored elsewhere. Also remember every action is recorded and your name attached so I can see exactly who tampered with files. Files will not sit long in our shared file. Once I have downloaded copies they will be deleted.

Please direct any questions to the Help form above.

Please compress all images and videos to keep them small using the following guidelines:

Videos:
Quicktimes, 560 pixels by 316 pixels, H.264 codec, max 10MB. You can use a variety of tools such as Handbrake, Adobe Media Encoder, Quicktime Pro and more to format your videos. I use the 11-second club guidelines for all submissions:
http://www.11secondclub.com/helpful_hints/encoding

Images:
JPGs between 500-1200 pixels along longest edge, 72-300 dpi/ppi, max 5MB. You can use a variety of tools such as Photoshop, Gimp, and online programs to compress files.

DropBox:
Lots of free cloud storage available these days
The industry's most common file sharing service. 2GB free for signing up but earning more storage can easily add up to 10x that. If your account is filling up you will need to empty it to another online service such as GoogleDrive or Hotmail's SkyDrive. We need space for school.
https://www.dropbox.com/

Trello:
Free collaboration and tracking tool.
https://trello.com/

Vimeo:
Free video hosting service. More professional than YouTube.
https://vimeo.com/

GoogleDocs:
Free service for creating and sharing all kinds of documents. You need a Gmail account to use this service.

Winzip: 
Open source program for compressing files for emailing and storing and for extracting compressed files.
http://www.winzip.com/win/en/index.htm