An Exploration of Dropbox’s Forthcoming “Paper” Service

Resource-sharing platform Dropbox is venturing into an ambitious endeavor. It seeks to revolutionize collaborative note-taking experience with its new service, “Paper.” Aimed at rivalling Microsoft’s Office 2016, Dropbox has exclusively provided Engadget a sneak peek of this soon-to-launch product. In an era where cloud services are treasured for not only storage but also interactive amenities, Dropbox is poised to challenge industry superpowers in an innovative way. The advent of “Paper” is particularly timely considering technology giants such as Dell are now investing heavily in the cloud space, as evidenced by its recent acquisition of EMC, the parent company of VMware.

Half a year ago, Dropbox unveiled the development of its collaborative note-taking tool, “Notes,” and launched the tool’s invite-only beta test. As of today, the product takes on the official moniker of Dropbox Paper and is ready to expand its beta testing. While an invitation is still needed to access Paper, Dropbox allowed us an advanced look at what could be its most impactful addition in years. Although it’s still too soon to measure Paper against established tools like those from Google and Microsoft, the service’s intriguing characteristics make it worth watching.

Currently, Paper is available exclusively as a web application accessible via a Dropbox account. However, Dropbox is developing a mobile counterpart to be launched when the product exits its beta phase. Upon the first viewing, Paper’s interface is evocative of the minimalist, lightweight text-editing apps, like IA Writer, which have cropped up in recent years. But Paper comes with a twist — unlike its peers designed for solo composition, Paper promotes teamwork. Similar to Google Docs, Paper allows multiple users to edit a document simultaneously, with each user’s contributions clearly credited in the margins.

From a textual perspective, Paper keeps things uncomplicated with just a solitary font and three size options. Users can apply basic formatting like bold, italics, underline, and block quotes, but the embellishments end there. Dropbox clarified that Paper was designed to prioritize the exchange of ideas over complicated formatting. Indeed, the app supports sharing of all content types, irrespective of the tools in use.

“Work today is really fragmented,” stated product manager Matteus Pan. “It transpires across a variety of content types — images, code, tables, and even tasks.” This fragmentation also extends to the tools being used. “While I might be working on PowerPoint, someone else may be coding, another constructing documents in Google Docs — teams have desired a comprehensive zone to conglomerate these diverse ideas,” he noted. At first glance, the service impressively amalgamates a myriad of content and tools.

Project managers can integrate to-do lists, featuring checkboxes and “@” mentions for specific team members tasked with the job at hand. Developers can input lines of code directly into Paper, which auto-formats it accordingly. Moreover, any file stored in Dropbox can be swiftly added to Paper — copying the file’s sharing URL into Paper triggers an automatic preview. This feature supports Excel, PowerPoint, and even Google Docs files, marking the first time Dropbox has integrated with its competitor’s offerings.

Single photos can be dragged and dropped directly into Paper, and miniature galleries can be crafted with two or three small images lined up. Everything within the document is draggable, allowing quick content reordering. Images can be aligned right or left and text can be typed around them. For an added touch of flare, users can showcase an image as a full-bleed, widescreen photo that fills the entire browser window. Incorporating multimedia is as easy as dropping a YouTube link into the document to transform it into a full video player. Users can likewise embed audio files and playlists from Spotify or SoundCloud. Dropbox even jumped on the emoji bandwagon, allowing approval via a giant thumbs-up sticker.

For the full story, read the article on the Engadget website.