Knowledge Base: An introduction to CloudApp

The first thing you need to remember is that CloudApp is still in its baby shoes. You are among the first beta testers (yes, you rock) and there is a reason for that. If you don't know what CloudApp is by now: it will make your workflow easier by allowing you to share files, screenshots and URLs fast. CloudApp has a plugin engine that currently supports:

• Finder
• Firefox
• Grab
• iPhone Simulator
• iPhoto
• Photoshop
• Safari

Not only can you share files but keep track of the view count in your menu bar. An extensive organization tool for your uploads is on it's way.

How do you use it? First thing you will have to do is update the preferences to your needs and set up your account. We advise you to choose a comfortable hotkey because you will be using it a lot (CloudApp is addictive). If you are not much of a keyboard user all of the actions explained below are also available by dragging the items to the menubar icon.

Finder

Simply select a single file, several files, a folder or several folders and press the previously defined hotkey. Voilà. The cloud turns black and you get a short URL pasted into your clipboard that points to a zip compressed folder of your files.

Grab

If you want to share your screenshots (taken with any of the default Mac OS X shortcuts) you can decide to auto-upload all snaps (by checking this in the menubar dropdown) or to only upload the ones you wish to share. If the latter is the case simply hit the hotkey within 5 seconds after snapping away and into the cloud it goes. If 5 seconds is too short for you just click on the menubar icon and you will see a preview of the captured screenshot as well as a handy upload button.

iPhone Simulator

Taking screenshots of the iPhone Simulator window automatically crops the uploaded screenshot into the right dimensions.

iPhoto

To upload a photo from your iPhoto library simply select it and hit the hotkey.

Photoshop

Hitting the hotkey with an open Photoshop document will export the canvas with all visible layers and upload it as a PNG file.

Safari/Firefox

With your Safari or Firefox window in focus hit the hotkey to convert the current URL into something shorter (don't forget you can track the view count). This also works by dragging the Favicon to the menubar icon.

Important: During the beta we only support files smaller than 5MB (this is a productivity booster and not a file hoster). CloudApp only runs on Leopard and Snow Leopard!