Silicon Connector for Dropbox User Guide

Installation & Licensing Instructions

Before installing Silicon Connector for Dropbox, close Adobe InDesign and other CC applications. To begin installation, double-click the installer and follow the prompts.

Once Silicon Connector for Dropbox is properly installed, launch InDesign to see the following dialog:

If you have a license key for Silicon Connector for Dropbox, click “Yes” to activate now, or click “No” to activate later.

This will launch the Silicon Connector for Dropbox extension.  To logout from your session, choose Log Out from the Silicon Connector for Dropbox flyout menu.

Using Silicon Connector for Dropbox

Once logged in, Silicon Connector for Dropbox will display your Dropbox Home location, where you can navigate from folder to folder, or search for specific files.

Once you’ve found an asset you want to place, drag it from Connector to your InDesign document and release your mouse button to begin the drop process. Connector will start loading the place cursor with data from the DAM.  This takes longer than getting data from your local drive, so be patient. Once the data has been downloaded from the DAM, InDesign will display the place cursor.  Click or drag to place the asset.

Note:  If you click  before the place cursor appears, InDesign will place the asset at 100%, as if you clicked the place cursor.

Supported file types

The following file type extensions are able to be placed and linked from Connector.

ai, bmp, ct, doc, docx, emf, eps, gif, icml, idms, incx, indd, indt, inma, jpeg, jpg, pcc, pcx, pdf, png, psd, rle, rtf, sct, text, tif, tiff, txt, xlsx

Search for Assets and Images

To search for a certain file type or file name, just click inside the Search field. Once you’ve entered your search term, clicking the magnifying glass will display the search results.

Silicon Connector for Dropbox Preferences

Silicon Connector for Dropbox has a number of customizable preferences to enhance your workflow, accessed from the Preferences flyout menu option.

Place Options

Replace Selected on place. When checked, replaces any selected object with the asset you drag onto the page. When unchecked, dragging an item allows placement as a new object on the page.

Download Options

Save to DropBox_files folder: Saves downloaded files to your User Documentsdropbox_connector_filesdownloads folder. When unchecked, Connector opens the System browser, so you can choose a folder.

Asset View

Use Grid view: Displays assets in a gallery
Use List view: Displays individual assets in a list, providing file name and smaller thumbnail.

Troubleshooting

Write to log file: When checked, creates a log file in your Documents/dropbox_connector_files folder
Clear log file: Click this to clear the log file.

Detail View

To download a copy of an asset from Silicon Connector for Dropbox, double-click the asset for an expanded view. Then click Download to save a local copy.

For more information on where these files are saved, see Download Options above.

Silicon Connector for Dropbox Menu Listings

The Silicon Connector for Box flyout menu has several options to assist the user:

Log In / Log Out manages authentication to the user’s Dropbox account.

Refresh reloads the contents of the current folder.

Upload to Dropbox opens your System File Browser to upload an asset to the folder currently showing in Connector.

Upload Document Uploads the active asset or InDesign document to the folder currently showing in Connector.

Upload Selected Uploads selected assets in an active InDesign file to the folder currently showing in Connector.

Upload All Non-HTTP Assets Uploads local assets of an active Indd file to the folder currently showing in Connector.

Relink to Current Folder scans the open document for images with names that match images in the Dropbox folder you are viewing in the Connector panel. For the images it finds that match, it will relink them to Dropbox.

Preferences opens Silicon Connector for Dropbox Preferences (see above).

About shows the version number, a link to siliconpublishing.com, a link to the Dropbox Connector User Guide (this page), and the support email address.

Working with Connector in Photoshop and Illustrator

Silicon Connector for Dropbox allows you to download Photoshop and Illustrator files as well. If you wish to edit an existing file from your Dropbox account, Drag and Drop your asset from the Connector panel. A copy of the file will be saved locally to the user’s Documents folder, at the dropbox_connector_filesdownloads folder. Once the download is complete, the file will opened in the Adobe app being used. Once edits have been made in Photoshop or Illustrator, save it to update the downloaded file. Now that your local file is saved, you can choose Upload Photoshop Document (or Upload Illustrator Document) from the Connector flyout menu, and add it back to Dropbox. If a file of the same name already exists, a new version of that file will be created for you.

Uninstalling Silicon Connector for Dropbox

Silicon Connector for Dropbox has two parts: an extension to provide the panel and the plug-in to provide the underlying linking technology.

Mac

Remove the extension folder:

/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CEP/extensions/SiliconConnectorForDropbox.

Remove the plug-in folder:

/Applications/Adobe InDesign 2020/Plug-Ins/SiliconConnectorDropbox.

Windows

You can use the Windows Control Panel to uninstall Silicon Connector for Dropbox like you would any other installed application. If you need to uninstall manually, you can remove the following folders:

Remove the extension folder:

C:Program Files (x86)Common FilesAdobeCEPextensions/SiliconConnectorForDropbox

Remove the plug-in folder:

C:Program FilesAdobeAdobe InDesign 2020Plug-InsSiliconConnectorDropbox.

Network Considerations

Since Silicon Connector for Dropbox requires network access to Dropbox and the Silicon Publishing licensing server, there are certain network requirements to consider. You may find that working from home, where there might not be a proxy or firewall, you can use Silicon Connector for Dropbox without a problem, but at work you run into errors when trying to activate or use it.

Proxy

You can configure your proxy settings in the SCDropbox.properties file located in

/Users//Library/Preferences/SiliconConnector/ (Mac)

C:UsersusernameAppDataLocalSiliconConnector (Win)

This file can be edited with a basic text editor and is documented with definitions of each property. Properties should be formatted with key=value syntax, e.g. sc.http.proxy_server=proxyserver.com

Firewall

If your company has a firewall, you will need to be sure to whitelist the Silicon Publishing licensing server. The url to whitelist is https://licensing.siliconpublishing.com.