VISUAL GUIDE: Create modified Dropbox URL's for downloading files from Community.Linuxmint.com tutorials

chilipadi
  8 years ago
  1

Introduction

The aim of this tutorial is to show people how to modify URL's for files that they have stored on their Dropbox account, so that these files can be accessed using HTML links on Community.Linuxmint.com tutorials (or any other website).

Click on the HTML link or Acrobat.pdf icon below to see what should happen when somebody surfing the web, accesses your Dropbox file from your Community.Linuxmint.com tutorial.

 

          Beginners Level: Insert screenshots from Dropbox into Comunnity.Linuxmint.com documents.pdf

 

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Instructions for experienced Dropbox Users

1). Open up your web browser (Firefox, Chrome etc).

2). Paste the Dropbox URL of the file you want to link to, into your browsers URL data entry window.

  • https://www.dropbox.com/s/esn0p0ram575hhw/Acrobat File.png?dl=0

3). Modify your Dropbox URL by replacing www.dropbox.com with dl.dropboxusercontent.com

Original Dropbox URL:  

  • https://www.dropbox.com/s/esn0p0ram575hhw/Acrobat File.png?dl=0

Modified Dropbox URL:

  • https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/esn0p0ram575hhw/Acrobat File.png?dl=0

4). Check to see if your Modified Dropbox URL is working by searching for the URL using your browser:

The Acrobat File.pdf image should load up in your web browser if you have done everything right so far.

 

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VISUAL GUIDE: Instructions for people who are unfamiliar with Dropbox

 

1). Make sure your Community.Linuxmint.com document is open in edit mode

2). Log into your Dropbox account by clicking on the image below:

            Click here to login to Dropbox

  • https://www.dropbox.com/login


3). If you don't have a Dropbox account yet, open up the Dropbox login webpage (by clicking on the image above) and then click on the blue create an account button.

Click on the blue create an account button

4). Navigate to the Acrobat.pdf or  LibreOffice.odt document that you want to use.

  • For this tutorial I am using a document in my Dropbox account called: Acrobat File.pdf


5). A blue Share button will appear when you hover your cursor over the Acrobat File.pdf document file that you plan on linking to (from the COMMUNITY.LINUXMINT.COM document you are writing).

 

Hover over Acrobat File.pdf

7). Click on this Share button.

Click on the Share button

8). A pop-up window will open up.

  • In this case the window is called Share link to ‘Acrobat File.png’

Sharelink to 'Acrobat File.pdf'

9). Highlight the URL in the Share link to'Acrobat File.png' window.

  • In this case the URL is : https://www.dropbox.com/s/esn0p0ram575hhw/Acrobat File.png?dl=0

10). Right Click on the URL and select Save from the drop down menu.

Right click on the URL and select Save

11). Open up your web browser (Firefox, Chrome etc) and paste the URL link that you have just saved, into the browsers URL data entry window.

  • https://www.dropbox.com/s/esn0p0ram575hhw/Acrobat File.png?dl=0

12). If you attempt to search the URL above, you will most likely be taken to the webpage below (there are  other outcomes, none of which you can't back out of easily).

You have to modify your URL before you will be taken directly to the Acrobat File.pdf document that is  stored on your Dropbox account.

Dropbox sign-up page

 

13). You can close the Share link to 'Acrobat File.png' window now by clicking on the Close button.

Close button

14). Notice that your Acrobat File.pdf document now has a Link icon (in the Shared with column).

Acrobat.pdf file now has link

14). Move your cursor over the Link icon and it will tell you that People with the link can view.

People with the link can view
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15). Critical Step:

Modify your Dropbox URL by replacing www.dropbox.com with dl.dropboxusercontent.com

Original Dropbox URL:  

  • https://www.dropbox.com/s/esn0p0ram575hhw/Acrobat File.png?dl=0

Modified Dropbox URL:

  • https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/esn0p0ram575hhw/Acrobat File.png?dl=0

You can check to see if your Modified URL is working at this stage. The Acrobat File.pdf image should load up in your web browser if you have done everything right so far.

Click on the link below to see what should appear in your browser.

  • https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/esn0p0ram575hhw/Acrobat File.png?dl=0

 

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Tutorials

This tutorial is part of my Dropbox Series, which aims to provide instructions on how to access images and files stored in your Dropbox account, directly from Community.Linuxmint.com tutorials that you author.

Click on the relevant icon below to download a copy in the format you desire.

          Beginners Level: Insert screenshots from Dropbox into Comunnity.Linuxmint.com documents.pdf   Beginners Level: Insert screenshots from Dropbox into Community.Linuxmint.com documents.odt

microHOWTO

The following microHOWTO does not warrent its own Community.Linuxmint.com tutorial, but may be of interest to people new to Linux Mint.

Click on the relevant icon below to download a copy in the format you desire.

  • microHOWTO: Create an HTML link that you can use to link to your Dropbox files and images.

           Beginners Level: Insert screenshots from Dropbox into Comunnity.Linuxmint.com documents.pdf  Beginners Level: Insert screenshots from Dropbox into Community.Linuxmint.com documents.odt

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References

Comments
Rebel450 8 years ago

Very helpful, thx Chilipadi