4 online collaborative work tools for remote work

25.08.2021

Maybe you have an assigned task from your school, university or company and you need to develop it with a work team that is outside the area where you live. Maybe you have created a WhatsApp group, made a video call or sent an email to coordinate remote work with your colleagues. With online collaborative work you can develop common goals with the input of all your colleagues through digital tools. 

Unlike analog collaborative work, with online work it is not necessary to have long synchronous meetings, you can define short but productive meeting times to develop specific tasks. In addition, there are numerous platforms that facilitate the organization, communication, planning and ideation of tasks and objectives to be developed. 

Below, we share 4 excellent online collaborative work tools that are free and intuitive: 2 for information storage and two for visualization of ideas. 

Google Drive: (https://workspace.google.com/intl/es-419/products/drive /) 

It is a service to store your files. It offers you a space in the cloud to store up to 15 GB for free. It is available for computers, iOS and Android. You may be wondering how useful it is for collaborative work. The answer is everything. With this service you can: 

• Store shared files where the whole team has access.  
• Create shared files such as: documents, presentations, spreadsheets, forms, drawings and much more. 
• Work on the files simultaneously or asynchronously with your team where you can automatically save and make comments assigned to your colleagues. 
• If you do not have internet you can activate offline editing and then update it.
• It includes a chat where you can communicate with your teammates.

Dropbox: (https://www.dropbox.com/ ) 

Like Google Drive, Dropbox is a service that stores your files with a maximum of up to 2 GB. It is available on Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry and iOS. Unlike Google Drive this service synchronizes the files on your computer with those in the Dropbox cloud. If you create an account you will be able to:  

• Have the files you save on your computer safely backed up. 
• Create files such as: documents, presentations, spreadsheets and a board called Dropbox Paper in which you can share your ideas with others. 
• Link your Dropbox data with numerous remote work applications such as Zoom, Slack, Trello, Canva, Clipchamp, Vimeo or Prezi.
• Edit without internet and update in the cloud when connected.

Miró: (https://miro.com/ )

 It is a virtual whiteboard where you can visualize your ideas and those of your colleagues through images, drawings, figures, sticky notes, icons and much more. You will have fun with this platform because you will be able to: 

• Work in real time with your peers by adding comments. 
• Use up to 3 editable boards to create mind maps, diagrams, templates with your team and more.
• Link with applications such as Dropbox, Trello, Google Images, Slack and many more. 
• Chat with your colleagues. 

Mural: (https://www.mural.co/ )

 Like Miró, this is a very dynamic whiteboard that allows you a space where you can visualize your ideas and organize them, plus you can: 

• Plan your projects, brainstorm, design and evaluate a solution, SWOT analysis, flowcharts, charts and effects, storyboarding and many more murals with tables and formats to work on projects with your team. 
• Use up to 5 boards with an infinite number of pre-designed templates. 
• Edit anonymously and with a large number of people on a board simultaneously. 
• Chat with your colleagues.

By Camila Quiroz
Innovation and Knowledge Transfer Area
C-Transmedia