Sign-in
Address: https://haverford.box.com
Click Continue then enter your username (i.e. your email address without the @haverford.edu domain suffix) and password, then authenticate with Duo when prompted.
Interface
Your default view is All Files, with a collapsible list of Recent Files, all below the search bar at the top of the page.
On the left you’ll find your navigation sidebar, which contains helpful links to All Files, Recents, Apps, and Trash, among other options.
In the top-right corner, you’ll find the Get Help, Tasks, Notifications, and profile options, as well as a New+ button with which you can create new files, folders, and uploads to the folder you’re currently viewing.
Apps
Clicking Apps in the navigation sidebar will take you to the App Center, where you’ll find a variety of apps that offer changes and improvements to Box’s base functionality.
If you click My Apps in the top-right corner, you’ll see a list of the apps you currently have available, which by default include apps that support compatibility with Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Office, Google Workspace, Zoom, and more.
Recommended
In addition to the default apps, we recommend the following to enhance accessibility and functionality.
- Box Drive: Box Drive enables you to view & access your files through the Finder on Mac or File Explorer on Windows, and any changes you make will sync up to the cloud automatically. If you’ve used the Google Drive desktop app, this should feel very similar.
Box Drive requires a network connection to access your files by default but, if you expect you’ll need to work offline for a time, you can right-click folders in your Box storage and select Make Available Offline from within Finder/File Explorer to download them to local storage. You’ll still be able to view a cached version of your full folder structure, but you’ll only be able to open files in folders marked as available offline. We recommend only doing this on a temporary basis as needed, as it can increase the likelihood of sync errors.
- Box Sync (optional alternative to Drive): A legacy desktop sync application from before Box Drive, Box Sync allows offline access to specific files and folders you have marked Sync to Desktop within the web client. By default, only the files (not folders!) at the All Files level of your Box account are set to sync to desktop. Beyond those, you can set folders to sync to desktop, which makes their contents available in the Box Sync folder on your computer.
Note that it will sync ONLY the marked files and folders, and WILL NOT preserve folder structure if you mark a subfolder to sync without marking its parent folder. Additionally, because Box Sync creates a local folder to store synced files, that folder and its contents will remain even if Box Sync isn’t running or has been uninstalled.
We do not recommend running both Box Drive and Box Sync, and we expect most users will prefer Box Drive.
- Box for iOS/Android: Install the Box app for your respective smart device and sign in with your Haverford account to add the app to My Apps and view, upload, and share your files on the go.
Sharing
Select a file or folder to turn the New+ button into the Share button, which allows you to grant others access to the selected item. You can also share from an individual file's preview page.
Enter names to search the Haverford directory, or enter an email address to send an invitation regardless of affiliation to the college. Non-Haverford invitees will still be able to access files you share, but may need to create a guest account with Box to do so.
Shared File Security
You can select from a variety of different roles when inviting people to share, each of which details the access it affords. In addition to the Editor and Viewer roles with which you may already be familiar from other services such as Google Drive, folder sharing includes roles such as Previewer, Uploader (with additional Previewer and Viewer variants), and Co-owner.
You can also create shared links, which come with their own settings that control who can access the link and what they can do with it. The Link Settings menu grants additional options based on the scope you set on who can access the shared link, from setting a link expiration date to creating a password requirement, creating a custom URL, and even a toggle to allow download of the item by those with the link.
In our testing, files have generally had the same sharing options regardless of type or source (Microsoft, Google, PDF, etc.) while the options differ slightly for folders. To check what to expect from your files at a glance, please consult our Box Sharing Options reference sheet, which we've also attached to this article.