Once you start sharing Dropbox folders with other people, they quickly become unmanageably messy: You, Jane, and John share a folder, and files quickly start popping up. Nobody wants to delete anything, in case one of the  other users still needs those files. SortMyBox is a free online tool that might be able to help, but still requires some discipline to use.

To use SortMyBox, you have to go to its website and allow full, unconditional access to all of your Dropbox files. If that idea makes you uncomfortable, then we feel the same way. One reassuring fact is that SortMyBox is open source, so anyone is free to audit the code (as long as they can understand it). Once you let SortMyBox into your Dropbox, it will set up a SortMyBox folder at the root of Dropbox. You can then configure rules that will apply for any file that pops into that folder, much like you can do with RoboBasket and DropIt for your local machine. Once anyone places a file into that folder, it will be sorted accordingly. SortMyBox will only take files from that folder, but it can plant them anywhere else in your Dropbox.

To use SortMyBox effectively in a team setting, everyone would have to place new files into SortMyBox, which requires discipline, and (as with all such systems) the filters would have to be accurate. But if you satisfy these two simple requirements, SortMyBox might be able to help with your messy Dropbox.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page takes you to the vendor's site, where you can use this Web-based software.