To accomplish its 'pointing' magic, Pathagoras stores the various pointers used to designate the locations of your Instant Database, Libraries & Books and DropDown Lists in a local file. To allow all members of your team to share these pointers so they don't have to be set on every individual computer across your local area network, you can use the Mirror tool discussed above.

   Pointing to files stored in the Cloud, however, is a bit different. If you use cloud storage, Mirroring alone will not work, and that is because the address to your cloud folder are typically different on different computers, even those on the same network sharing the exact same files. The typical address to a Dropbox folder on "Alex's" computer is something like 'C:\users\Alex\Dropbox\Office Forms'. But that same location on officemate "Ryan's" computer is probably something like 'C\:users\Ryan\Dropbox\Office Forms' (the name immediately after 'c:\Users' is different). In such cases, the pointers stored in the Mirror folder simply will not work.They intend to point to the same place, but just don't.

   Not to worry. Pathagoras has got you covered. Just assign a 'parent path' to one of the three keywords that Pathagoras recognizes as a shortcut to three of the main cloud storage devices, OneDrive, Dropbox and GoogleDrive. This association is easily created with Pathagoras tools. The association is stored locally with your other Pathagoras settings, and automatically convert pointers that are saved in the Mirror folder using the keyword into the actual cloud storage path. (Conversely, as uploads or pointers are made to the Mirror folder, Pathagoras will convert your actual path into the keyword.)

   The shorthand characters take the place of the extended path to reference the cloud storage folder, but when those characters are seen during any document assembly process, they will be extended to reflect the personal storage location.

  These are the keywords that Pathagoras recognizes:

 [DBP] (DropBox Parent)

 [ODP] (OneDrive Parent)

 [GDP] (Google Drive Parent)

 [SPP] (SharePoint Parent)

 [any letter] (Universal Parent. Designed for more 'local' drives but can be used anywhere)

Setup:

   To set  your parent pointer, (1) click Pathagoras Features | Utilities & Settings | Network. (2) Click the 'Parent' Path Settings tab. (3) In the field at the right, type (or navigate to using the '...' button) the initial part of the local path to your cloud storage folder up  the level you want to 'shortcut.' (Typically that will be the folder that ends with 'Dropbox' or 'OneDrive' or 'GoogleDrive' as in the examples below. That offers the most flexibility.) 'Press Save.

   From now own, When creating and saving references to your Dropbox, etc. folder, Pathagoras will automatically replace c:\users\myname\Dropbox' with [DBP] (or [ODP] or [GDP], as appropriate. When Pathagoras encounters a shortcut in an address on any prepared computer, it will expand (internally -- you won't typically see it) the shortcut characters into the extended parent path. In this way, a document is always called via your personal path.

   We added the fourth 'universal reference' for one additional storage opportunity. It's also a good tool for firms who might decide to change their local storage. Use a [Universal Letter] when you create DropDowns and IDB storage. Then, if you move things, all you need to do is change the pointer associated with the [letter] and not each and every DropDown List.

The shortcut names DBP, ODP and GDP are arbitrary. The feature itself will work for all cloud storage tools. So if you want to use [GDP] for your NetDocs storage, go for it. Just make sure that you and your co-workers are using the same parent path shortcut designator to assure that the shortcuts are compatible and that each computer point to the same destination folder.    

As hopefully is obvious, the process of pairing the initial 'personal parent' with the shorthand characters must be accomplish on each licensed computer that will be sharing documents through Dropbox, OneDrive, GoogleDrive or Universal Path.