I work from my home office, which obviously has many advantages, but being able to connect to co-workers and others across the United States, or the world, can sometimes pose a challenge.  E-mail and Instant Messaging is essential, but being able to send large documents and media has always been a bit of a catch.  It’s hard to know what the attachment limit is for the e-mail provider you use, and I can’t count how many times I have e-mail rejected because of large file attachments.  

There are several ways to upload files and get them to another person.  The first thing that comes to mind is FTP, but not everyone has their own server, and for some FTP might be too complicated.  There are also many sites you can upload files to, but I just don’t trust these services especially with sensitive information.  Another issue is even if you upload the file somewhere, figuring out the exact link can also be a bit of work aadepending on which solution you use.  I often have to transfer large media files via FTP to a colleague, and with all the sub-directories I have the file is usually translated into a very long url.  Not real friendly.

I was introduced to FileChute from Yellow Mug Software a couple of weeks ago and this application takes care of a few of these issues.  Dragging a file to the FileChute window will upload the file to your area of choice.  This could be an FTP server, .Mac account, or one of several other options that are available.  For testing purposes, I tried both the FTP and .Mac accounts as I figured these would be the two most commonly used.  Setting up both was very easy and it was just entering the basic information for either account.  A drop-down menu in the lower left corner allows you select which account to use.

All you have to do now is drag a file into the ‘chute’ image and it will be uploaded.  It can also be wrapped in an archive if you choose.  The really cool feature of FileChute is once the file is uploaded, it will display the url which you can simply drag and drop to your e-mail, chat window, browser, etc.  If the url is too long, just select the “short URL” box and the url will be changed to something way more short and manageable.  You can also manage the files on the selected server, if you need to delete or do some other cleanup, the options are available.

I found the integration with .Mac flawless, and I also spoke to the developer about the upcoming switch to MobileMe.  They don’t anticipate any issues during the transition, so no worries there.  FileChute takes all the work out of uploading files for which the resulting links can then be distributed by your choice of delivery. A simple, yet very effective solution to a nagging problem.  FileChute is a winner in my book.  A free trial is available and the full version is just $17.95.