Smashing Magazine: "Basecamp manages all possible aspects of a project with ease"

Smashing Magazine is documenting the best online web applications out there and it recently focused on apps that help improve workflow. The pick of the litter for project management: Basecamp.

A project management application that definitely makes the grade is Basecamp. Put together by the veritable geniuses over at 37signals, Basecamp offers everything from to-do lists, milestone management, users management, task assigning, time tracking and even a built in chat.

Create milestones (items needing completion by a specific date) to make sure you make your deadline. To do lists can be compiled and associated to milestones. Clients with whom you’re working, can be added as users so they can track progress on their project. If they’re computer savvy enough, you can set the permissions to allow them access to add and edit tasks and milestones etc. File uploading is also enabled which means you can track files related to a project - images, video clips… anything! When finalizing content on a project, the Writeboards allow you to upload content and work on it with a subversion type setup whereby older versions are saved and archived.

Without a doubt a powerful management application that successfully manages all possible aspects of a project with ease...

Whilst you have a number of options when it comes to online project management, with it’s multi-user setup, milestones, to-do’s, messaging, writeboards and so much more, you’ll have a hard time finding a more proficient tool than Basecamp.

Campfire vs. regular IM

Why choose Campfire over a conventional instant messaging network? There's a page at the Campfire site that explains why Campfire is a better solution than regular IM. It gives you a good overview on why Campfire is "the businessperson's answer" to the chat dilemma.

Regular IM: There’s no destination.
Campfire: Your group chat has a home.

Regular IM: You have to be there all the time.
Campfire: You can show up late or leave early and still not miss a thing.

Regular IM: Networks are incompatible.
Campfire: Networks don’t matter.

Regular IM: File sharing is unreliable.
Campfire: File sharing works easily.

Regular IM: Conversations and files disappear
Campfire: Easy access to chat archives and transcripts.

Regular IM: Your chats are not secure.
Campfire: Your chats are secure.

Read the whole comparison for the detailed explanations.

New Highrise feature: Dates to remember

By very popular demand we bring you a new feature in Highrise: “dates to remember.”

The dates to remember feature lets you keep track of important dates for each contact. You can add their birthday, anniversary, date hired, date fired, date granted a promotion, or whatever other date you want.

How it works
In the sidebar on a person’s page you’ll see:

Click “Add dates” and you’ll see:

You can pick a standard date type (birthday, anniversary, etc) from the pulldown or select “Other” and you can add your own. Pick the date, the year (“every year” if it repeats like a birthday), and, if you want, set a task a week before the date.

You can add as many dates as you’d like. Here’s an example of three dates added for one person:

When you go back to the person’s page, the sidebar looks like:

And there you have it! We’re real excited about it and we hope you find it useful. Thanks for the suggestion, BTW – this feature was based on customer requests. Try out Highrise today to see it in action.

Springloops = a subversion host that integrates with Basecamp projects and todos

Cliff Spence writes, "I've been using an incredible compliment to Basecamp called Springloops.com for the past few days. If you aren't aware of it already, it's a Subversion host with some seriously tight integration with Basecamp's projects and todos."

Springloops site offers this explanation:

Springloops is a unique source code management tool focused on web development teams. It allows you to code in parallel and share your code safely concentrated on results, not on lost changes or overwritten files. You get rapid collaboration in protected space. Thanks to the project management perspective it serves the getting things done attitude. Moreover, Springloops reduces repeatable activities in your day-to-day work. It makes great things simple.

The site also has a page dedicated to Basecamp integration for Springloops.

If you're a web dev team that uses Basecamp, check it out. If you'd like to learn more about Subversion, visit the official Subversion site.

Vector uses Basecamp to communicate with clients, track bugs, and eliminate unnecessary emails

Vector is a New York based web development firm that specializes in making complex solutions seem simple. We talked with Vector's Matt Weinberg about how Basecamp helps his team communicate with clients, track bugs, and eliminate unnecessary emails.

--

How do you use Basecamp and why do you like it?
Vector is a small web consultancy based in New York that specializes in eCommerce and Online Marketing. While our primary office is in New York, we work with people in Texas, Connecticut, London, and Melbourne. We use Basecamp for both internal communication between team members and external communication with our clients. At this point we've almost completely eliminated email from our workflow. We have a few projects (and Campfire chats) for communication about company matters, and an additional project for every client job we take on.

We like Basecamp because it lets us keep all of our information in a centralized, easy to get to, organized location. There's no more searching through a million emails with the same subject line to find the one document we need--by taking full advantage of Basecamp's project structure and categories, we immediately know where a message or file will be, every time.

Basecamp also makes it simple for our clients to stay active with the progress. They find it extremely easy to use, and we've had many say that our "extranet" makes them feel a lot more involved than they have with web projects in the past.

Campfire is "the businessperson's answer" to the chat dilemma

Duct Tape Marketing's profile of Campfire says, "A tool this powerful has the ability to impact traditional forms of communication."

Chat is one of those tools that was created with the teenager in mind, not the business person. 37signals released the businessperson’s answer to this dilemma.

• Every chat has a permanent URL
• Campfire chats don’t require special chat software or networks
• Instantly share and discuss files with your colleagues/clients
• Search or browse through transcripts of past chats
• Chat securely over SSL (Plus and Premium plans)

The fact that no one, guest or member, has to worry about which platform the chat is on is what will really make this service take-off.

Want to harness the power of group chat for your business? Learn more about Campfire.

Greatascent aims to bring Highrise straight into your Mac

Greatascent, in private beta, is a simple application to bring Highrise straight into your Mac.

The app's main features:

• Integeration with Address Book, Mail, iCal and Safari
• Offline database so you can access your data anywhere
• Syncronization with iPods and iPhones or .Mac so you don't need your computer any more to see today's task list.

Sounds promising! It's still in private beta but if you'd like to have access, send an email to simon [at] 5xm [dot] org.

New Highrise feature: Filter by multiple tags

Tonight we added one of the top feature requests to Highrise: Selecting multiple tags. Now you can filter your contacts and related notes by more than one filter. For example, selecting "Lead" and "2007" and "Design" will show you your contacts that match all three tags.

Here's how it works:

First you select a single tag:

The tag you clicked will be selected (bold). Then you'll see a "Multiple tags" link in the top right corner of the tag section:

Click the "Multiple tags" link. Then click another tag:

You can click as many tags as you want. The results are shown as the intersection of all the tags selected. It's "Investor" and "VC" not "Investor" or "VC"

The left side of the screen will reflect the tags you selected:

If you ever want to clear the selected tags and start over just click the red "Start over" link in the top right corner of the tag section once you've selected more than one tag.

We hope you find multiple tag selection useful. Thanks for your continued support.

Hit End, Home, or Page Up/Down keys while dragging to save time

Derick posted a helpful tip to the Backpack forum explaining that Mac OS X customers can use keyboard navigation while dragging items in Backpack in order to avoid scrolling. Hit the End, Home, or Page Up/Down keys while dragging and save yourself the hassle of having to scroll a lot.

If you use a Mac, you can add an item, start dragging, then (while dragging) use the keyboard to navigate—on a 9 page BP page where it would take 20 seconds or so to scroll from top to bottom while dragging an item, you can move it instantly to the end by dragging, hitting the end key, then placing the item.

This makes the scrolling issue much much much less of an annoyance.

Do you have a helpful tip to share with readers here? Let us know.

Campfire helps Futuretrack5 collaborate across time zones

In Putting the 'e' in Team - Campfire, Futuretrack5 discusses how Campfire helps their team collaborate across different time zones. When they began using the tool, it "became crystal clear just how revolutionary Campfire is."

What email is to mail, campfire is to teams. We connected on a whole new level. The simplicity of Campfire is ideal for group chat. Unlike IM which tends to be one-on-one, Campfire is like well… sitting around a campfire! Rather than roasting marshmallows, we burned through getting work done on XHTMLize. We exchanged ideas, swapped stories & posted photos of ourselves (the way file sharing is implemented is incredible). Finally after 2 year I can put faces to Stan & Dmitry!

This morning my routine changed. Before Basecamp I logged onto Campfire. I could quickly catch up on what Stan & Dmitry discussed while I was asleep.

Now for internal projects, I’m going to turn to Campfire as the tool of choice. Each project will have it’s own room. Using chat as a basis for development leads to agile delivery. With Campfire our business is going to be more connected, productive & fun.

I can understand now how 37signals manage to live by their ‘get real’ philosophy. Campfire is the key ingredient to team collaboration & productivity.

Do you use a 37signals product in an interesting or noteworthy way? Let us know.