New Highrise feature: Public tasks

Last night we launched one of the top feature requests: “Public Tasks”. Just a note: “Public” doesn’t mean everyone on the web, it means all the users in your Highrise account.

Before

Prior to the launching this new feature, the only person who could see a task was the person it was assigned to (the assignee) and/or the person who assigned it (the assignor). If you weren’t one of those two people then you wouldn’t be able to see it. You basically couldn’t see what other people had on their plate—you could only see what you had on yours.

After

Now you’ll find a checkbox when creating/editing a task that says “Let everyone see this task.” Checking this box makes the task visible to everyone in your Highrise account. So if you have a task to get done, and it’s not private in nature, you may want to check the “Let everyone see this task” so everyone else can see what’s on your plate. It’s entirely up to you.

You’ll see that “Let everyone see this task” is checked in this example. Once I save this task anyone will be able to see it. Unchecking it would make the task private (only visible to you).

New and Improved Tasks tab

When you visit the Tasks tab you’ll see a pulldown right after “Tasks for” in the light blue header. You can pick someone’s name from that list and see all the public tasks they’ve been assigned. If you click the “Completed” link in that same header you’ll also be able to see the public tasks that person has created.

Kayels offers ideas on how to use Backpack

Kayels has created 100 pages in Backpack since July: "What do I use Backpack for? What don’t I use Backpack for? I’m going to go scan my list of pages and give you some examples." Here are a few:

A page for storing site information...

A page for each of my blogs and sites. Each page then links to various sub-pages that include everything from the technical information and design specs to potential content to reference material or links to things that might be useful someday.

A page to "pass notes" to a friend...

A series of pages shared with a long-distance friend, where we can “chat” by leaving notes for each other, referencing links, images, etc.. It’s great to be able to write down that funny little thing while you’re thinking it or mention the weird web page you just found before you forget all about it. It feels like we’re a lot closer—kind of like passing notes in school. :)

A shopping page...

A “shopping” page, with a list of links to other pages. Some are big comparison pages, with lots of notes, links, and images. Others are lists of stores and sites—a page for antique stores, for example, or a page for great shoe sites...I also have a page full of links to discount and coupon listings, and when I get one of those special offers from a store (or a site like Backpack), I post it there, so I don’t lose track of it.

Layer Tennis uses Campfire as back-channel during matches

Coudal Partners and Adobe CS3 are teaming up to present Layer Tennis and they're using Campfire to make it happen.

If you've never checked it out, here's a summary of just what Layer Tennis is:

We're hosting a series of live design events on Friday afternoons called Layer Tennis...Two artists (or two small teams of artists) will swap a file back and forth in real-time, adding to and embellishing the work. Each artist gets fifteen minutes to complete a "volley" and then we post that to the site. A third participant, a writer, provides play-by-play commentary on the action, as it happens. The matches last for ten volleys and when it's complete, everyone with an opinion sounds off in the Forums and we declare a winner.

The participants use Campfire as a back-channel to discuss the match while it's going on. Chris Glass, one of the players in a recent match, gave a behind-the-scenes look at what it's like to "play" and praised Campfire as a better alternative to IM for group chat. We're avid viewers of Layer Tennis so it's cool to know Campfire helps it all go down.

There is a back-channel set up to handle the nuts and bolts of the match. We're coordinating delivery of images with Coudal, and anwering questions to Rosecrans using Campfire. I've never used this online app before, but it's better than instant messaging for group chat. Really.

If you ever need to bring a small team together to discuss something in real-time, Campfire is a great solution. Read more about why it's better than plain ol' IM.

Below is one of the volleys from Chris' match. Check out the whole thing.

Basecamp is "a great tool for virtual project teams"

Musings of a Marketing Maven calls Basecamp "a great tool for virtual project teams."

I often work with an extended team of experienced designers, writers, web producers, developers and so on. Collaborating with other team members — or our mutual client — used to be a challenge before we discovered Basecamp from 37Signals. Basecamp offers a safe, secure, inexpensive hosted service to coordinate our activities. It’s lightweight, easy to use, and works well for both Windows and Mac OS X users across a range of browsers.

We can manage a joint calendar with milestones and simple assignments, keep an active to-do list, post messages, upload/download project files, and share comments on work in process. The user interface for managing content is simple and straightforward, as long as you rename Basecamp’s default categories into tags that are relevant to your client and/or the project...

This is a wonderful tool for small businesses, especially those in the creative arena, operating without an in-house IT staff. It’s especially helpful if you run your business without an Exchange server because it provides some of the core functionality of Sharepoint with much less hassle for server administration.

Christine Thompson, the blog's author, advises clients on strategy and marketing and previously held senior marketing and product management roles at Apple, Aldus (now Adobe), HP and VisiCorp. Her firm is Informing Arts.

How to end a Backpack calendar event with a number

A customer wrote us about an issue using the Backpack calendar:

I’m trying to add an event called “Midterm 1” but the calendar keeps changing it to Midterm 1am. How can I prevent this?

What's happening here: Any number at the beginning or end of a calendar entry will be parsed as a time. So, in this case, Backpack thinks the 1 indicates 1 o'clock.

There's a workaround though. Use "Midterm 1." — with a period. (Or "Midterm 1!" if it's a particularly scary midterm.) The extra character means Backpack won't interpret the 1 as a time.

Highrise and Backpack are "essential tools for the online bootstrapper"

Backpack and Highrise are essential tools for the online bootstrapper, according to the Bootstrapping Blog.

This is our first list of tools we believe every bootstrapper should have in their toolbox. If you are an online business owner or a freelance designer / developer you will enjoy these tools. You can also get a lot out of these tools for offline tasks as well...

Backpack - WOW. If I was without this tool, I do not know what I would do. This website is great, and best of all, FREE! (there are pay plans available also, but the free plan has worked out very well for me). If you need to keep track of tasks, to-do lists, messages, files and a calendar that can send reminders to your email or cell. If you need to be more organized, this is the tool for you. A+ from us!

Highrise - This is another project from 37signals that exceeds all of our expectations. If you need to keep track of who you talk to, what you said, and what to do next, Highrise is the product for you. I personally use this tool daily for all of my clients, and any business contacts I meet along the way. The Free plan offers you no file storage, and only 250 contacts but if you are on a small scale, this is perfect to test it out, start using it, and once you get to the point of growing your contact list larger, you can upgrade (paid accounts are $12.00 per month for 500 contacts all the way up to $149.00 for 50,000 contacts and 50GB of file space and CampFire for free.

The post also lists a bunch of other helpful tools. The whole blog seems quite thoughtful too. If you are looking for advice on how to bootstrap your business, check it out.

How to use Backpack for GTD

Dave Caolo recently wrote up a lengthy explanation of how to use Backpack for GTD (Getting Things Done)...

I tried all of the GTD software I could find...All were nice, but the common issue was this: Each solution offers the author’s interpretation of how a GTD system should work, which doesn’t necessarily jibe with my own. Also, I don’t want to learn software before I can get working (that’s a project in itself!). Basically, I want an electronic version of my favorite tool - pen and paper. Backpack is it. In this article, I’ll describe how Backpack satisfies the steps of GTD...

With Backpack, I can collect all of my stuff into one place, decide what it is, organize it accordingly, identify and perform action steps and finally assess progress during my weekly review. Plus, since it’s hosted on the web, I can access my stuff from nearly any computer anywhere (or at least forward an email).

As someone who has tried a slew of GTD software, I’ll never abandon Backpack. It’s the definitive solution.

Here's a look at one of Dave's basic project pages:

Ready to start getting things done? Get your Backpack on.

AARP site recommends Ta-Da List

"Useful Websites for Daily Tasks" is an article at AARP's site that recommends Ta-Da List, calling it the choice for "handy" to-do list management.

I used to jot down my to-do tasks on little pieces of paper that got scattered about my desk, which wasn't too efficient for getting them done when they get lost or buried. So I decided to find a Web site that offered an easier way to manage my to-do list. The one I like best is Ta-da Lists™. This site is easy to read, the list is simple to use, and there's nothing to download. The best part is that the site sends you email to help you remember your to-do list which includes a link back to your list (useful for making edits to your list).

It's great to see customers of all ages finding Ta-Da List easy to use.

Basecamp customer videos now in Flash

Our snazzy Basecamp customer videos, originally posted as Quicktime movies, are now up as Flash movies instead. If you were unable to view them previously, check 'em out. Hearing real customers talk about why they love Basecamp really hammers home the product's benefits.

nContxt lets you access your Highrise contacts from your mobile phone

nContxt lets you access Highrise contacts from your mobile phone.

Highrise helps you remember who you talk to, what was said, what to do next, who to call back, when to follow-up, and more. nContxt lets you do all of this from your mobile phone.

Here's a tour. For more details, check out this post at Activist Nerd which has a bunch of screenshots with explanatory captions.

nContxt is a mobile interface for 37signals‘ Highrise contact manager. It works on iPhones. It works on Windows Mobile phones, non-smartphones. It works on any phone with a web browsers. It’s free for the first week, and then $5/month.

As you’d expect, the phone numbers are nice and clickable (we are on a mobile :-)) , as are the email addresses and websites.

Using the SimpleHighrise PHP API, nContxt generates compact, XHTML Strict pages that render flawlessly on mobile browsers. This is an answer to the call for a mobile version of Highrise.

After logging in, you can search your contacts (people and companies). You also see a list of upcoming tasks and their associated party.