New in Basecamp: Milestone Quick Window

Last night we launched a big new feature in Basecamp. The more you use it the more we think you're going to like it.

Here's the background: We've been gathering a lot of feedback regarding milestones. One thing we kept hearing was how much of a pain it was to complete or change a milestone from the Dashboard. You had to click the milestone in the 14-day calendar, go into a project, click the checkbox, return to the Dashboard, click another milestone, and so on. It's a lot of clicks and page loads just to get some simple things done.

But now, with the introduction of this new feature, you can edit milestones, change dates, and check 'em off all without leaving the Dashboard. You no longer have to click deep into a project to take care of those common tasks!

Check out the video below to see how it works:

We plan on bringing this "quick window" style and function to other parts of Basecamp in the future. This is the first step in "flattening" Basecamp so you can do more things in more places without having to click deep into a project to get something done.

We're pretty excited about the potential and we hope you like the new feature. It may take a few days to get used to since it's a new paradigm, but once you use it a few times we think you'll love it. It's one of those things that'll make you wonder how you used Basecamp before without it.

Thanks again for your continued support!

Getting Projects Done with MindManager 8, Google Docs and Basecamp

MindManager software "uses the power of visual thinking to focus your actions on your most important job tasks." Looks like an intriguing tool for those who think visually.

If that sounds like you and you're a Basecamp customer, you may want to check out "Getting Projects Done with MindManager 8, Google Docs and Basecamp!" It shows "how MindManager can bring together all the disparate systems used to plan, manage and deliver projects."

The team used Basecamp to track project tasks because we wanted a way to do it from within MindManager, a browser or our iPhones. With a link to the Basecamp project added into the map, I access my tasks, update status and check the team’s progress on their tasks.

Read the entire article.

Founder of 12khz: "Getting Real gave me that extra kick in the butt"

Kenny Lövrin, founder of 12khz, wrote in to tell us how Getting Real inspired him to create the 12khz network, which offers musicians an easy way to create a website.

My problem has always been that I sit around, coding away, and never finish anything. After reading Getting Real I somewhat realized that one of my biggest issues is taking the scope down, so that I can grasp what has to be done, and then go and do it.

Before I always got lost in some kind of vision about how things would be in the future of the project, without a clue of what the eventual users would say about it. I can honestly say that Getting Real, combined with your approach to your own products and your thoughts expressed at SvN, gave me that extra kick in the butt. For so long I've been trying to come up with that perfect idea of an webapp to build, but never managed. And after GR, I realized that I'd just do something that I needed myself, which gave me the natural answer.

I've been a hobby musician for years, and it always bothered me that there were no places that I could get a simple website. The choices I had was to go with mySpace and feel a bit sick about it, or roll my own website. Luckily, I am a web developer to the profession, so I could actually code my own site. After I'd been doing that for a while, I realized that there are probably more people who'd like to have a website for their music, but cannot write code. Naturally this led me to converting my site into a platform that could serve several sites.

And with the approaches outlined in GR, I actually managed to get the project out the door in an early version yesterday. I don't know if it is going to work out, but it's ok, because this time I didn't spend loads and loads of time coding things that I was guestimating would work. All I did was code the features that I needed, as I'm eating my own dog food here as they say. Then if it takes off, I'll put the new features in there.

A site created by Sofreq using 12khz.

So, even if I did this myself (I've had help from two friends the last weeks, so now we are actually three people involved), I don't think I'd have realized that it is not a matter of life and death without reading the GR book.

Now I can feel confident to put out an app that doesn't have millions of features, and then update it incrementally.

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

FrontPocket brings Backpack to your iPhone or iPod Touch

FrontPocket is an iPhone & iPod touch app for Backpack.

The web's best organizer and intranet just got better. FrontPocket makes interacting with your entire Backpack account simple and fast with the ability to manage pages, calendars, reminders, and the journal (plus Twitter).

Here's a rundown of what you'll be able to do:

• Local caching of all accessed information including pages, calendar, reminders, and the journal for offline access
• View a list of all pages
• Add/delete pages
• View and edit notes on any page
• Add/delete notes on any page
• View and edit lists on any page
• Add/delete lists on any page
• Add/delete list items on any page
• Check off list items on any page
• Divide each page to your preference using dividers
• View emails attached to a page
• View latest sync time and date for each page
• View events from your calendar
• Create new events on your calendar
• View and edit existing reminders
• Create new reminders
• View and edit existing journal entries
• Create new journal entries
• Choose to send new journal entries to Twitter

Try FrontPocket.

AlertThingy brings updates from Basecamp and other social apps to your desktop

Jeremy Baines of AlertThingy recently, um, alerted us that the app now integrates with Basecamp. More details:

AlertThingy v3 brings the very latest updates from your favourite social networks direct to your desktop. Plus send Tweets, update your Facebook status, upload photos to Flickr, post to Tumblr and more. With v3 AlertThingy makes it faster and easier to manage the online you. Plus you get the coolest looking RSS reader on the interweb.

Now, for business users we have Yammer, Basecamp and Huddle integrations. So you can mix work and play. Take control of your life streams with v3. With so much data it can be easy to suffer information overload. AlertThingy v3 provides a simple filtering system that allows you to make the data you're most interested in visually more obvious. Quickly see all of your friends and contacts from different networks through the Contacts list.

Getting Real is (still) #2 ranked book at Lulu

Over 6,000 people have purchased a print copy of Getting Real at Lulu (Getting Real is our book on the business, design, programming, and marketing philosophies of 37signals). It was published in 2006 yet it's still the #2 ranked book there.

Some of the comments from Lulu reviewers:

Lori Baker-Smithson: Anyone working on a web application including entrepreneurs, designers, programmers, executives, or marketers — will find value and inspiration in this book. Over 500,000 people around the world use these applications to get things done. Now you can find out how they did it and how you can do it too. It's not as hard as you think if you Get Real. I think this was well worth the price of the book and I used the principles in the book to build my site that is devoted to website design and moneymaking ideas.

Massimo Sgrelli: This book is really great. If you have a small company to run day by day, it is the perfect choice to share a mantra and a method with your people. It works. I'm so enthusiastic about it, that I'm contributing a lot in translating it for free.

Chris Burbridge: This book was very helpful to me. I have found that you can readily apply it to any kind of project you might like to create. It is funny, fun, and embodies the spirit it espouses. Keep it simple. Get to the point. Have fun. It is about a way of creating things that keeps work fun, and gets products out fast, where they can be responded to by the actual users, and modified based on their feedback as required. Of all the business and marketing books I have read in the last year, this is one of the top ones. The only thing is: Don't assume it just applies to software! It doesn't.

Learn more about Getting Real.

Squidoo lens offers tips on using Backpack and GTD and says "Backpack is the way to do GTD"

Sonia Simone created a Squidoo lens called Use 37signals Backpack to manage GTD (Getting Things Done). It talks about how to use Backpack to create "a seamless, easy-to-use GTD implementation that will follow you anywhere you have an Internet connection."

Backpack is a deceptively simple set of tools that can be combined to produce a true blackbelt GTD implementation for hardly any money and in hardly any time...

Far more flexible than the Davidco Outlook add-on, hipper than a hipster PDA, accessible from anywhere you've got a Web connection, cheap, insanely easy to learn, and faster than a speeding bullet. Backpack is the way to do GTD.

If you're trying to get organized and your system is giving you more pain than productivity, give Backpack a shot.

Here's the section on NAs ("next actions"):

"NAs" are "next actions," and they're organized by what David Allen calls context A context is just a situation you find yourself in where you can get something useful done. "Running errands" is a context. So is "working at my home computer."

Some projects are also a GTD context. For example, when I'm in the mood to work on my Squidoo lenses, I want all of my next actions right on the Squidoo project page.

Other contexts are independent of any particular project. "Errands" are a free-floating context, as are "at my computer" and "phone calls." I find that it's easiest to group these together in logical order. I keep an "in the office" next action list on the same page as a "phone calls" list.

Backpack has a simple list functionality that lets you either delete a completed item or simply mark it checked, which moves it to a grayed "completed" area. Keeping the completed NAs around for a few days makes the act of completing them a little more satisfying.

Lists can be dragged from page to page, so if you find that a list doesn't work in a particular context, just drag it somewhere new. You can also drag NAs from one list to another.

There are a lot more specific tips at the lens page.

New Highrise Extras and Add Ons page

Highrise works with a variety of third-party customer service applications, accounting software, data visualization tools, mobile solutions, and more. We recently revamped the Highrise marketing site and now there's a page specifically devoted to add-ons and extras.

Software developers can create extras and add-ons with the Highrise API.

Anthony Brewitt: "Basecamp Changed My Design Process"

Anthony Brewitt, a UK web designer, just published a blog post titled "Basecamp Changed My Design Process."

The last few months I have been experimenting with Basecamp Project Management and how it can help with my work flow, my findings; its changed my design process forever, improving communication with my clients and allowing me to easily run multiple design projects...

I know there's a monthly charge and we all hate those, but for me it has changed my design process for the better and for my clients it brings real insight into what I am doing for their money and my progress with their projects.

If you're a designer who uses Basecamp, you may find Brewitt's approach interesting. The post offers a detailed analysis of how he uses Basecamp throughout his design process.

For example, here Brewitt explains how he uses Writeboards:

I usually create a Writeboard and record my findings for each task, for example in the analysis phase:

Analysis

• Identify Business Goals
• Marketing Strategy
• Identify Unique Selling Point
• Gather Website Content
• Identify Users / Demographic

I will add a writeboard called Business Goals, and record my findings, do remember this is shared with the client so from the very get-go if I am heading in the wrong direction or have mis understood a business goal the client can collaborate and make the correction.

Read the entire post for more.

Eric Lee: Trade unionists should try getting organized with Highrise

In Keeping the organizers organized, Eric Lee talks about using Highrise to stay organized as a trade unionist.

Trade unionists talk a lot about organising, but how well organised are we ourselves? I've tried lots of tools over the years with the goal of being better organised, including personal digital assistants (PDAs), PC-based software, and most recently web-based tools. Most recently, I've gotten hooked by a fantastic service called Highrise...

Union organisers can use Highrise to record all contacts, to note who has joined and what they've agreed to do, and who are potential members. Once a union exists in the workplace, Highrise could be used to maintain membership records and details of contacts between members and the union.

I'm sure there are loads of expensive systems out there which do the same thing. And I'm sure that people have hacked together ways to do much of this on an Excel spreadsheet too.

But to be able to access all your contacts from any Internet-connected device (including your cellphone) – that's extraordinary...

I think that any trade unionist who tries Highrise will instantly recognise the potential.

Read the whole piece.