Frugal IT: Backpack filled with "real-life usefulness and smooth interfacing"

"10 Applications that can help you with Personal Information Management" [Frugal IT] investigates various Personal Information Management (PIM) solutions. Backpack is first up:

Backpack is a SaaS intranet for you or your business. You can store, share, discuss, and archive everything that’s essential for you or your team. “It adapts to how you see it fitting into your life, and it can bend and reshape itself to fit the application you use it for. Multiple pages with multiple levels of functionality within each page equate to an application with customization beyond that of all others. Think of it as a wiki, but overflowing with real-life usefulness and smooth interfacing.” – Mike Rundle

Try Backpack.

Reviews of over 25 Mac and iPhone apps designed to work with 37signals products

Check it out: MacAppStorm has posted a great piece on "The Ultimate Collection of 37signals Mac & iPhone Apps." It offers summaries and reviews of over 25 Mac and iPhone apps designed to work alongside Basecamp, Backpack, Campfire, and Highrise.

How to set up 37signals Open Bar so you can quickly switch between your accounts

Reminder: The 37signals Open Bar lets you quickly switch between your accounts.

How to set it up.

Get your wedding party involved with Backpack

In HOW TO: Plan a DIY Wedding Using Social Media, a Mashable editor open sources his wedding planning work-flow and shares the tricks he's learned so far. One of his recommended tools: Backpack.

It should be clear by now: planning a wedding is a mammoth undertaking (and ours is relatively small at just over 100 guests). Keeping track of all the details can be difficult, but two tools are potentially invaluable for staying organized as the list of items you need to keep straight for the wedding grows larger. One of those resources is Backpack. Though initially designed for business use, Backpack is a single-page, wiki-style organizer that can be amazingly useful for keeping track of who is doing what, what is left to do, and what has already been accomplished. Because Backpack pages can be shared, you can also use the app to get your wedding party involved — dole out tasks to bridesmaids, groomsmen, and relatives and keep track of everyone’s progress.

Read the full piece for more recommended tools.

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

New in Backpack: Improved "All Pages" screen

We've just improved the way pages are listed on your "All Pages" screen in Backpack. The redesigned list's clear alphabetical groupings make it easier to find the page you're looking for.

The old screen featured two newspaper-style columns of pages listed in alphabetical order. This meant that if you had a lot of pages, you sometimes had to scroll all the way down one column, then back up to the top and down the other to find your page.

The newly redesigned All Pages screen maintains the two column grid so that you can still see many pages at once. However, it now reads left to right so that you'll only have to scroll once to find your page in a long list. We've also grouped pages alphabetically with a clear separation between each. So now you when you're looking for the "Receipts" page, it's simple to find the "R" section and locate your page.

We think this change makes finding a page on your Backpack account faster and easier, no matter how many pages you have. We hope you enjoy it. Thanks for using Backpack!

Why the Backpack Journal is "killer"

In this blog post, Sam Harrelson talks about why the Backpack Journal is "killer":

I'm going back to Backpack for workflow management. The web interface is fantastic (and familiar), I can easily email in material, create seperate pages, feel secure, integrate easily with GMail, Google Calendar and be completely web-based. 

However, the killer app Backpack has going for it is the Journal feature:

I'm using it for product management, status updates to myself and as a "private twitter" etc. It's like the anti-social bookmarketing site Pinboard for micro-messaging.

The article also raves about Satchel, which brings Backpack to your iPhone.

Yes, [Satchel] costs $10, but it's well worth the price. Satchel is speedy, works "offline" (whatever that means anymore), and intuitive. I can also easily update my Journal through Satchel. Plus, there are hacks and apps for getting Backpack to work well as a web app (like GMail) on the iPhone if preferred.

Read the full piece.

Snip 2 Backpack: Snip text from a webpage and send it directly to your Backpack page as a note

Snip 2 Backpack is a Backpack Bookmarklet that lets you snip text from a webpage and send it directly to your Backpack page as a note. First, create your bookmarklet by typing your Backpack page's email address. Then drag your new bookmarklet to your bookmarks bar. Here's what the end result looks like:

Web Worker Daily: A daily checklist in Backpack helps with marketing efforts

Tools and Techniques for Better Lead Generation [Web Worker Daily] argues that maintaining a consistent effort is key to marketing. The author says you need a reliable system so you can see exactly what you’ve done and when, as well as what’s left to be done — and Backpack is a great tool for this:

I have a page set up for each day of the workweek, and I evenly distribute the action tasks for all of my marketing tactics throughout the week.

On a given day, I simply click on that day’s page and get to work on the tasks, which are within a handy checklist (see image above along the left).

As I complete the items, I check them off. My goal is to get through the entire list on any given day. If I don’t get through the list for some reason, my rule is to get through all of the week’s tasks before the following Monday. This provides me with a little flexibility without letting me completely off the hook or allowing me to get too lax with my efforts (thus, adding consistency).

Each Monday, I un-check all the lists on every page, which helps me to stay accountable to my plans and goals for my business. I can clearly see what got done and what did not get done over the previous week. After un-checking the items, I’m ready to begin another week.

Logbook: Post Backpack Journal updates in seconds without ever opening your browser

Logbook lets you post your status and log your work on your Backpack Journal right from your Mac.

It’s called Logbook, and it makes updating your Backpack® Journal a breeze. For a while now, we've been using Backpack® Journal to keep our team connected and we absolutely love it. Lately, though, we've been getting sick and tired of having to repeatedly open the browser to post quick status updates or completed tasks (not to mention the fact that we often forget to post anything at all). Logbook is a lightweight menubar app that enables any Backpack® user to post Journal status updates and tasks in seconds without ever opening your browser.

Try Logbook or learn more about the Backpack Journal.

Steve Rubel discusses workstreaming with the Backpack Journal

Steve Rubel is SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, a division of Edelman - the world's largest independent PR firm. He recently posted: "Workstreaming in 140 Characters with Backpack."

Nowadays, status update boxes are everywhere: LinkedIn, Twitter, Friendfeed, Yammer, AIM, GTalk, Facebook and more. The stream is becoming a de facto way that we communicate with others. However, thinking in 140 characters is also changing how I work. I am now using status updates to workstream.

I have dusted off using Backpack as a tool for managing my life. It's improved a lot since I last used it a few years ago. One of their recent additions is the Backpack Journal, which I love. I can update it throughout the day to capture a running log of what I worked on, when. Right now this is just for my own use but Backpack works great in teams as well. Above is a screenshot from my Journal this am. I also update it from my iPhone using an app called Satchel and on the desktop use text expansion software to enter items more quickly. I use codes and phrases to track my time which I refer to when I enter my time reports.

Learn more about workstreaming (i.e. the publishing of work-related activities and events to your remote colleagues, usually via RSS but sometimes in other formats and ways).