ProofHQ and Basecamp: Offer your project team richer review and approval tools

ProofHQ integration with Basecamp explains how to add ProofHQ proofs to your Basecamp projects. (ProofHQ is a web-based design collaboration, proofing and approval tool for brands, agencies, designers, print and production.)

If you use Basecamp for project management you can now offer your project team richer review and approval tools using ProofHQ.

When you create a proof in ProofHQ you can add your proof to a Basecamp project and invite project team members to review and approve your proof.

ProofHQ will automatically create a new message in the Basecamp project that you have selected when you create the proof.

The message contains details about the proof and an embedded mini-proof. The mini-proof lets your project team view all the pages of the proof, zoom and view existing comments.

If your team members want to reply to a comment, add their own mark-ups and new comments or view details of the proof, they simply click on the "Full Screen" or "New Comment" button to open the full proof with all the functions.

If you create new versions of a proof, ProofHQ will automatically create a new message in the same Basecamp project and invite the same Basecamp project members to review the new version.

This page offers the following hi-res demo movies: "How to view a proof in Basecamp," "How to create a proof for Basecamp," and "How to setup ProofHQ to link to Basecamp."

Basecamp's clean print layouts

Did you know? Basecamp has clean print layouts so your projects look as good on paper as they do on screen.

We’re not big printers, but our customers tell us they are. They often have to print screens from Basecamp to take to meetings, present to clients, or prepare a report for their superiors. These print layouts are the perfect way to do it. See larger photo of an example print job.

[Case Study] Trigger brings Los Angeles and Shanghai offices together with 37signals products

Melanie Orndorff, Account Manager at Trigger, an entertainment marketing and interactive design company. She writes to tell us how the company unites its two offices, one in Los Angeles and the other in Shanghai, with 37signals products:

At Trigger, we design, develop, and deploy games, websites, and social media applications for clients such as Sony, Paramount, Fox, and Universal Pictures. It's fun work, and it can also be pretty hectic. We use a few 37signals products here at Trigger, but Basecamp and Highrise have proven most useful for our team.

Previously, we would send a huge volume of work assignment emails, project questions, and replies back and forth between our Los Angeles and Shanghai offices. Since many of our team members in Shanghai are not English-speaking, most of those emails would need to be read and translated before work could begin. It could get confusing, and somehow emails always seemed to get lost.

With Basecamp, our project managers in both offices (plus some team members in Portland, Seattle, and Las Vegas) are able to keep all of the communications in one place. Email volume has dropped, and team members are more informed. Because of this, we've been able to take on far more projects than we could handle in the past.

We love being able to discuss projects collaboratively between the offices. Because the messages are displayed in chronological sequence, we know that everyone has the most current information. When updates to work requests are needed, we can follow up with additional instructions and each developer and manager gets the info.

Learn how Trigger uses Highrise after the jump.

How to use Fluid to "create a kick ass intranet app using 37signals"

"Create a Kick Ass Intranet App using 37signals" explains how to use Open Bar and Fluid to create "a stylish intranet app that lives in your dock, complete with all of your 37signals services."

The post explains how to set up Open Bar so you can switch easily between apps and explains the benefits:

Having all of these applications in place really creates a great intranet-type workflow. It’s helpful even when working solo but if you have a small team like me it really shines. I also noticed my people used the various apps a lot more once I introduced them to using OpenID to bring them together — as well as putting it all together in Fluid.app.

It then explains how to get the apps to live in your dock:

So we have our cool kid intranet setup with OpenID. Now we need to go download Fluid.app and turn this puppy into a desktop-like application. Fluid is an SSB (site-specific browser), which is basically just a web browser without all the extras and with a customizable dock icon (I would recommend grabbing these nice icons for use with Fluid).

It’s great for tabbing to your intranet window, adding a calendar entry, and tabbing back to Photoshop, to give a quick example. This is a process that just isn’t as exciting when you’re stuck in Safari.

AgileAgenda: a project scheduling application that integrates with Basecamp

Marc Hughes, owner of project scheduling application AgileAgenda, wrote to tell us how the app lets a user upload their set of tasks as Basecamp Todo items.

AgileAgenda is a project scheduling application that's designed from the ground up to make it easy to create a schedule for a project, and then make it easy to maintain it when things inevitably change. It integrates with Basecamp by synchronizing it's scheduled tasks with todo items in Basecamp so you can share what tasks people should be working on. When someone marks a todo item complete in Basecamp, AgileAgenda will take that information and update the schedule the next time it's synced up. Basecamp can help get things done, AgileAgenda will tell you when that will happen.

Read more about the integration.

Here's a look at the final Basecamp result from an export:

More images: A screenshot of AgileAgenda in action and one of the Basecamp export process.

Kidmondo uses Basecamp and Backpack to create online baby journal

Kidmondo.com is a unique online service for new parents that recently launched. Site creator Daniel Hallac wrote to tell us how he's been inspired by Basecamp and 37signals:

Kidmondo is a personalized online baby journal that helps parents to easily chronicle their child's life and share it with friends and family in a safe environment. Some of the tools we offer parents include, a online diary, photo & video gallery, growth & dental charts, medical & food journals, and an interactive timeline of the child's life.

The early reviews have been positive and many people have equated it to a baby blogging platform or even a baby Facebook. My response tends to be that I find it closer to a baby Basecamp. Basecamp --which we used religiously in the development of the product-- has been a constant inspiration in the design of the site. When we were stomped, we often asked ourselves, "what would 37signals do?"

We asked Daniel (pictured below with his son Davide) to tell us more about Kidmondo's use of Basecamp (and Backpack too):

How do you use Basecamp and why do you like it?
Kidmondo is an online baby journal founded by my wife, Carole and I soon after the birth of our second child. We couldn't find a compelling way to chronicle and share news about our kids with our family and friends, so we went ahead and built one. When we first came up with the idea, we started with another 37signals product you may have heard of, Backpack. Backpack to help us brainstorm and flesh out our ideas and the exact requirements for Kidmondo.

When it came time for the implementation, we switched to Basecamp to manage our engagement with Eastmedia Inc, the web development shop we commissioned to build the site. Luckily for us, Basecamp was also their recommended project management tool and the transition was a smooth one.

We picked both products because they just worked! My wife has a very low tolerance for complex tools and was able to quickly adapt and use it. It allowed us to concentrate on the work at hand and not have to worry about learning the idiosyncrasies of the product.

Which features do you use most?
I believe the message board were the most used tool and became the primary communication channel between us and the developers. Having all communications in a central and searchable repository really helped cut down on miscommunications. Funny story, during the project I was often away from a computer and commented that Basecamp really needed a reply by email function. Low and behold you announced this feature it a few days later. That soon became the most used feature!

Import RSS feeds into Basecamp with telegraph

Using telegraph you can import RSS or Atom information from other systems into your Basecamp account.

The app's creator Kasper Garnæs writes:

We're a small web development company and we use Basecamp as an integral part of our development process. To integrate content from other systems into Basecamp we've built telegraph:

telegraph is a web application which handles RSS and Atom feed subscriptions for Basecamp projects. Feeds are checked on a regular basis and new entries are automatically posted as messages when they appear in the feed.

Examples of items you might want to import:

• Updates to your source control system from Unfuddle or your Trac installation


• New bugs registered in your bug tracking system such as Porchlight or FogBugz


• Buzz about your project from the blogosphere using Technorati or Google Blog Search


• Relevant links from del.icio.us


• Any content you assemble using Yahoo Pipes or Dapper

Very cool. If you come up with a neat use for telegraph, let us know.

Variety Club of Great Britain uses Basecamp to help disadvantaged children

For more than 50 years, Variety Club Children's Charity has been helping sick, disabled and disadvantaged children in Great Britain. They recently began using Basecamp and Chairman Len Keighley wrote to tell us how much it's helped:

Operating a Charity in today's business led environments is made more difficult due to the high interaction between Volunteers and Staff. Basecamp offers a quick, easy and structured way of handling this communication. It also has the added visibility of task scheduling and assignment, while providing team building capabilities. The central repository provided for not only communications but meeting minutes and documents also helps move the operation to a more paperless environment. All of which helped the North West Region of the Variety Club Children's Charity to move it's administration and communications into the 21st Century.

Thanks Len and thanks for all the great work you're doing! If you'd like to help the Variety Club Children's Charity, check out the site's Fundraising page.

fixx is a new bug tracking and issue tracking system for software teams that integrates with Basecamp

There's a new Basecamp Extra on the block: fixx, a bug tracking and issue tracking system for software teams made by hedgehog lab.

fixx integrates with Basecamp by allowing you to import your existing projects, milestones and users. This allows you to kick-start your usage of fixx and re-use existing project information, without having to spend your valuable time replicating data that you already have in use.

Further integration is planned for 2.0, with the ability to post release notes to Basecamp and updating your Basecamp projects with time tracking entries from fixx.

Try fixx.

Mailmanagr allows you to send e-mail messages to various categories within your Basecamp projects

Mailmanagr for Basecamp is now open for general use:

Mailmanagr is an e-mail interface for the popular Basecamp Web-Based Project Management system.  Whether you’ve got clients who are having trouble breaking the e-mail habit, or if you’re just looking for a solution for when you’re using your mobile phone, Mailmanagr fits the bill.

The signup email has some additional details:

Mailmanagr, in it's current form, will allow you to send e-mail messages (complete with attachments) to various categories within your Basecamp projects. You can set up an e-mail address for each category, or just set up an "E-mail dropbox" category, and create an address for that. The decision is yours!...

You can use Mailmanagr in a number of ways, here's a few ideas:

1. Create an imaginary user (mine is called Dave Helper) and set that account up with e-mail addresses. Then you can just "forward a message to Dave", and he'll post it for you.

2. Create a single catch-all category (I've used "E-mail Dropbox") and forward messages there.

3. Create addresses for each individual category on every project.

Signup for Mailmanagr.

Mad Mimi uses Campfire for customer support and also digs the "Basecamp Vibe" (i.e. beauty, economy, and simplicity)

MadMimi.com is a Brooklyn-based startup providing "a uniquely simple, powerful email marketing service." They utilize Basecamp and Campfire for in-house collaboration on development projects and as their main platform for customer support. Gary Levitt, co-founder of Mad Mimi (that's him in the picture to the left, along with his wife, Leah, also a co-founder), tells us more below.

How we use Basecamp and why we like it
Well we must have referenced Basecamp a hundred times during the conception of Mad Mimi. So to say we like Basecamp is a bit of an understatement. Basecamp helps us handle project collaboration effortlessly. But our affinity goes deeper — Basecamp's simplicity was a muse for us, in that it triggered a shift in our mindset which lead to the creation of our product. Others can debate the logic of this, but to our minds, when you cross Basecamp simplicity with email promotion, you get a fresh, functional alternative to the bloated, template-based services that are currently leading the market. You look at all the reasons why industry leaders are predicting that Mad Mimi will topple the current dominating players in the email marketing industry, and many of those reasons can be credited to the influence of 37signals' products.

In terms of how we use Basecamp, it's interesting. Before our success in email marketing, we were just another New York music production company. At the time, Basecamp let us exchange music files in a cool way. As artists, we were taken in by what we all called the "Basecamp Vibe," which meant beauty, economy, simplicity. As a company, we had to promote ourselves with email, and we hated the web based apps we found — they were charging quite a lot for the pleasure of using the same tired, dated templates. So driven by necessity, and inspired by the "Basecamp Vibe", we put together (collaborating with Dave Hoover and his team at Obtiva Studio) a new way to design, send and track our own e-promos. The software was so effective it became our company's main focus, and that's when we brought in big guns like Tobie Langel to bring it to surprising new levels. What's interesting is that we used Basecamp for managing the collaboration of our team in Chicago, Utah, Switzerland, South Africa and New York in developing our software. In short, Basecamp is a muse...that we use.

Which features we like most
Some months it's one feature, some months it's another. It's a constant process of discovery. For a long time we stayed away from the To-Do lists, and favored only messages. But now To-Do's are a daily routine. There's a tremendous gratification in crossing off tasks and having that "wow, look at what I accomplished" feeling.

What we used before switching to Basecamp
Before Basecamp it was an endless swarm of disorganized emails. I just remember a lot re:re:re:re. There were phone calls, conference calls, cell phone headaches, and the time-eating in-person meetings. Our feeling is face-to-face should be over a relaxing lunch, not over papers. Basecamp actually saved us time, and we were able to enjoy more of those lunches. We used Google Docs on occasion before we switched. Basecamp is more fun, easier, nicer to look at, and seemingly bug free. We still use Google Docs for various odd tasks, but coming back to Basecamp is like coming home to a comfy arm-chair or an old pair of jeans.

How Basecamp helped us out
Well, to begin with, Basecamp helped us out with EVERYTHING. We went from technological imbeciles to technology newbies in no time. Basecamp is much more than a simple app. It was our ENTIRE BUSINESS. Our offices, our conference room, our file cabinets, our calendars, our traffic department, our bulletin board, our lounge, everything. Our team was based in five different cities, so we have to credit Basecamp for taking Mad Mimi from infancy to the launch of a groundbreaking product.

Learn how Mad Mimi uses Campfire for customer service after the jump.

How eduFire operates as a virtual company using Basecamp, Campfire, and Highrise

eduFire.com has a simple (but not easy) mission: Revolution education. The site says, "Our goal is to create a platform to allow live learning to take place over the Internet anytime from anywhere." Below, Jon Bischke, CEO/Founder of eduFire, tells us how the company uses Basecamp, Campfire, and Highrise to manage a number of aspects of our business.

A virtual company
eduFire is a fully virtual company at this stage with employers and contractors spread across a number of states. We're an early-stage start-up and so two things are important to us: the ability to move quickly and keeping costs low.

We use Basecamp, Campfire and Highrise to manage a number of aspects of our business. While our Campfire usage is pretty standard, we've used Basecamp and Highrise in ways that I think would qualify as pretty unique.

Using Basecamp for new hires
At eduFire we have a team of part-time, work-from-home contractors who help us with everything from guerrilla marketing to welcoming new users to the site. We don't have a very extensive hiring process. Rather we bring them on, set them up with a Basecamp account and assign them an "Intro Level" project. If they do a good job we now give them access to a "Level One" project (something a little more advanced and more mission-critical). If they prove themselves there then we graduate them to a "Level Two" project . It's incredibly important to us to have a piece of software that we can get new users up to speed very quickly with minimal training. I can't think of any other piece of software that would work for this other than Basecamp.

Washington Post: Highrise "does nearly everything a personal secretary might do except go out for coffee and pick up our dry cleaning"

In 5 Ways to Build Your Virtual Office [Washington Post], author Dan Tynan says, "Running a virtual business is easier (and cheaper) than ever, if you have the right tools." And those right tools include Highrise and Basecamp.

We can't afford to hire an administrative assistant, which is why we use Highrise. Nominally an online CRM tool, 37signals' clever Web app does nearly everything a personal secretary might do except go out for coffee and pick up our dry cleaning.

Of course, the last thing you need is yet another address book to populate. Fortunately, Highrise makes the job easy: Just bcc e-mail messages to a special 'dropbox' address, and your recipient's address joins your contacts database automatically. You can then copy and paste their phone number, physical address, and other info at your leisure. (You can also upload V-cards or import whole address books from Outlook and other contact managers.)

But Highrise is really more about organizing your work life and keeping you on track. You can create a "case" for each project, associate contacts with each case, add notes and upload documents, share the case with colleagues, and add tasks for each person to perform. Highrise is free for two users and up to 250 contacts; paid plans that allow multiple users to swap files, collaborate on cases, and share thousands of contacts range from $24 to $99 a month.

When we need full-on project management, we also use 37signals' Basecamp, which lets us create milestones, view them on a calendar, track successive versions of the same document, and do a whole lot more. You can manage one project with unlimited users for free; for multiple projects, prices start at $24 a month.

Read the rest of 5 Ways to Build Your Virtual Office to learn more about the other recommended tools.

New Basecamp tour videos: 1) Colors & Logos and 2) Comments on Messages

Recently added to the Basecamp videos page: Audio/video tours of 1) Colors & Logos and 2) Comments on Messages.

Colors & Logos
Watch an audio/video tour of colors & logos
Customize your colors and upload your logo to make your Basecamp account yours.

Comments on Messages
Watch an audio/video tour of comments
Communicate back and forth on a given message. Like email but simpler and centralized.

More videos here.

Web marketing strategist uses 37signals products to replace spreadsheets, email, an address book, folders and sticky notes

Essential Keystrokes recently published "4 Great Tools to Help You Organize Your Business and Projects from 37signals":

How do you keep track of your contacts, project notes, files, status updates, and sign-offs? For many years I relied on a combination of tools such as an Excel spreadsheet, my email, an address book, folders and sticky notes. As my business has grown and become more mobile (meaning some days I work from Panera Bread, some days from the patio, and others in my main office) I have found these tools just aren’t working for me anymore.

I have looked high and low for a solution that would fit my needs (here are some I tested) and after talking with Leah from Working Solo, I have finally found my answer - Highrise and BackPack from 37signals.

The team at 37signals has created a series of web-based products that help you and your organization stay, well, organized! Each of their products serves a slightly different purpose and a slightly different audience, allowing you to get only the functionality you need in a lightweight, web-based application.

I use Basecamp with some clients when managing a large project that requires input, file sharing and deadlines with more than one person. Basecamp is perfect because all the communication is done in one place, thus eliminating the lost emails, constant forwarding and CC-ing that frequently happen with larger projects. You don’t have to worry about missing anything - Basecamp emails you when someone adds anything to the project.

The product I am hooked on that really works for me as a freelance designer is Highrise. Highrise works as a contact management package with a kick. Not only can I keep track of my client contact information, but I can add notes for each one, create my to do list (and get email updates on what is due or past due), and use the dropbox as a back up feature too. When you pull up a client’s name, you get all of their information and notes all at once which is such a nice feature.

Backpack is a great way for your organization to stay on the same page or for you to keep all your notes and files organized. It is a beefed up calendar, file cabinet and white board all in one place. Use it for one person or the whole organization. Get your reminders sent to your phone or email - so you have no excuses.

Campfire is a great way for organizations to stay on the same page even when you are working from multiple locations. Think of it as your own private group IM. The look and feel is no nonsense, elegant and easy to use.

37signals has other products that make collaboration and organization work for you - it is just a matter of checking each of them out and seeing which one fits you best. For me, the answer is Highrise with a bit of Backpack on the side. Each of the 37 Signals products comes with a free trial and depending on the size of your organization and project needs, some of the solutions are free. You just have to give them a try.

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

Basecamp's reply feature "in the wild"

Spotted on Flickr: Basecamp's reply feature in the wild (Uploaded by iQ Content)

"Basecamp (by 37signals) recently got a nice new feature - inline replies to project messages, infinitely improving project communication while on the go - in this case, I'm in the car (parked) responding to a Basecamp message on my old Nokia 62whatsit."

Learn more about Basecamp's new "reply to a message via email" feature.

Got a photo of you using a 37signals product in the wild? Send it to us.

CEO suggests using Basecamp to encourage accountability and participation

Small Business Trends is a publication for small business owners and entrepreneurs. Zane Safrit, former CEO of Conference Calls Unlimited, just published an article there called Time-Generating Resources for CEOs.

Today’s competitive pressures force CEOs to squeeze the most out of shorter and shorter time segments, those brief-fleeting moments in-between interruptions... want to share with you the resources I found over those 7 years that gave me greater amounts of uninterrupted time.

He leads with Basecamp as his first suggestion.

BASECAMP. It’s a wiki product offered and hosted by 37signals. First, what’s a wiki? According to Wikipedia (For this word, who else?), a wiki is a “collection of web pages designed to enable anyone who accesses it to contribute or modify content, using a simplified markup language.

I’d add it’s a one-stop resource for your projects, the to-do’s and timelines with each project, a place to document your meeting notes and expectations that arise from them. It’s a repository of resources and ideas and your own private brainstorming sessions. You add content to those ideas that progress. You delete those crushed by reality.

There are many wiki products. I chose Basecamp because it’s affordable (start with free), easy to use (key for both you as the CEO and your company), its features are constantly upgraded without interrupting my use, and 37signals, the company behind it, offer a host of complimentary services that integrate with Basecamp. It saved us hours of time and frustration, minimized disputes by documenting the conversations, encouraged accountability AND participation, rewarded everyone’s engagement with an easy means to participate in an open, transparent manner. I continue to use it today.

Read the whole article for more time-saving resources.

R.O.Why! Marketing saves money and time with Basecamp

Brian C. LeCount, President of R.O.Why! Marketing, Inc., emailed us about how Basecamp is saving his business hundreds of dollars a month:

I just want you to know that Basecamp is saving my business hundreds of dollars a month since switching. Used to use a huge, cumbersome, complicated and headache-producing project management & client collaboration software system that clients hated to use. And it was expensive.

And did I mention that we couldn't get clients to use it? It took a couple hours or more to set up a complex project. With Basecamp, I'm done - including milestones & tasks - in 15-30 minutes and every one of our clients uses it and loves it.

You guys have built a great little app that I'm finding isn't so little. Good stuff.

Oh, and now I'm using Highrise, and Ta-Da List, and maybe someday Backpack. Your tools are so simple they're addicting.

Thanks Brian!

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

[Case Study] Entrepreneur Mom uses Basecamp to manage all her client “schtuff”

Entrepreneur Mom Aliza Sherman Risdahl published a thopughtful post about "keeping track of client schtuff" with Basecamp over at "Work It, Mom!," a site where working moms connect.

I’m training all my clients to use Basecamp instead of sending me multiple emails so rather than sifting through Gmail to find the latest correspondence or searching my computer to resend a file that they don’t remember receiving, we can communicate through Basecamp and upload all the files related to a given project.

Here are the main features of Basecamp and how I’ve been using it:

Posting messages instead of all those emails.
The message board in Basecamp is like a Web-based forum. I post messages or ask my clients to post messages in their password protected project area. Then anyone on the team can make comments on a post that appear below the post. I’ve even gone as far as copy and pasting email correspondence into individual messages to put everything in one place for easy access.

To-Do lists designate tasks.
I love my paper to-do lists but when there are multiple projects and clients, paper is not a viable tool to share lists, assign tasks and check off completed tasks for everyone to see. Each time a task is posted and assigned, it is emailed to everyone assigned to the project so we are all in the loop. And seeing items the online To-Do list with a line through it as it is completed is rewarding.

Uploading files so everyone can access them.
How many times have I emailed a file to a client and they tell me they never got it? Or vice versa? Basecamp lets you upload PDF files, image files, word documents, spreadsheets - any file that is critical to our project. Anyone working on the project can download what they need when they need it.

Overview Dashboard gives project activities at a glance.
You can view a dashboard of all projects that highlights the most recent activities like a new message posted or comment added. Or you can view a dashboard for a particular project. Either way, you get a quick, easy-to-digest glimpse of what is on your plate and the status of everything in the works. I let out a big sigh of relief when I see this feature because it reminds me of what I need to know at any given time.

Basecamp uses screencasts (videos demoing how to use site features) for anyone using any feature for the first time. I found them to be so much easier to follow than reading instructions so I was up and running in no time at all.

I’m so picky about the applications I use. My truest test of an application’s worthiness is if I use something frequently. I’m using Basecamp daily and so far, all of my clients like it, too.

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

Basecamp helps "green team" save $2,000 a year and keep a zero carbon footprint

Martin Carrion, Manager at Creative Field Media, wrote to tell us about how his in-house "green team" uses Basecamp to stay green and save money:

We are a small group of companies and I run the graphic communication department (graphic and web design, web development, e-commerce and in-house printing). I am also part of the recently created green team inside of our organization and one of my initial tasks was to do an assessment in terms of our core processes and activities...

Before Basecamp, we used to open a jacket folder for each project and put all the material inside of that folder, which basically means print everything, all the way from the initial job request, all versions, reviews, to the final invoice. I ran some numbers and I realized that we will save an estimated $2000 a year just in paper, folders and print related costs; but even more important than the savings is that we're adopting green practices and calculating the positive impact in the environment in doing that,. The end result of adopting a web-based application such as Basecamp in terms of the environment is: zero carbon footprint in terms of printing and transporting paper and printing consumables to our place, zero waste, and zero storage space and cost associated with that.

At any rate, we believe — as many others I hope — that the main force — if not the only one — behind a real change in making a contribution to the environment are businesses. And when you realize that adopting green practices makes sense financially speaking and also in terms of reducing or even eliminating your company contribution to pollute the planet, then you find that a change is possible and achievable.

Great to hear Martin. Keep up the good/green work!

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

Basecamp is a Webware 100 Award Winner (again)

Basecamp is a Webware 100 Award Winner (again) in the "Productivity" category. The Webware 100 is made up of the 100 best Web 2.0 applications, chosen by Webware readers and Internet users across the globe. Over 1.9 million votes were cast to select the winners.

Basecamp is a Web-based project management tool from 37signals. Groups can come together and work on large or small projects, sharing the same collaborative space.

It's essentially a mash-up of various productivity tools, including a to-do list maker, shared storage space, message boards, and calendaring. What has made it so successful is how it's been tied together. It's well known as a service that fits both personal and group organization into one handy tool.

Basecamp has several tiers of service, with varying degrees of shared file storage and active projects.

Here's the complete list of the Webware 100.

ProjectLocker, a hosted Subversion and Trac system, adds Basecamp integration

Just added to the Basecamp Extras page: ProjectLocker, a hosted Subversion and Trac system with source control, issue tracking, and Wiki.

ProjectLocker's Corregan Brown wrote in to tell us more:

Here's a brief summary of who we are and why Basecamp cares:

ProjectLocker has just added Basecamp integration to its product suite.  Subversion users who host at ProjectLocker can now:

* Send commit messages from Subversion to Basecamp as Basecamp messages.
* Create new ProjectLocker projects from existing Basecamp projects.
* Associate users in ProjectLocker with users in Basecamp, so that messages actually come from the committing user where possible.

ProjectLocker offers safe, secure, and accessible Subversion hosting and Trac hosting for software development teams of all sizes.  ProjectLocker facilitates teams working together the way that they want to work, using either Trac's built-in functionality or providers such as Basecamp for project management.

Plans start at $2.50/month.  You can find out more at projectlocker.com.

The Basecamp Extras page has more tools that integrate with Basecamp.

[Case Study] Baltimore Sun uses Basecamp to manage "a million moving parts"

Tim Windsor, General Manager of The Baltimore Sun's online division, wrote to tell us that "Basecamp is a beneficial infection."

So we brought Basecamp in to the interactive creative department.

And then we introduced it to the product development team. Where someone from IT saw it and now is asking where to sign up.

Basecamp is a beneficial virus. Once it's unleashed on an organization, it's bound to grow and replicate.

Below, Thom Smith, Director of Design & Development for The Baltimore Sun, answers questions about how his team uses Basecamp.

How do you use Basecamp?
My Department operates as a mini creative agency within the greater organization of The Baltimore Sun Media Group. We do design and development work for clients both internally and externally. This work spans most media and includes: web sites (big and small), banner ads, e-mail newsletters, admail, video production, logos, illustrations, print ads, tradeshow signage, etc. This keeps us pretty busy and we use Basecamp to manage all of our projects from start to finish.

Which feature(s) do you use most?
Milestones and messages are the most important tools to us. The ability to assign those to members of my team is extremely helpful as well.

We create a new project for each of our clients. Then we break down each job into its component parts. Each of these deliverables is a milestone assigned to a member of my team. They get their instruction in the form of a message that is associated to the milestone. These details are added by our traffic coordinator who works with our clients to assess needs.

We also use the file upload tool to share large files, like video, for our clients to proof. It's so much easier than trying to get them to use ftp.

Why are you a Basecamp evangelist?
We love Basecamp because it's so simple. It takes very little time to learn and is easy to teach to new employees and clients. It's also extremely flexible. The tools are useful and intuitive, so regardless of the type of business you're doing, you can adapt Basecamp to suit your needs. That's why I've reccomended Basecamp to so many people. There are many units in our corporation who use Basecamp now and as more people are exposed to it, they see how it could be a good tool for their own departments.

[Case Study] Shaw Builders creates multimillion dollar homes with Basecamp

Bob Moore commented at Signal vs. Noise about how Shaw Builders, his home-building company, uses Basecamp.

We use Basecamp to help manage the complex process of building custom homes. We work with a wide range of talented architects, interior designers, engineers, landscape architects, masons, electricians, plumbers, HVAC contractors. Our clients range from Wall Street Exec's (super type A's) to Hollywood celebs. If they actually had to take the time to "learn" how to use Basecamp, they wouldn't use it. Sometimes a simple tool can solve a wide variety of major problems and Basecamp does that for us.

We followed up with Bob to learn more about how his team uses Basecamp.

How do you use Basecamp and why do you like it?
We're a high end custom home builder with a staff of around 50 people. This includes office personnel, site project managers, lead carpenters, finish carpenters, masons, cabinetmakers and laborers. A typical project is in the area of $ 3 million to $ 8 million dollars. We normally have 4 to 5 projects running at any given time. Each project has it's own dedicated project manager who has P&L responsibilities for their project. The project team also includes architects, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, interior designers, landscape architects and sub-contractors for HVAC, electrical, plumbing, etc. There's a ton of information to manage and track. This is where Basecamp comes in. We use it to track project to do lists, project milestones, Project logs, Builders Reports and photos. We post photos almost on a daily basis. The architects and homeowners love the fact that they can check on the project from anywhere in the world.
 
I'm a huge fan of hosted applications. Fewer management headaches for me! I like Basecamp because it's simple for everyone to use yet powerful enough to allow us to do the things we need to. For example, I use Google's Picasa to post our photos and link to slideshows right from Basecamp. I haven't run into a lot of limitations. Our customers range from the hyper Wall Steet type "A"'s to Hollywood artists and celebrities. If they felt at all intimidated by Basecamp, they wouldn't use it. We haven't run into that.

New project switcher in Basecamp, bigger file upload limit, and more.

Last night we launched a new feature that makes it easier to switch between frequently accessed projects. We've put together a little video tour to show you how it used to work and how it works now.

This release also includes the following improvements:

• People using Basecamp file storage can now upload files up to 100 MB each. Before the limit was 30 MB.
• When you're inside a project you'll see a printer icon in the right corner of the screen next to the Search tab. Clicking that icon will give you a print-friendly version of the page you're currently on.
• We've made some of the text links at the top of the screen bigger so they're easier to see/click.

We hope you'll find these improvements useful and thanks again for your continued support!

Example Basecamp welcome messages from R.BIRD and Koke Creative

Below are a couple of Basecamp welcome messages used by two different design firms. Each welcomes clients to Basecamp and encourages them to use it as their first point of contact. We've left the textile formatting in place.

R.BIRD
R.BIRD is a team of brand consultants with 25 years of experience in packaging design and branding. The company's founder Richard Bird recently sent us the standard Basecamp welcome message template the firm uses. Note the clear explanation of why Basecamp is superior to just sending a regular email.

Welcome!

Welcome to [RBIRD.projectpath.com] where R.BIRD shares important communications and assets for client projects.

* *post new "messages":link *
* *add comments*
* *upload "files":link *
* *talk "live":link *
* *check "to-do lists":link *
* *review "milestone dates":link *
* *collaborate on "writing":link *
* even *subscribe via "RSS":link *

*Security*
Information available here is only accessible by individuals granted access through unique login and password. All communications and file transfers are secured by SSL encryption.

*Your Login*
Keep your username and password in a safe place. You will need them to sign in to the site *and, again, to confirm your identity when accessing files* that may be posted here. (Note: your login and password are case sensitive)

*Think RBIRD.projectpath.com FIRST*
When you use RBIRD.projectpath.com:
* you can notify your entire project team
* there is a shared record of your communication
* all of us at R.BIRD share responsibility for your message
* the possibility that your message is missed is virtually eliminated.

*When you use Email:*
* only one person might receive and read your message
* your teams and colleagues may remain in the dark
* there is no record of your communication, except in your own Email out box
* there exists the possibility that your message may be missed.

RBIRD.projectpath.com is a wonderfully successful addition to the R.BIRD suite of project management tools. *Please use RBIRD.projectpath.com as your _first_ point of project communications with R.BIRD.*

For Team Leaders

If additional members of your team need to be added to this project site, simply provide contact information. For convenience, you can "use this form to provide new or updated contact information.":http://example.wufoo.com/forms/project-contact-form/

Richard adds, "I copy project-specific links into the 'link' references. The template even includes an online form that we all use to add new users."

Koke Creative
Jeff Koke at Koke Creative also sent along his welcome message (after the jump).

New Basecamp Features: Reply to a message via email and more

This weekend we pushed live one of the top Basecamp requests of all time, plus some other related improvements.

You can now post comments to a message via email

Prior to this update, you had to log in to Basecamp to post a comment on a message. We sent you an email notification, but replying to the message required a log in.

Now you can just reply to a message or comment notification by email and your comment will be posted to the project.

At the top of new message and comment notification emails you'll see this:

--- Reply ABOVE THIS LINE to post a comment to the project

Anything you type above that line will be posted back to the project as a comment on the message. This is especially useful if you're on a mobile device (Blackberry, iPhone, etc) and you want to reply without having to log into Basecamp over a slow internet connection.

Note that you can only reply to the message in plain text -- images or files attachments in your email will not be posted to the project. If you need to upload a file in your reply you'll still need to log into Basecamp.

Project updates on every email notification

UPDATE: We have pulled the feature for now. It will make its return in another form down the road. Thanks for the feedback.

People have been asking for a way to stay better connected to their Basecamp projects without having to log in (or check RSS feeds as RSS feeds are too techie for many people). As mentioned above, this is especially useful for folks on mobile devices.

To these ends we've added a footer at the bottom of every email notification that includes the latest changes to the project. This is the same data that's displayed on the Overview screen inside the project. The information is listed at the end of the email so if it's not useful to you it won't get in your way. But if you are curious about what's new in a project all you have to do is scroll down the email and check out the last 25 updates. A direct link to the overview screen is also provided. It looks like:

A revamped message/comment screen

We recently launched a message board in our Backpack intranet product. The messages screen layout inside Backpack was preferred to the Basecamp messages/comment screen layout. It was cleaner, tighter, and comments didn't wrap under the avatars. So with this release we've moved the Backpack messages layout over to Basecamp. We think it's much improved.

Adding files to messages/comments is faster

Attaching files to messages/comments requires fewer clicks now. It's subtle, but saved clicks add up. We think you'll notice the improvement over time.

Clarified email notifications block

We've also clarified the email notifications block when posting a new message. Better wording and clearer instructions make it more obvious what happens when you post a new message or comment.

We hope you enjoy the improvements

We're really thrilled about these improvements — especially emailing-in comments. We hope you find these changes as useful as we do. Thanks again for your continued support!

Can I create sub-projects in Basecamp (i.e. a project within another project)?

Question: Can I create sub-projects in Basecamp (i.e. a project within another project)?

Answer: At this time, it's not possible to create sub-projects in Basecamp. But there's a friendly workaround that will allow this functionality: Create a new company and make it the "primary company" for the various projects you'd like to group together. Here's how this works:

1. Go to your People tab and click the link to add a new company.

2. Instead of adding a company name, make the company name your "area" or category. For instance, you can create a company called "Finance" or "Legal".

3. Don't add any users to this company.

4. Now, go to a project that falls under the category "Legal". Click the "People & Permissions" tab, and click the link to add the "Legal" company you just created to the project.

[Basecamp] New Feature Preview: Replying to messages via email

This week we'll be launching one of the top requested features of all time: Posting a comment to a message by replying to the new message notification email.

Once the feature is live, you'll be able to reply to the new message email notification. Your reply will be posted back to the project as a comment. This means you won't have to log into Basecamp to reply to a message. Further, it makes replying to a message via a mobile device a lot easier.

Here's basically how it will work:

The top of the new message email notification will have a line that says something like "Reply above this line to post your reply to the project" (exact language and format TBD). Whatever you type above that line will be posted to the project as a comment.

In this example, "Sounds great. Let's move forward with this. Be sure to check with Mark to make sure everything is in place" will be posted back to the project as a comment on the original message.

We'll have the full announcement and additional details later this week.

We're really excited about this feature. We hope you'll find it as useful as we do. Thanks again for your continued support.

Testing an e-mail interface for interacting with Basecamp

Jonathan Lane is working on an e-mail interface for interacting with Basecamp.

It’s pretty basic at the moment, it lets you send messages to “email_td@domain.com” in order to add a to-do assigned to a specific person, or “email_mile@domain.com” in order to add a milestone to a specific person. Also planned are adding messages, and adding files over e-mai, adding general to-dos and general milestones and having it mail you a list of your to-dos and milestones.

He's wondering 1) Is this a good idea? And 2) Is he missing something that you would see as essential from the list above? He's also looking for people to try it out. You can contact him at jonathan.lane[at]gmail[dot]com.

Rock band stays organized with Basecamp

You're a five person band. Cool. But there's a problem: You don’t live in the same city, much less the same state. The solution? Use Basecamp to stay organized.

The band Fundamental Elements (MySpace page) wrote up a summary of how they use Basecamp to manage recording and gigging even though they're miles apart from each other:

People are often surprised to find out that the five of us don’t live in the same city, much less the same state (Joe and Russ in MO, Mark and Luke in IL, and Dustin in IA). There are obviously challenges to stay connected and organized when we’re all apart. One of the tools that we’ve found helpful in keeping us organized is a project management web application called Basecamp by 37signals.

About a year ago we set up a Basecamp account and started with a single project: “winning a grammy” (go big or go home right?). One of our first goals as a band has been to release a new album with our current lineup of musicians that is more true to our live sound. With Basecamp we were able to set up a list of milestones and to-do lists that we would need to accomplish in order to complete that goal.

At this point, we’re almost finished with recording the album and we’re been using Basecamp as a central place to discuss things like an album title and song order. Basecamp has provided the means for all of us to have a joint conversation even though we’re living in different locations and keeping very different schedules.

Sundog Media uses Basecamp to handle growing design business

Sundog Media, an Alaska based graphic design firm, recently doubled in size after merging with a nearby firm. They use Basecamp to manage projects and the firm's accountant, Cathy Law, says, "Our team doubled, business exploded beyond either side's expectations & we are now employing Basecamp for most of our customer base." Here are more details from Cathy:

How do you use Basecamp and why do you like it?
We use Basecamp to communicate between team members living in different communities for our internet service business.  Team is separated geographically & in different time zones & countries.

Which features do you use most?
In order... Time tracking tab, messages, to-dos, milestones, file uploads. We use the messages features to communicate with Private Messages within each client's project & as project wide messages to the client & with other team members.

What did you use before and why did you switch?
Telephone, email, off the shelf time tracking software, software developed in house, phone & email for team communication. Basecamp allows us more options and includes clients yet allows private team messages & private time descriptions & tracking within each client project.

Tell us a story about a project or situation where Basecamp helped you succeed.
Sundog Media began using Basecamp in Nov 2006 to help our own 6 person team communicate more efficiently.  In Jan 2007, God placed another similar sized similar client based business into our court by a phone call from the owner who needed, for family health reasons, to find a 'home' for her clients.  

Our very new & inefficient use of Basecamp's many features tested by our 6 person team suddenly became a necessity for communicating with another 5 persons — all long distance, none local.  Our team doubled, business exploded beyond either side's expectations & we are now employing Basecamp for most of our customer base & working toward 100% customer participation.  

Customers from both businesses appreciate the better communication after they've spent just a few runs through message threads.  Because now neither the customer or our team has difficulty finding what was said to the other, we can easily see where the project's status is.  Nobody wants to be the one that drops the ball so we have faster service! It's wonderful! 

Anything else?
We love the increased communication & ability to change persons working with a client without having to 'download' our brains to each other.  We're human & sometimes forget what we said.  Basecamp has made it so we don't!  Thanks!!!!!

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

Thoughtful welcome message for getting clients started with Basecamp

David McDonald is a graphic designer who runs a freelance creative company designing print and digital publishing solutions. He recently wrote to us: "I just read the article on your blog: Social Signals uses Basecamp and GTD for project management and workflow and thought to send you the welcome message I put into all my new Basecamp projects for the benefit of my new clients."

Here's the message:

I have now set this project up on my Basecamp workspace.

I’m posting this message as a brief guide to how all this works, it’s quite simple really and I think you'll like it once you see the project history take shape. Most features of Basecamp are straightforward to understand and, most importantly, they will ensure that all relevant communications on this project are in one easily-accessible place.

As the main project manager I will set up the following elements:

*Milestones* (deadlines)
*To Do’s* (tasks)
*Writeboards* (shared publishing spaces, usually for written content)
*Files* (anything that needs to be kept in it’s original format, eg: PDFs, Word Docs, Excels sheets etc.)

As it is early stages for this project this info will be scarce at the moment but will be added as soon as I have the relevant information.

You can see these categories on the tabs at the top of this page.

Probably you will be using the Message area most of all as that is where the dialogue and progress is most obvious. You can start a new message anytime or you can comment on post made by anyone else please use a new message for any new topics or comment if your info is relevant to an existing post/topic.

The same common-sense approach is used on the Writeboards. You can post an item (usually text content for the project) or you can comment on a post.

Using email:

Essentially you don't use email when using Basecamp

The Basecamp system only uses email as notification of activity on the project, you cannot reply to an email generated from Basecamp. This is important because emails created outside the managed environment will be absent from the project flow, if this happens the project soon becomes disorganized and the collaborative features of Basecamp are lost.

You may be a bit uncomfortable with the absence of direct email communication at first but Basecamp offers much more effective project management than ad-hoc emails, as I hope you will see during the lifespan of this project.

Apologies for ranting on here but I hope you find this useful in getting the best out of this system.

You can also check out the help files when you are logged in, the videos are particularly useful.

And now, on with the work...

New tool lets you convert Basecamp projects to PDF reports

Export Reports is a third-party tool that lets you convert your Basecamp projects and information to a PDF Report that you can share, archive, or read offline.

ExportReports.com is built directly using Basecamp's proven API's. It pulls your project information straight from Basecamp. We don't store the data or see it in any way. Its your data, not ours (and your data is none of our business)...

Each report contains all your posts, messages, milestones, to dos and a list of the people on the project along with their contact information.

You can get a report of your entire project or select a specific date range to report on.

Prices range from $0.99 for one report to $49.99 for 100 reports (or get unlimited reports for a month for $69.99). More info is available at the site's FAQ page. You can also view a sample exported PDF.

Basecamp is a "tool you need to know about"

"Online Tools You Need to Know About" is an article by Myles Trachtenberg and Barry Bassin, the WebTools Gurus at Register.com. One of Barry's three picks for web-based software is Basecamp:

If you're starting a business on a shoestring, you no longer have to worry about spending money on high-priced software to get your small business up and running. Thanks to new Web-based software, you can turn on your computer and start working today...

Basecamp - This is a tool I've personally used a lot and it's really effective when you're sharing multiple documents with customers or partners. Basecamp, a web-based collaboration tool, that eliminates the need to shuffle documents back and forth over email. With Basecamp, you can easily manage projects and your customers can sign-in and check the progress of your work. Basecamp allows you to keep track of To Do items or project milestones; share documents, images, and other digital files; and track time spent on various tasks.

Read the whole piece here.

Online Tech Tips publishes overview of 37signals products

Online Tech Tips just published an overview of 37signals products and calls them "an excellent starting point" for small business owners who want to get organized.

37signals.com offers robust programs at affordable prices. Small business owners will be able to compete with larger companies and increase employee work productivity. Using each one of the previous tools will almost guarantee that a small business can organize itself with ease. Working with the simple interface of each application and user friendly features makes this suite of applications great tools.

The post also offers up a quick summary of 37signals products:

Basecamp will help you to manage multiple projects with customers or team members. Setting restrictions for users will take just a few moments. The interface is completely simple and easy to operate. Touching base with the latest changes with business projects won’t be such a hassle anymore...

Highrise is a great way to organize customer contact information. Having instant access to a customer’s contact information and contact history will save you from mismanaging important data. Instead of trying to remember your last conversation with a customer, you will be able to refer to the details within this program...

Backpack will let you conveniently create your own business intranet. Now employees will have access to the latest changes going on in the company. Setting up a business calendar for all to see will also provide an organized way of reminding employees of upcoming events...

Campfire provides its users with real time chatting capability. Waiting for email responses can sometimes be time consuming. Using real time instant messaging not only gets the job done faster, but it will allow you to communicated better with remote employees...

Read the whole piece for more.

ThickToast lets you view Basecamp data in an Access database

ThickToast lets you view Basecamp data in an Access database:

It's a simple system to load your BaseCamp XML export/backup into an Access database. The software will load the Project information, replace all the Todo's and Milestones and append the Timesheet and Messages and handle all the other little tables correctly. Included with the software is a properly structured backend database, a compiled library file and a front-end database.

What's up with the different names ThickToast and DryToast? Garry Robinson writes:

ThickToast is the generic name for the software that I have created. What I am doing is breaking it down into bite size chunks because all at once is way too much. I will put a note on this on the web. DryToast is the base module, it loads the xml and provides some queries to show people how to join the tables and that’s it, we are aiming to make this as efficient as possible.

Learn more at the ThickToast site. For more Basecamp extras, visit BasecampHQ.com/extras.

Basecamp named one of the Top 10 most popular web apps

Web App Charts asked people to vote for the world’s most popular web app. We're proud to say that Basecamp came in at #9 (others in the top 10 include Gmail, Flickr, and Twittr).

Here's the story:

While researching potential speakers for our next event, Future of Web Apps Miami, we were frustrated by the lack of quality information about popular and successful web apps.

So we turned to the internets - urging people to visit this site and vote for their favourite app. Forget Alexa or Compete scores, or other metrics, these charts aren't based on page views but your views.

Thanks to everyone who voted for Basecamp!

Basecamp: More storage space for the same price

Last night we increased file storage space for Personal through Premium plans.

• Personal plans now get 1 GB (up from 250 MB)
• Basic plans now get 3GB (up from 500 MB)
• Plus plans now get 10 GB (up from 3 GB)
• Premium plans now get 20 GB (up from 10 GB)

Max plans remain at 50 GB for now, but if enough people start to hit that limit we will increase that limit as well.

We hope you find the increased storage space useful and thanks again for being our customers! If you aren't already a customer, join us today -- we'd love to have you on board.

Apple profiles customer who saved $70k by using Macs and Basecamp

This Apple profile of Quist Valuation talks about how the company has used Basecamp and the Mac to replace $70,000 worth of Microsoft software and equipment.

[Bill] Carroll also discovered a unique tool for their Macs to stay in touch with clients. Basecamp, a project management application by 37signals, lets coworkers and clients keep tabs on projects. “Clients can log into a secure site and see how things are going with their project,” says Carroll. “That used to take several phone calls or e-mails.” Clients can also upload financial data to Basecamp using bank-level encryption. “That’s very important to us because we’re constantly trading sensitive financial documents with our clients,” says Carroll.

The Mac and Basecamp have replaced $70,000 worth of Microsoft software and related equipment. “We pay a few hundred dollars a month for an unlimited version of Basecamp,” says Carroll. “It takes care of Microsoft SharePoint server, Microsoft Project server and most of Microsoft CRM. We've replaced a solution that would have cost at least $70,000 to fully implement and would have required a full-time tech consultant. And we never would have made the switch to Basecamp had we not made the switch to the Mac operating system.”

Carroll, CTO of Quist Valuation, wrote to tell us more:

We actually use Campfire, Highrise, and Basecamp now, but the profile was actually written about 6 months ago. We are developing our product (qval) using Ruby on Rails, and we have moved all development in house here in Colorado now.

Keep up the good work. We love your products.

Thanks Bill, great stuff.

Author for TheStreet.com starts using Basecamp to organize his content-creation business

In Software Moves Small-Business Chores Online, TheStreet.com author Jonathan Blum discusses how he's making progress using Basecamp for his business.

I recently installed Basecamp in my business...The system does a nice job of organizing the half-dozen people who work both in my office and remotely for my content-creation business and handle about a dozen projects at a time...

I now start my work day by looking at a single page that tells me what has happened over night...Honestly, for a business like mine that manages dozens of assets for dozens of clients, every night and day, the process can be a revelation...After more than 10 years of battling with Outlook to keep my little digital world organized, finally making some progress with a new business tool is big news for me. It will probably be for you too.

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

Basecamp is a Webware 100 finalist (again)

From a list of thousands of nominees, Webware editors selected 300 finalists for the Webware 100 Awards — and we're pleased to announce Basecamp is one of the finalists. (FYI, Webware.com is a CNET sponsored site where people can learn about new and useful Web applications.)

The final vote is yours though. If you're a fan, please go to Webware and vote for Basecamp. You don't have to register or anything, just show up and vote. Basecamp was the winner in last year's Productivity category and we'd love to repeat. Thanks!

DesignSessions calls Basecamp a design freelancer’s best friend

In Basecamp: A Freelancer’s Best Friend, DesignSessions calls Basecamp "a visually elegant and transparent tool created by designers for designers’ needs." The piece focuses on the time-tracking capabilities of Basecamp.

Big software companies have contributed collaboration tools that tend to be quite costly, and are either too large in scale with features that many designers don’t need, or else incredibly specialized and not flexible or adaptable enough. 37signals plays the “small and cool” angle with a visually elegant and transparent tool created by designers for designers’ needs, offering a range of features scaled across different price points. While it certainly facilitates project management for collaborative efforts on a larger scale, many freelancers have found it indispensable for keeping track of their work, even on solo projects.

One aspect users have described as a “godsend” is the ability to merge time-tracking with project deliverables, allowing you to set up milestones and to-do lists for a project and time-track as you check tasks off your list.

As a freelancer, keeping accurate track of your time and work is crucial to a well-run and lucrative business. If you’ve ever tried to estimate after the fact how long different phases of project took you, chances are you short-changed yourself, sometimes by quite a bit. Setting deliverables to a project is another best-practice that designers rely on to make sure they treat the client, and themselves, fairly. A client may come to you asking you to design, say, his corporate identity, but it’s up to you to break that down into the tasks you will actually do and the pieces you will deliver to the client, from the submission of research and concept boards, to the carrying through of the final selected idea across various media.

Basecamp’s ability to track and share progress against deliverables with a client cuts a ton of excess communication out of the process, while keeping the client on track as to the materials, information and feedback he needs to provide you with to get your work done. Accurate timekeeping also provides informed time estimates on future projects where you may be working to a fixed fee at the outset.

Learn more about Basecamp time tracking.

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

An update to the "People on this project" section on the Basecamp Overview screen

This weekend we pushed an update that improves the accuracy of the "People on this project" block in the sidebar on a Basecamp project's overview screen.

The block used to list someone's last login time, but if people had their login information stored by their web browser then the last login time could have been weeks ago even if they just accessed a project seconds ago.

The change does away with this inconsistency. Instead of "last login" we now show "latest activity." This way if someone logged in a few days ago, but just accessed a project a few minutes ago, we can show an accurate "few minutes ago" access in the list.

If someone hasn't accessed the site for 30+ days, then we say "Hasn't logged in recently." Important Exception: Part of this update required that we reset the tracking information so everyone that hasn't accessed the site since Feb 24th will be marked as "Hasn't logged in recently." Once people log in and access a project the information will be updated.

This update also makes this data accurate on a per-project basis. The data used to be based on an access to any project in your account. So if someone accessed Project A, and you were looking at Project B's overview screen, you'd see a last access update in Project B even though the person didn't access Project B. This update changes that. Each project overview screen shows activity for that project, not all projects. Now you can tell who accessed which projects and when.

Thanks again for your continued support and feedback. This change is based on that feedback, so keep it coming.

Social Signals uses Basecamp and GTD for project management and workflow

Project management and workflow with Basecamp is Alexandra Samuel's extremely detailed look at how Social Signals uses Basecamp for managing its projects. (Social Signals helps sites build communities with active participants.) It's especially worth a look if you're searching for ideas on how use Basecamp as part of GTD.

Some noteworthy bits from the writeup:

• They post a welcome message to Basecamp that explains how to use the site. (Inspired by VentureMarketing's Basecamp Welcome PDF and their Basecamp client jumpstart.)
• They present an overview of Basecamp at an early client meeting.
• When clients e-mail them outside of Basecamp, they redirect them back to the Basecamp site, often by copying-and-pasting their messages into Basecamp.
• They use messages for communications that require an action or response. This includes: communications with clients and client updates, client requests (bug tracking, questions, etc.), and internal discussions of how to handle tasks (marking these discussions private so they aren't visible to client).

Editing our message titles to reflect the status of each message gives us an at-a-glance view of which client issues have been addressed, and which need to be reviewed for action items.



• They use writeboards for communications that are FYI only (though we may use messages to notify each other of a new writeboard).
• They use task lists for items that require a "next action" (in GTD terms). Each list corresponds to a set of related tasks. This reflects the GTD notion of grouping tasks by "contexts" or as "projects" consisting of multiple tasks.

We keep our to-do lists organized alphabetically; when we decide to prioritize a specific set of tasks as the next focus for our work, we move that to-do list to the top of the page and mark it "P1: to-do list name" (as in "priority 1").