Embedding a tutorial video into a Basecamp project

Andrew Angus of Switch Marketing and Communications read yesterday's post "How Blutique uses Litmus and Basecamp to deliver page and test results to clients" and writes in about embedding videos in a project:

Just read the iframe idea for embedding litmus reports... I used the same idea to embed our Camtasia videos into our Tutorials project... solves a huge issue for me since before I could only add a link to the video ... I have attached a image of how it looks. It was a great help.

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

How Blutique uses Litmus and Basecamp to deliver page and test results to clients

Silas Peterson of Blutique®, an interactive consultancy located in New Orleans, Louisiana, writes in to tell us about how his team uses LitmusApp inside of Basecamp to deliver page and email platform test results to their clients.

To ensure cross-platform, cross/email-client compatibility, we generate a test in LitmusApp that includes a variety of common email clients. We then use the 'Publish' function to make the results viewable to clients and embed that URL inside a Basecamp message thread. Below is a simple break down of the process.

To begin, we generate the LitmusApp test and publish the results.

Once the test is published we can use that resource in Basecamp. We create a message in the project and place an iframe within the message with the iframe source set to the published LitmusApp test URL.

Now we can deliver the final assets as well as a comprehensive platform test to the client all within a single interface.

For more information about Blutique, visit www.blutique.com.

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

How do I build a bulk mailing list in Highrise?

Recently added to Highrise's help section:

Question
How do I build a bulk mailing list in Highrise?

Answer
You can do this by giving each contact you want on the mailing list the same tag and then exporting the list.

Here's how: Tag each person you want on the list with a unique tag (for example: "email_list"). There are two ways to do this: 1) Go to each person's contact page and add the tag to that person (click the "Add tags" or "Edit tags" link under the contact's name). 2) Go to the "Contacts" tab and select the checkbox next to any name you want to add to the list. Then click the "add tags" link that shows up at the top of the screen.

Then, click the "Tags" tab and click that specific tag to bring up all contacts on your list. Then click the "Export" link in the sidebar. Choose the format you want and save the list. You can then import this list into the application that you use to send group emails, create mailing labels, etc.

Neat Campfire tricks: Graph your usage and autocomplete names

Dusty Davidson from BrightMix writes in about some creative Campfire tricks:

Absolutely love Campfire, almost to a fault though! I run a web development company, BrightMix, and we hired a bunch of interns for the summer to help us launch a web app. Obviously everyone uses Campfire, but its been funny watching the usage go up, from when we were just a 2 person shop, to a 7 person shop.

One of our interns took some initiative and wrote a spider to go back through and parse the history, and GRAPH our usage!

Anyway... dumb, but kinda fun. Thought you might enjoy.

The Brightmix campfire usage graph (larger version).

You can download the spider from BrightMix too.

Autocomplete function
That post also mentions the nifty little name autocomplete function that Campfire offers. Hit the @ key and the first letter of someone's name and it will fill in their entire name:

Probably my favorite, undocumented feature, of Campfire is using the @ in chat to auto-complete someones name. It is something I have found myself using in other chats besides Campfire, just to find that it does not complete their name for me!

Note: If more than one person in the room have names that start with the same letter, just keep typing. For example, if a room has Jason and Jennifer in it, type "@jas" and Campfire will fill in Jason (the popup will show you what will appear). Or you can use initials, like "@JB" for Jamis Buck.

Keeping track of miles with Basecamp time tracking

In "Basecamp helps "green team" save $2,000 a year and keep a zero carbon footprint" [Product Blog], 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.

Recently he sent in an example of how his team uses Basecamp's time tracking feature as a mileage log.

In our creative in-house agency, we are constantly running errands for group companies (to the printer for print proofs, to buy supplies for special projects, to the post office, to visit vendors, etc) and each member of my team used to keep an excel spreadsheet as a log for mileage reimbursement purposes.

What we are doing now is using a project folder called mileage log and instead of recording time, we record miles. As a manager, it is easier for me to generate reports per person and date range and attach those to the accounting department for reimbursement purposes.

I don't know if somebody else is using the time tracking feature in this way, but may be a good tool for keeping your internal mileage log organized and up-to-date.

Needles to say that as a creative agency we used the time feature to record time in all the projects that we invoice, we only tweak the purpose of this feature for internal use as a mileage log.

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

How one team sends SVN commit emails to a Backpack page

Matt Johnson writes in to tell us about how his team is using Subversion (SVN), a version control system, to send emails to a Backpack page. The team's clients can then check that page (or the page's RSS feed) to learn when changes were made to their site and what changed.

We recently switched from a fully featured Basecamp account (Time tracking, etc) to a Basic plan of Backpack to manage the team.  The direction of the project we were using Basecamp changed some, so we thought we'd give Backpack a try.

After adjusting a bit to the new workflow, I realized that I could make it a bit easier for my client to read when we make a change, and what we changed.  We use SVN and so I just forwarded my SVN Commit emails to a Backpack page, which my client could then subscribe to the RSS feed of that page.

We'll be setting it up so that SVN sends it to Backpack right away, but for testing purposes I just have my Gmail account using a filter to forward it automatically.  We have the subject of the commit email notification with the Note: syntax.  Allowing the Backpack page to automatically parse the forwarded email into a note.

I thought it was kind of cool, so I thought I'd share it.

Why The Demo Coach switched from Salesforce to Highrise

Nathan Gold is Chief Demo Coach at The Demo Coach, a technology training company. He recently wrote to us and said, "I am now a complete convert to Highrise from Salesforce...Thank you again for a really useful product that I was able to get up and running, without training, in less time than it takes to get Salesforce up and running." We asked Nathan to tell us more and here's what he wrote:

Switching from Salesforce
Before finding Highrise, I was a Salesforce.com addict because it is a way to keep all information and communications about every contact all in one place. It was fairly easy to configure and the reporting features allowed me to give management any information they needed about our client and prospect database. The only real problem with Salesforce.com is that it can be expensive, especially when you have 20 people with user accounts. That's $3,900 each quarter since they bill you 3 months at a time.

So, when I needed a CRM to manage my new SOHO business, I started looking around at other less costly alternatives. A friend of mine mentioned 37signals Basecamp, which led me to Highrise.

To my surprise, Highrise turned out to be an amazing SAAS, which allows us to have basically the same functionality as Salesforce. The biggest differences to me is that the user interface is much more enjoyable to work with and the cost is a fraction of what I am used to paying for CRM. I started with the $12 per month version, which allows me to have 3 user accounts and up to 500 contacts in the database.

I was able to get my account up and running within 15 minutes! It would have been faster, but I received a phone call while I was working on configuring my account. Highrise was up and running The Demo Coach business in record time for any SAAS I had worked with in the past.

Highrise is great on the iPhone
The best part of Highrise to me is that I can use my iPhone to get access to all of my contacts no matter where I am. The Highrise user interface rocks on the iPhone. When I leave to go to an appointment now, I no longer have to use MapQuest to get me there. All I do is bring up the contacts name and there is a Map hyperlink already there. When I click on it, the iPhone shows me exactly where I need to go. It's a wonderful feature and has reduced my stress of getting to appointments on time.

Schedule tasks by emailing Highrise
My other favorite feature of Highrise is that I no longer have to write myself notes to be entered when I get back to the office. I can very easily schedule tasks (to-do's) by simply emailing Highrise! They provide a set of special email addresses with my account called Drop Boxes that automagically schedule tasks for me or others whether for today, tomorrow, or next week. It's amazing and has simplified my working life tremendously.

Everything is easily accessible in one place
One more thing…I was recently at the office of a new client. She was telling me that I never sent a response to her questions. Since I clearly remembered sending it, I simply used my iPhone to access Highrise and I was able to show her the email right under her name! Eventually, she found it in her spam folder! But, Highrise saved the day by having everything about the account in one place and easily accessible. I believe her company is now using Highrise too!

Thank you 37signals for making a wonderfully useful and affordable product that requires no installation or software on my computer! I seriously doubt I will ever go back to Salesforce.com. Highrise is now my shining star and secret weapon to run my business.

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

Web consultant touts forwarding email into Highrise

In "Effective Websites: Forwarding Email As Convenient Means To Enter Data," web effectiveness consultant Alan Rimm-Kaufman touts the ease with which you can email into Highrise:

Highrise is a simple and elegant CRM system from 37signals.

With Highrise, you blind-carbon copy a special drop box, something like dropbox@999999997.rkg.highrisehq.com. The app does all the hard work, determining who you are from the dropbox subdomain, parsing the email to determine where to file it it the CRM system, and associating the message with the right people and companies and dates.

Forwarding an email is really simple. Bccing an email is really simple.

Learn more about how Highrise and email are best friends.

An example of how you can forward an email into Highrise.

One of our favorite uses for Backpack: "How to" pages

One way we love to use Backpack is for "how to" pages that guide us through confusing tech waters. These tutorial pages mean we don't have to waste time relearning processes from scratch. Some examples:

How to change FTP server for existing files
How to checkout apps from the Subversion repo
How to create accounts for Basecamp and Backpack from the console
How to create File Attachments in the console
How to deploy to staging
How to failover to status.37signals.com
How to format dates with strftime
How to merge a branch into trunk
How to rebase in SVN
How to restart a stage on dev
How to run solr locally
How to setup a local nameserver
How to setup MySQL databases for local apps
How to setup the Unix programs required by our apps
How to test local apps in VMware

And here's a look at one:

Jamis put it together and this was the reaction to it (from a Campfire chat):

Ryan: Jamis, thanks much for that page. really informative and well put-together
Jamis: thanks RS! I'm glad it's been helpful
David: haha, I bookmarked that page! went back there a ton of times for the openbar reform. merged trunk more times than I'd care to remember.
Jamis: yeah, svn rebasing is so insane. Most of the reason I made that page was for me to refer back to :)
Ryan: what a great use of Backpack

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

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.

CSS tip for customizing the appearance of Backpack pages

Brian Bailey recently posted about how he adds some CSS to Backpack pages in order to customize them. "Simply add a small amount of CSS to the page in the form of a note and you can change the formatting to meet your needs," he writes. Details below.

If you use Backpack, the organizing web tool and intranet from 37signals, you may sometimes wish you could modify the text on a page to fit a little more information on it. I have a page where I collect code snippets and terminal commands and the default font seems a bit large with so much content. Turns out there's an easy solution to this: simply add a small amount of CSS to the page in the form of a note and you can change the formatting to meet your needs.

I've known this was possible for a long time, but finally took the time to figure it out the other day. After a few experiments, I came up with a solution that works great for me. Those of you with actual CSS skills may find much to laugh at with this example - feel free to post improvements. Plus, there is much more that can be done once someone with design skills starts playing with it.

To do this yourself, just create a new note on a page with what you see above (I like to put the note at the bottom). As soon as you save it, refresh the page to see the changes. Feel free to experiment with the font sizes (just change 14px and 12px) and the title colors (color:brown).

Here are two examples, with the standard version first. Check out these ideas if you'd like to explore further. Enjoy!

#1: Before.

#1: After.

#2: Before.

#2: After.

Do you have a neat trick re: a 37signals product? Let us know.

Use Jott to transcribe a voice message and post it to your Backpack homepage

Jott converts your voice into emails, text messages, reminders, lists and appointments. You can even use it to transcribe a voice message and post it to your Backpack homepage. Full details and an example audio track at Jott.

You: Call 866-JOTT-123
Jott: Who do you want to Jott?
You: Backpack
Jott: Backpack, is this correct?
You: Yes
Jott: Beep!
You: Add Task to Home, remember to get lunch for the team.

Jott transcribes your message and posts it to your Backpack homepage.

If you're constantly on the go (or just prefer talking to typing), this sounds like a great way to get entries into Backpack via your phone.

(Note: If you're already a Jott user, add Backpack to your Jott links.)

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.

Mac users: Create a Backpack Journal Dashboard widget using Safari's webclip button

Elaptics.co.uk has a blog post on rolling your own Backpack Journal Dashboard Widget using Safari's webclip button:

Safari on Leopard has an awesome, but probably somewhat underused, webclip button which allows you to grab part of a webpage and have it turned into a widget. And as all programmers know, the best code to write is no code. So I have grabbed the updating part of the page as per the widget described and also the team’s recent updates. As a double bonus, it updates the clips when you invoke Dashboard so you get the latest team updates straight away rather than what you’d normally be having to do is refresh your browser’s page yourself.

Ok, I’m blind, where’s this button?

Right here….

And this is what mine looks like on my Dashboard. The webclip widgets also allow you to put different frames around the clip, just flip it over and pick from the options. This season my two widgets are sporting the latest in Torn Edge and Glass themes fashion.

Do you have a neat tip for a 37signals product? Let us know.

Provide Campfire-based "Live Support Chat" with the flip of a switch using new Zendesk widget

Zendesk has put together a simple integration to Campfire so help desk agents can set up support chats with their customers/end-users.

Mikkel Svane, CEO of Zendesk.com, emailed us to let us know:

The integration is pretty basic, but people can expand it any way they want to. Zendesk is also integrated to time tracking service Harvest, and we're currently designing integration paths to both Highrise and Basecamp.

We asked Mikkel for more info and here's what he had to say:

Zendesk is for customer support what Basecamp is for project management. More than 1800 organizations have signed up for the service, and several have asked for a "live chat" feature in our product. Instead, we have used the widget interface that Zendesk provides to build an integration to Campfire.

The sample integration is very basic but Zendesk clients who embed the Javascript widget in their help desk are now able to provide "Live Support Chat" by the flip of a switch. Provided they have a Campfire account. End-users' help desk credentials are automatically transferred to the chat session.

It goes without saying that the widget can easily be extended. If for example you only want to provide live support for registered users, want to publish support conversations in your forums or want to provide 1-on-1 chats.

We ourselves have deployed it in our own help desk to demonstrate the functionality and gather some feedback, and we are considering integrating it directly in our service.

Zendesk widgets are well suited for 3rd party integrations. We have a Harvest integration that is slightly more complex, and integrations are coming to a lot of other services, including Highrise and Basecamp.

Developers: Check out the integration widget code.

Video: Backpack tips for dragging

This video shows you how to use the Home/End and Page Up/Down keys for dragging items around a Backpack page quickly. Also, you'll see how easy it is to drag an item to a page in the sidebar.

Going from "hi" to Highrise

Sometimes it's the little things in life. Etienne Segonzac sent us an email explaining one reason she likes Highrise: She gets to just type "hi" when forwarding emails to the app.

I know it's kind of silly but I just like my little story. See, my Highrise dropbox is under the name "Highrise". So every time I forward an email to my account I just type hi ! Mail completes the rest... It just feels great, I can manage the biggest part of my work with an application as simple as "hi". :)

For more on how to do this, check out the Highrise and email page at HighriseHQ.com.

Any little thing like this that you like in a 37signals product? Let us know.

[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.

Tips for getting the most out of Backpack on the iPhone

Just Another iPhone Blog recently posted "Tips and Tweaks Make 37signals’ Backpack A 'Must Have' iPhone Application." It discusses using iBackpack to make your Backpack pages look nice on your iPhone and also links to a Forum post that shows how to add a custom Backpack icon to your iPhone home screen.

I came to Backpack to solve a specific work issue/need but am finding it to be an incredibly powerful and useful web-based application. I now use it to communicate with my colleagues and reduce the amount of “telephone” we play when information is incorrectly transmitted. I use it to collect pictures, manage a to do list, store files and documents for easy access anywhere anytime. I used it to collect ideas, information, slides and random thoughts as I prepared a talk I gave at a conference last week. Best of all, it is not only powerful but it is easy to use. In fact, it is the first time I pushed my colleagues toward a new technology that they did not initially curse me about.

The problem is- while Backpack’s pages are fully accessible from an iPhone or iPod Touch they are a bit too difficult to manipulate easily.

Fortunately, some incredibly smart folks have created some amazing “add-ons” that make Backpack one of the most iPhone-friendly and powerful applications around.

Justin Michael at violetpixel.com as created iBackpack. iBackpack is code that optimizes Backpack pages for viewing and use on an iPhone. He has posted screen caps on his site that show the difference...

Justin’s code make each page easily accessible, fully readable. It makes adding, editing and changing the information on a page a breeze. It makes Backpack one of, if not the, best iPhone organizational tools around.

But that left an additional issue. Once I optimized my pages using iBackpack I created direct links to some of my most-used Backpack pages on my home screen. They work great but look downright ugly.

Luckily Grettir Asmundarson at tinypineapple.com created a lovely little iPhone icon and has shared it with anyone who wants it.

Now Backpack works great AND looks great on my iPhone. It has become my most important organizational application in a short period of time and I have no doubt that will only increase as 37signals and other creative folks find new and powerful uses for it.

How do you add that custom Backpack icon to your iPhone home screen? Grettir offers step-by-step instructions at the Backpack Forum.

[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.

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).

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.

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...

How indie filmmakers use Basecamp for producing movies

"Any filmmaker acquainted with Basecamp is already a step ahead in managing their next gig," writes film cinematographer Aaron Proctor in How Filmmakers Use Basecamp.

"[It's] an amazing product. Very versatile. A little expensive but certainly worth it," says director Jaraad Virani, who uses Basecamp for V.EU Studios. The tool breaks down a project into intuitive pieces: to-do lists, messages, calendar deadlines, and so on...

The primary use for independent filmmakers and their complex film gigs is to use Basecamp for production. rāv design, a full-service video production and graphic design firm, loves Basecamp. "We used it to organize our 48 Hour Film Project. … [W]e were working with crew members from across the state who had never worked together, and in some cases never physically met before the shoot. We posted workflows, guidelines, rules and shared location scouting info all in an elegant location." For both clients and collaborators alike, how ideal of a work environment is that?

Dashboard page from the Basecamp project for Peter Phan's film, "This Will All Make Perfect Sense Someday"

To-Do page from the same project.

Using rules in your email app to forward items to Backpack

Samuel Kordik recently named Backpack his website of the week:

It is slick, flexible, and super-cool. In fact, it combines the total flexibility of a paper-based notebook with the infinite re-writable possibilities of electronic data...Backpack is one of those no-brainer tools that hides mindblowing capabilities. It actually significantly reminds me of an Apple application. It just makes sense...

What do I use Backpack for? To run my life. At this point in my life, it makes sense to have things online. I have internet at work and in my room, and so it provides a handy central point to run things through.

I use a page for each of my action lists, and then a page for projects, a page for Someday/Maybe’s, and a page for Notes. This flexible solution works quite well for me and is well worth the paltry $60 a year price tag. Which is about what I paid for my planner in previous years.

We contacted Samuel and he gave us some more info on how he uses Backpack:

—

I create rules in my email client that automatically forward different items to my Backpack page. This is especially great for emails with attachments since the attached files are automatically placed onto the page.

I've attached two screenshots that demonstrate three rules that are examples of the kind of rules I use.

1. (See Gmail screenshot above): Any thing emailed to my address & +action@gmail.com automatically gets forwarded to my Backpack inbox, skips my Gmail inbox, and gets labeled "_ACTION" in Gmail. I use this a lot; so do others. My supervisor, my friends, etc. can virtually place something in my Backpack inbox by emailing to that address.

2. (See Gmail screenshot above): Specific projects get their own Backpack page, and here I've setup a rule that scans for keywords, labels it in Gmail with the project tag, and forwards it to the project page.

Example Backpack workflow for lightweight project management

We recently discussed how Ruby on Rails firm Rails Envy uses Backpack to organize its podcasts. In this post, Jason Seifer describes how the team uses Backpack to manage freelance projects too:

—

When we were doing consulting, we had everything down to a science. Basecamp, while a great product, turned out to be too much of an app for our two man (and freelance designer) team.  Here was our Backpack workflow for projects:

Proposals: Create the project page in Backpack.  Create the writeboard from Backpack so it's linked on the page.  We would then spec out the functionality needed for the site.  This isn't a huge spec -- a list of features and a brief description of  how they work.

Meetings and Conference Calls.  After (or during) every conference call we'd jot down some notes about the meeting -- tasks to complete, things that needed to be addressed, goals for the week, things like that.

All of your info in one place. The backpack page for a project becomes the central repository of information. You can put in server addresses, login *names*, lists of associated sites like the bug tracker and code repository, and anything related to that project. Forwarding emails to the page is a big help here. Sure Gmail lets you search everything in no time at all, but you really can't compare that with having the most important emails right alongside the rest of your project info.

College senior uses Highrise to manage his job hunt

Bill D'Alessandro wrote us an email titled "How I use Highrise":

Hey 37Signals,

I wanted to drop you a line to let you know how much Highrise has helped me out. I think it's a somewhat unique use.

I'm a senior in college, which means job hunting is priority number one. I've interviewed at countless companies, multiple rounds of interviews at each one. Through it all, I've amassed a huge stack of business cards. I was finding it impossible to remember who was who - and had no way to keep track of those little personal tidbits ("John is a huge Giants fan", etc).

Highrise has been the answer to my prayers. I took an hour or two and typed all those business cards into Highrise, and now everyone is searchable, and organized by company. I have all their contact information right there. In addition, the email dropbox feature lets me keep track of all my communications with them, so I can remember what I've said to whom. I also keep notes on people to help me remember them - "Steve looks like Ronald Regan", "Rich loves the Saints", etc.

Now that I've finally landed a job, I use Highrise to keep track of all my professional networking - who has connections at which company that might be able to help me land that next job down the road.

Thanks again for making my life easier,
- Bill

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.

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").



• Writeboards are used as their long-term storage area and collaboration space.

Read the whole post for more details and screenshots.

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

The Weekly Review offers tips on using GTD with Highrise

Knowledge worker Chris Bowler recently shared how he uses Highrise with GTD (GTD is the popular shorthand for "Getting Things Done", the work-life management system and book by David Allen):

Since I have not been able to find a really good desktop task management application for Windows, I have tried quite a few web apps to fit this need. I’ve spent a good bit of time with a few and took a quick look at some others. I finally decided to go with Highrise from 37signals. It is not a perfect tool for GTD (does that even exist?), but it fits quite easily into my workflow and how I manage my tasks.

Chris massages Highrise by entering each project as a person:

The key with any GTD setup is to make sure your tool fits your working style. So far, Highrise works for me...You add each project as a person. That’s it.

Then add the different tasks for each project. Each project will now have it’s own page where you can add tasks, notes, tags and summary information about the project. Each of these pages also has a timeline summary of activities that have occurred.

FYI, here's how Tasks look/work:

Export a Basecamp project as a PDF file

Terrence Ryan created Basecamp CFC so he could export an entire Basecamp project as a PDF file.

I've been using Basecamp for freelance consulting and I absolutely love it. I have one problem with it, once you shut down a project the client can't get any of their materials. It would be nice if you could export the entire contents of a project, compile it into a .pdf, and ship it off to a client as part of a project closeout.

They have a pretty thorough API, and I happen to know a language that can make pdf's pretty easy. So I figured I could make my own solution, and I did. In doing so, I had to create a service CFC for the Basecamp API. Since there wasn't one when I looked around for it, but there were a few questions about one, I figured I would share it on RIAForge, and I have. You can download BasecampCFC from there now.

At the download page, Terrence also says, "Not all of the Basecamp API items are implemented. If you want a Basecamp API method implemented, please drop me a line and I will get it working." (His "About" page includes his contact info.) Thanks Terrence!

Feeding our Macworld keynote addiction with Campfire

From Signal vs. Noise:

When an Apple keynote event is underway, we can't help but load up the live blog feeds and discuss the spectacle in our internal Campfire chat room as it unfolds. It's a lot of fun but it usually involves a lot of reloading and copying and pasting too. So when I found out Tuesday morning that Ars Technica would be covering the Macworld keynote live on IRC, I had an idea: why not write a script to do all the hard work for us?

Ten minutes later the Campfire relay bot was born. I hooked up a Ruby IRC library with Marshmallow (an unofficial Campfire library that we use to display Subversion commits) to create a bot that repeats everything from Ars' #mwsf channel to a room in our Campfire account. If you're interested you can read the resulting transcript and download the bot (see the campfire_relay_bot.rb file for configuration instructions).

Using Backpack for recruiting project management

Todd Nilson directs a recruiting business based in Chicago focused on finding and placing IT executives and senior technologists. At his blog, he recently described why he's found Backpack to be an excellent and affordable way to organize his job searches.

When it comes to keeping all information together for a job search, Backpack is the best thing I've found. There are plenty of sites that can fire off Reminders to your e-mail and cellular phone. But Backpack is a tidy place to organize all of it. I generally set up one Backpack page per client I work with and include notes about that client's process, interviewing preferences, and stuff that I need to do next in my own recruiting processes. If my client has provided me with a written description as a Microsoft Word document, I upload it here. If I have pictures of the work site, I upload them. In short, that page becomes a clearing house of information relevant to my search and helps me to be efficient in tracking my communications and efforts.

The site gets really cool when you start looking at some of its additional functionality. For instance, I can e-mail Notes, To Do items, and Files directly to the page. Backpack automatically generates a random e-mail for each new page you create. By sending an e-mail to that address with To Do: or Note: in the subject line, it organizes up the data appropriately. Once it's on the page, you can click and drag that content anywhere on the page.

The solution is particularly elegant for independent recruiters with a limited budget. It becomes a CRM that is more flexible and easier to use (and certainly cheaper) than commercial 3rd party solutions like SalesForce.

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

Use Highrise cases to track internal staff

CRM Applications Go Internal talks about using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools to recruit and retain top IT talent. One of the tools mentioned: Highrise.

Some enterprises are already on the bandwagon. "We use our CRM software quite successfully to track our staff as well as our customers," confides Jeff Pelletier, owner and executive producer of Basetwo Media Inc., one of Canada's leading video production companies, based in Vancouver, BC. "'Highrise,' by 37signals, has an option to create 'cases.' We use these 'cases' to keep notes on sick days, days off and any personal or performance issues that may arise. Access to these files is restricted to management who can then comment in the message threads if there are any ongoing issues."

Cases are the perfect way to group information within Highrise. You can keep related notes, files, images, and people together on one screen. Here's a look at how cases work:

Related: Basetwo Media uses Basecamp as a sales tool [Product Blog]

Search Backpack from the desktop with LaunchBar

LaunchBar is a cool utility that provides instant access to your applications, documents, and more. You can also configure it to search all of your Backpack pages. This makes it easy to find anything you've got in your Backpack account right from your desktop.

If you're already setup with LaunchBar, here's how to search Backpack:

1. Open LaunchBar and select "Open Configuration" from the Configuration menu.
2. On the left, under the "Indexing Rules" pane, there is a category for "Search Templates"
3. "Search Templates" includes a bunch of defaults, like Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Wikipedia, etc.
4. You can add your own template here. To add the Backpack search, select "Search Templates" on the left and then click the "Add..." button in the top right.
5. Type "Backpack" for the name and for the URL use this: https://yoursubdomain.backpackit.com/pages/search?term=* (Note: the "https" probably depends on your SSL setting).

When that's done, here's how you use a Search Template in LaunchBar:
1. Invoke LaunchBar and type BP (or whatever you'd like to trigger the Backpack option)
2. Hit the space bar and a field will appear to type your term in
3. Type the term and hit enter and the results will load in your browser.

That should cover it...launch away!

Have a tip for 37signals customers? Let us know.

Use calendar colors in Backpack to "pencil" in events

Alan Zeichick wants to know why he can’t pencil an appointment into his digital calendar.

Why is it that calendar software doesn’t understand the difference between a confirmed appointment and a tentative one? Sure, you can add in descriptive text: “Lunch with Bob – tbc” is what I usually type, with "tbc" meaning “to be confirmed.” However, that entry in iCal or Google Calendar, or on my BlackBerry, looks exactly the same, whether it’s a tbc or not.

In other words, I can’t see at a glance which appointments in my calendar are definite vs. penciled. I have to read the text and look for that “tbc.” I can't easily see an actionable list of unconfirmed events, unless I do a text search. Nor am I prompted by the software to confirm tentative appointments: the software doesn’t understand the concept.

In Backpack's Calendar, the different calendar colors are a great way to differentiate events in this way. Use gray for maybe events and blue for definite events. Then you'll be able to see, at a glance, which events are merely "penciled" in. Plus, you can change an event from maybe to definite by just changing the event's calendar (located in the pulldown menu next to the event).

Have a tip for other 37signals customers? Let us know.

Publish your Christmas Wishlist at Backpack

NathanD is using Backpack to share his Christmas wishlist with the world. He discussed publishing his list over at the Backpack Customer Forum...

Christmas always has people asking me for lists of things I want for Christmas. Over the years I tried various ways of sharing that. Word Documents (bloated, slow, problematic, version issues), HTML pages (slow to update, cumbersome) and just plain ‘ole e-mail.

This year, since I subscribed to backpack, I decided to give it a try.

All I have to say is: wow. SO MUCH EASIER.

All I do is e-mail everyone a link to the public page and boom, I’m done. I can even take pictures on my phone and e-mail them (and list additions) to the page and have it updated for me. Fan-freakin’-tastic.

An excerpt from Nathan's wishlist.

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

Subscribe to Basecamp project feeds via email with Nourish

Want to get a summary of your Basecamp projects emailed to you? Then check out Nourish, a newsletter service which allows you to take any RSS feed from content you publish (like a blog) and convert it into an automated email newsletter readers can subscribe to.

They even have a theme specially designed for emailing Basecamp activity.

Nourish's Basecamp theme: "Here is how we have ‘mashed up’ Nourish + Basecamp to provide a better service for our clients who don’t regularly subscribe to RSS feeds. Now our clients get updates daily with what items have been completed. No more emails asking, 'Is this done yet?'"

Matt Browne, one of the app's creators, recently wrote a blog post detailing how Nourish integrates with Basecamp.

We are big fans of 37 Signals products, specifically Basecamp. The most common request we get from our clients using Basecamp is that they never know when to-do list items are complete. I am sure you have heard than one before.

We recently launched an RSS to email service called Nourish. We feel Nourish is the perfect vehicle to deliver updates automatically from a Basecamp RSS feed.

Here is how we have 'mashed up' Nourish + Basecamp to provide a better service for our clients who don't regularly subscribe to RSS feeds:

(1) Sign up for a free Nourish account: http://nouri.sh/
(2) Set up a campaign called Basecamp Updates
(3) Grab the RSS feed from Basecamp
(4) Make a list of people who should get the updates
(5) Set the delivery for daily (you can do weekly or monthly)

Now our clients get updates daily with what items have been completed. No more emails asking, "Is this done yet?".

CSV2vCard helps import contacts from Excel into Highrise

Highrise imports contacts from Outlook and ACT but not Excel. But there's a way around this: You can save Excel spreadsheets as CSV files (or get a CSV file from another unsupported source) and use CSV2vCard to make vCards, which Highrise accepts.

At Importing from Excel [Highrise Customer Forum], Jeremy C. posted a link to CSV2vCard:

PC users and Mac users both have a better way than going through Outlook or Address book:

There’s a free, generic CSV to vcard conversion tool here: CSV2vCard

This tool allows you to map your contact categories to a bulk vcard fields, which HR happily accepts…you can even map random variables to “notes”. The only issue you’ll have is that for some reason it replaces commas with a &/ combo.

Thanks for the tip Jeremy.

Related: Highrise Help: Import/Export

Great Campfire tips (and more) from New Leaders

Kevin Milden left a comment at Signal vs. Noise talking about how much New Leaders, his team of designers and developers, enjoys Campfire.

Campfire is 37Signals’ best product ever...If you are going to build web based applications Campfire is essential.

We got in touch with Kevin to learn more about New Leaders and how they use Campfire. Read on for more details and to learn some great Campfire tips.

37signals: What is New Leaders and why do you need Campfire?
Kevin: New Leaders is a team of designers and developers working all over the country focused on building high quality, Rails-based web applications for our customers. Talent knows no boundaries — we have team members that work from many different places and Campfire allows everyone to communicate on a regular basis. It acts as our virtual office and provides a centralized place for us to talk and make sure everything is on track.

How do you use Campfire?
I think we use Campfire to it's fullest capabilities. We share screenshots, design concepts, code snippets, and anything that is happening day to day. If one of our team members is not on Campfire it gives us the indication that they are either busy or prefer not to be disturbed. We don't require a status message letting us know you are away we just make the assumption based on how people use it.

When we have a virtual meeting with a customer we'll usually invite them to a campfire seesion while on the phone and share screen shots and URLs. We tried other tools for sharing visual information with clients but have never been happy with web-screen sharing services like Webex. Since there are no java applets or bandwidth issues, and the only requirement is a modern web browser, we are positive that Campfire will work 100% of the time.

What's better about Campfire than other options (IM, etc.)?
1. Web-based — no software, no versions, no bandwidth issues.

2. Group centric — People can jump in and out, no need to approve their inclusion or give people 'presenter' status to share

3. Code Parsing — Campfire can tell when we pasted something so it will break our code snippets our into pastes. Very helpful.

4. Screenshots — We can add an image of anything in-line of the current conversation and get feedback from the entire team. No need for emails or phone calls.

5. Transcripts & File Management — This is the killer feature. Most clients store your conversation transcripts locally and the files end up on your desktop. With campfire everything stays within the application allowing us to find what we need even if from 6 months ago. Unlike IRC, you can read the backlog to an ongoing discussion as soon as you join the room, don't need to keep the session open to record transcripts.

Any tips or tricks for other Campfire customers?
1. the "//km" command will quickly tag a message "Kevin Milden" without the need to type it in. Very useful if directing a message to another user while several people are communicating.

Use Basecamp as a sales tool

Basecamp customers often tell us the product is a great sales tool for them. Some pitch potential clients by showing them Basecamp and how they use it to collaborate effectively. Others go ahead and set up a client project before they've even won the account; Showing a live, functional project site helps build momentum and gives a leg up over slower-moving competitors.

Basetwo Media goes a step further: The company's new site promotes Basecamp as part of its marketing strategy. Basetwo's Jeff Pelletier wrote to us with the details.

We just launched our new website along with it a bunch of new marketing strategies, one of which is to promote the fact that we use BaseCamp for our project collaboration. This is done on our website and in our written proposals. In the case of the latter, we typically will setup a new project and provide a potential client with login information right in the proposal, giving them a chance to try it out for themselves and see that we take the bid for their work seriously.

The login information right in the proposal is a nice touch. Here's a look at the page they've set up:

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

How Backpack reminders can keep your email inbox uncluttered

We recently posted about Chad Brandt's use of Backpack to organize his travel, work, and business school information. We asked Chad if he had any specific tips to share with other customers. A couple of things he mentioned...

He uses Backpack's reminders to keep his email inbox uncluttered:

I have a lot of tips and tricks for using reminders and "e-mail this page" in combination with Gmail. I like to keep a clean inbox (per Mark Hurst and Merlin Mann), so I use Gmail's search feature almost every day. Here's a typical reminder: Follow-up with Mark "[ Subject of Mark's e-mail ]" or Post content for Client A "[ Client A's e-mail request ]".

Those reminders may come back to me tomorrow or 2 weeks from now, but I know to search gmail for the subject listed in the reminder. Plus, I get to archive the e-mail immediately and not look at it everyday. I also abandoned the Outlook to-do list when I started using Backpack.

He also uses the Backpack Dashboard widget because of how easy it is to keep open all the time:

I use the Backpack dashboard widget for entering reminders. It's much more convenient than keeping the reminder page open or switching back and forth from other Backpack pages. I think I've entered about 5 reminders while writing this e-mail. ;)

Do you have an interesting tip for a 37signals product? Let us know.

Happy Cog livens up Basecamp with cool avatars

In Avatar Icebreaker, Jason Santa Maria discusses the fun avatars his design firm, Happy Cog, uses in their Basecamp account and the impact they have on clients.

In the past year or so I’ve been noticing a funny thing during our kickoffs with new clients. We briefly show them Basecamp and talk about how we would like both companies to use it during the project. When we get to the People page their demeanor completely shifts, they see a slew of our avatars staring back at them. We just used them because we though they were funny, but for new clients unfamiliar with Basecamp, it has the added effect of breaking the ice for them. Rather than “oh, great new software to learn,” it becomes “hey, we can have fun with this.”

It’s a simple thing, and certainly an unplanned one, but it shows some of our personality to the people we work with and helps them get acclimated to our process.

Here are a few of the avatars:

Check the post to see the rest.

Laughing Giant has an “ahh” moment with Highrise

Laughing Giant, a creative media company based in Portland, Oregon, says Highrise is "working beautifully as an online contact manager."

We’ve been experimenting with Highrise from 37signals for a customer relationship management/address book tool online. The boys at 37signals are adept at creating simple-yet-powerful Web productivity tools. I’ve personally been creating and sharing a few contacts in cases, adding followup tasks, and it’s remarkably easy. All of the notetaking I used to do in the “Notes” field of Outlook contacts or my Apple Address Book, I can do instead in date-stamped entries associated to that person — and I can search to find them anywhere, and tag them as well.

The “ahh” moment Today, I entered a contact from a few years back who called me out of the blue, and when I finished the entry, I realized I wanted her on my iPhone address book too. So I click the “vCard” link, and the vCard file downloaded from Highrise to my computer, and then opened Address Book and added it! Now when I plug in my iPhone, it will automatically sync and put her in. Excellent and thoughtful step from the Highrise team to integrate so well. This makes a no-brainer deciding where to add new contacts.

The vCard link makes it easy to add contacts elsewhere.

Posting sketches with Campfire

Chris Busse recently chimed in with an interesting use of Campfire over at Signal vs. Noise. He prints out screens, marks them up with a Sharpie, and scans them in a way that makes it a snap to get the resulting .png file into Campfire.

Partly because of my love of putting up sketches in Campfire (sometimes to the ire of my co-workers when I go Sharpie-crazy), I recently got an HP OfficeJet Pro L7680 All-in-one device which has a scanner with an Auto Document Feeder.

I take a piece of paper out of the printer and sketch, or mark up a print out of a design with a Sharpie and run it back through the ADF . I have the HP utilities set to not show any dialogs or prompts, and the image is scanned immediately to a specific directory as a 75dpi PNG , which I can post right up in Campfire with a very short elapsed turnaround time.

37signals uses Campfire to post sketches and share designs too. You can see how we do it in Behind the scenes at 37signals: Design [Signal vs. Noise].

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

Element Fusion uses Basecamp to manage its line of web-based products and client projects

Tim Wall, Director of Product Marketing for Element Fusion, says, "Basecamp is truly at the center of our business operations." He sent us a note describing how the company uses Basecamp:

1) New projects - As new business comes in, we setup these projects in basecamp and use the system to initiate communication with our new clients. We post milestones, communicate via messages, post design comps for review ... etc. At any given time we have between 50-100 of these active new projects at work within Basecamp.

2) Ongoing services - Many of our clients continue to utilize our services beyond an initial project. In this situation, the client is able to initiate communication through Basecamp. We maintain over 300 open projects for ongoing services.

3) Internal management - We have two dedicated project managers and a team of ten developers. We use basecamp to schedule a