Hi,

Could you please consider using the same date and time picker as in Highrise (the one that shows a calendar) so as to know when to place reminders without consulting an external calendar or having to open the Backpack calendar on a separate browser tab? I know it might not worth the effort, but sometimes trivial changes help improve the whole picture. This change will save users few clicks, but at the same time will make them happier.

Thanks,
Petros

Yes please please please…add a simple calendar view so we can pick the date straight away. I came in just now to post the same request as Petros.

i agree – http://forum.37signals.com/backpack/forums/18/topics/2981

And also – or even instead – some of the natural-language syntax the calendar understands. (I’ve posted about this before.) It’s annoying to have to move and click the mouse half-a-dozen times to set a reminder when the same information can be entered in the calendar via simple typing.

I would prefer it to work like calendar but to also keep the relative text “later today” “tomorrow morning”. Please, please, please ditch the specific time selector, the “natural-language syntax” is so much more usable.

Please, please, please ditch the specific time selector, the “natural-language syntax” is so much more usable.

We’ve actually found the opposite to be true. We’ve found that the natural language stuff confuses a lot of folks.

However, Backpack does have some secret tricks…

If you add +5 before your reminder you’ll be reminded in 5 minutes. +20 will remind you in 20 minutes. Etc.

For example:

+30 Pick up lunch

Will remind you to Pick up lunch in 30 minutes.

I think Backpack has more of a secret than that…

Its 8:25am right now and I just typed “5pm Download Backups” with the default “Later Today” already selected and BAM! I now have a reminder that says “Download Backups in about 9 hours”.

I’ll test more later but for now that and Jason’s tip are good enough for me. Thanks 37S.

Jason, thanks for the info—very helpful. But if you’ve found that the natural language stuff confuses people, are you going to get rid of it in the calendar? (I sure hope not.) Conversely, if it works for the calendar, why wouldn’t it work for reminders as well?

Irrespective of the smart text-entry tricks which I use already, a date picker like the one in Basecamp milestones would work nicely.

Currently, setting reminders for dates other than today takes a lot of fiddly clicking.

I agree.

Setting a reminder for “next Tuesday” is difficult because how do I know what date Tuesday is without consulting a calendar?

Reminders need to be simpler!

Hi everyone. We’ve added a calendar picker to the Reminders form. Now when you select “At a specific time…” a calendar will appear to choose the best date. We’ve posted about this change on our blog: Design Decisions: Calendar picker for Backpack Reminders.

top banana.

It would be great if you could clear the previous months from the “month/year” dropdown list on the calendar picker. It would be a lot easier to use. I’ve tried to think of a reason why someone would need to set a reminder for a date in the past.