Topic: Tips & Tricks / Adding a URL

Try this:

You can also refer to the Textile page here:

http://www.textism.com/tools/textile/index.php

Hit the “Load sample input text” button in the right-hand column. All sorts of examples will appear.

Topic: Feature Requests / WYSIWYG formatting

There have been a lot of talk about this. Check out this thread:

http://forum.37signals.com/basecamp/forums/3/topics/567

Topic: Feature Requests / Due dates for To-Dos

Rebecca, you can only assign a To Do list to a Milestone. Individual tasks do not have due dates, which, I continue to wish they did.

Topic: Feature Requests / User friendly Text/WYSIWYG Editor

There’s been lots of discussion about this in the past. BC used to have a formatting guide on the Message pages. You can still use this formatting, but you’ll have to reference another site. Try http://textism.com/tools/textile/

If you use Firefox, try Basecode. It works great. http://www.toddle.us/basecode2/

There was talk from 37 Signals about implementing a toolbar. At the time, their reasons were that Safari 2 didn’t support this and that Safari 3 was in beta. If I remember correctly, they didn’t want to implement a feature that didn’t work well on all the popular browsers. Safari 3 is no longer in beta, so I am hoping that the final road block has been removed.

Our clients complain of this a lot, too. I firmly believe that basic formatting (bold, bullets, numbers) help organize content and make the message even clearer. Since 37 Signals supports clear communication, I’m hoping they have something up their sleeves for this issue.

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / Linking files to programs on my computer

I think that’s less about Basecamp and more about your computer and browser understanding what to do with the file types you click on.

Topic: How are you using Basecamp? / Is Basecamp right for my company? Any suggestions appreciated....

You could probably make it work. THe trick is understanding how Private Messages and Files work in relation to where a person (or group of people) sit in any given company.

I’ve used “companies” in the past as divisions within one company or as groups of people. You can fudge some of the permissions to achieve what you want that way.

Honestly, the best thing to do is dedicate a chunk of time to building and testing. Do it internally with fake messages and things. Get other people in your office to help. If you can’t test the volume that you’d like with the free account, paying for one month’s full service might be an acceptable investment.

Topic: Miscellaneous / Interface Praise

Not to pile on, but I have noticed that the interface is much smoother and solid feeling. Hard to quantify it, nor am I sure what you all did, but Basecamp has a higher quality to it now. I, too, appreciate the work.

Topic: Feature Requests / Email "LATEST PRODUCT UPDATES" not wanted

Woohoo! Thanks. Our clients love the respond via email, but they will also be happy without the additional information.

Topic: Feature Requests / Email "LATEST PRODUCT UPDATES" not wanted

yes, please, too much.

Topic: Feature Requests / Posting comments to a message by replying

Kudos to 37s for finally responding to the client base’s needs.

Finally? We respond to a lot of people’s needs all the time. Can’t do everything everyone wants, though. And we also have think things over a good bit before we do them. It’s easy to do something wrong. It’s hard to do something right.

C’mon, Jason. Michael was obviously talking about this specific thing. Your customer base is loyal, passionate and, though we may overrun you with ideas, are all well-intentioned.

Don’t alienate yourself by not being able to take a compliment.

Topic: Feature Requests / Posting comments to a message by replying

It’s like hell froze over and dogs and cats are living together.

Thanks guys for listening and implementing this.

Topic: Feature Requests / Email address for a project?

The 30 people at my office would likely buy all 37 Signals a beer if this could be done. Please and thank you.

Topic: Feature Requests / Notes for tasks

This would be good. I could see it working similar to the way you add notes to Files.

I’d even be happy if you could link a To Do to a Message.

Topic: Feature Requests / to-do deadlines ... again

Everytime this topic comes up, I agree again and again. To Dos are tasks. Tasks have deadlines. To Dos need deadlines.

Highrise has deadlines on its To Dos. To Dos are To Dos.

Topic: Tips & Tricks / Charts and Graphs using CSS/JS ?

I think I remember a post here recently where someone was able to use CSS or JS to produce some kind of graph within Basecamp.

Does anyone remember this and, if so, can you please point me to that thread?

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / Images in Messages: Why Is This SO HARD?

Has this changed recently? We’ve always been able to post a file in Files, “copy link as” then post that link with the exclamation marks around it to display the image inline within a Message. For 4 years, I’ve never seen this break.

Are you saying it now breaks?

Topic: Troubleshooting and Bug Reports / RSS in Apple Mail and .Mac iPhone RSS

I’ve been using them in Mail for a while.

When you add the RSS feed, are you browsing from a feed that’s already in Safari or are you adding the cusotm URL in the dialog box? I did it using the later method.

If you are utilizing the Safari bookmark, maybe it’s bypassing the username/password and then breaking?

Topic: Feature Requests / how to NOT put posted item in body of email notification

This has a been a thorn in our sides for a long time. Yes, you can turn off all email notifications, but you cannot simply send out a notice without the contents of your Message. I’d love to see this as an option. The security implications are huge.

Topic: How are you using Basecamp? / How to discuss an uploaded file?

I’ve made it a policy to not simply upload a file to the Files section. I encourage users to create a Message and upload the file that way. It’s still available in the Files tab, but this way you have a forum to discuss the file, any new versions and revisions.

Topic: Feature Requests / Please reinstitute "Never Logged In"

Yes, please.

Topic: System Announcements / An update to the "People on this project" section on the Overview screen

Agree about the “not logged in yet” comment. In fact, up until you changed this, I was using this to track which team members hadn’t logged in yet. Ironically, those are the ones who are complaining about the lack of collaboration. Now I have nothing to show them.

Please at least put this part back.

Topic: Tips & Tricks / A Collection of Tips & Tricks

I updated the links to the embedded images. The free image host I tried just didn’t work out.

Topic: Tips & Tricks / A Collection of Tips & Tricks

I posted a link to a collection of tips and tricks that I’ve amassed over the years.

http://www.adaptivepath.com/blog/2007/11/30/basecamp-tips-tricks/

Topic: Feature Requests / GUI Text Formatting

I continue to agree. I figured I should be patient and see if this was really necessary. But I can tell you how fucked up our messages are now. Clients run things together, it’s all the same weight, no bullets, not lists. It takes longer to decipher what they’re trying to say.

And, that, seems contrary to good collaboration and communication.

Please, just add the code back into Basecamp that shows some formatting tips. Sort of like you have on this forum.

Topic: Feature Requests / To-Do lists vs Highrise Tasks...

Danno, you are dead on. That’s exactly what the word and implementation implies. You’ll find, though, that many people will undoubtedly respond with “don’t get hung up on the word ‘milestone’.” And, that it’s just a due date for something/anything.

I cannot agree with this.

People make to do lists usually around a series of tasks that need to be accomplished for a larger goal. Many times, those tasks in that to do list have individual due dates that must be met prior to the larger milestone.

Yes, you can create many milestones for many task lists. But if I want to have deadlines for my tasks, I have to make a milestone for each, AND a task list for each (since I can only assign a to do list to a milestone).

What I cannot understand is the lack of consistency in workflow. If Highrise has it, why can’t Basecamp? (sorry for the simplistic question, but it’s a valid one). If it’s technically difficult, I’ll buy that as a reason (for now). But I don’t see how this arrangement can be thought of as a feature.