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.

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:

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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.

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.

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:

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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.

Script lets you export a Highrise note to an HTML file

This Ruby script, created by Ross Belmont, lets you export a Highrise note to an HTML file.

Highrise has become the definitive repository for everything I do at work. It’s a perfect tool to track the whirlwind of activity and action items that make up day-to-day work.

After getting into the rhythm of using it for a while, I noticed that I often needed to share a note that I’d captured with my boss or another team member. In the past, I had occasionally used Writeboard to bang out these types of notes, exporting them to HTML and sending them as e-mail attachments if need be. After the third or fourth time, wheels started to turn in my head.

So, I wrote a simple Ruby script to combine the two concepts and export a Highrise note to an HTML file. To use it, you’ll need to do the following:

1. Download the script and edit it to include your Highrise account info (URL and API key).
2. Install the Ruby BlueCloth gem…this step can be tricky.
3. (Optional) Create a shell script to launch the Ruby file and pass it the command line parameter.

...I’m happy that the Highrise API is so easy to use and I can build my own workaround.

Thanks Ross.

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.

New Highrise Feature: Bulk Delete

Last night we pushed a new feature that makes it possible to delete multiple contacts at once.

To delete multiple people at once:

1. Click the Contacts tab.
2. Click the checkboxes in front of the people you want to delete.
3. Click the red "Delete these contacts" link that appears in a yellow bar at the top and bottom of the list.
4. Confirm or cancel the deletion on the next screen.

We hope you find this new feature useful. Thanks for your continued support.

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.

Rails Envy team uses Backpack to organize its podcast

"Ever since we started it, Backpack has been what we use for organizing the Rails Envy podcast every week," writes Jason Seifer of Rails Envy, a two person team that codes, blogs, and podcasts about Ruby and Rails.

Jason emailed to tell us how it works:

Gregg and I each figure out our own stories to do for the podcasts and do a short write-up in Backpack.  Since it's essentially a rails news podcast, we have to  keep organized the stories we get and attempt to not step on each other's toes.

This is why Backpack is so great.  For each podcast we set up a different page in Backpack with the title as the episode number.  From there, we create a note for each story.  We add these throughout the week or when we clear out our RSS readers.  

When it's time to create the blog post about it, it's really easy to go in and copy the headlines and URLs and paste them back in to Textmate (where we have snippets set up to make creating the blog post really easy).

We're loving the new multi-user Backpack.  We don't have to worry about sharing every page with each other. It also makes it a snap to see at a glance what stories the other person has added since we last logged in.

Every story is a note with the headline, a write up, and a link to the article.

More screens after the jump.