Nirav Mehta tells us about a new extra his team has created for Basecamp called PlannerX:
PlannerX shows you an outline view of your Basecamp project's plan, helps you navigate quickly using keyboard and lets you edit right in place. It's a no fuss, slick tool that lets you manage the entire plan from a single page - 5 times faster!
What’s the story behind it?
appsMagnet / Magnet Technologies - the company behind PlannerX - is a software development outfit in India. They have been using Basecamp and OmniOutliner for long to structure ideas and define project plans. With over 50 projects running simultaneously, it was difficult to keep project plans and work breakdown structures in place. They needed something that will work really fast and integrate with their project management systems. PlannerX is a result of this "scratch your own itch".
What makes PlannerX useful?
It’s speed and ease of use. PlannerX shows you the entire project plan in one page. You don’t have to wade through many screens to get a picture of your project. You can reorder items, add or delete them (with keyboard of course) and even assign due dates (to milestones) and assignees. You can really work 5 (or more) times faster with PlannerX.
Is it really worth it?
Magnet has been using this tool for about 5 months now. It's saved them hundreds of hours. Everyone they beta tested with was also amazed with its value.
Does it work with Free Basecamp Accounts?
Yes! PlannerX works with all Basecamp accounts. It just requires that you enable API access. It works with owner accounts as well as client accounts.
Does it show you Gantt charts?
PlannerX shows you sleek Gantt charts of your project plan. It does not require any additional configuration / specific way of entering tasks. PlannerX applies its auto-sense algorithm and shows beautiful Gantt charts. This will certainly please a lot of our users.
Does it work with Backpack?
Not yet. If you would like us to add Backpack support, please vote for it!
One final question, is it really easy?
appsMagnet team claims you will love it. You can use arrow keys to go up and down in project plan, edit things easily and even update an entire batch at once. They designed PlannerX with ease of use in mind (their blog talks of a story on how they spent last fortnight just refining usability of the app!).
Links:
Blog
Video tour
Homepage
Try it
