37signals Product Blog

Export your data from Basecamp

Need to get your data out of Basecamp? Just go to the Account page and you'll see exporting options:

You can now upload larger files to Basecamp

Want to upload large files to Basecamp? Good news: We recently increased the maximum file size that you can upload to Basecamp from 100MB to 2GB.

FYI, 37signals.com/changes lists all recent changes to 37signals products.

Video shows how to add To-Do List Templates in Basecamp

Andy Traub created a video that shows how to add To-Do List templates in Basecamp:

For those who use 37signals’ Basecamp service to manage projects this tip might save you some time. If you have repetitive processes for clients/teams you can create templates of to do lists and import them to projects with just a few steps. Here’s how.

Basecamp translations now available

Basecamp is now available in Spanish, French, Italian, Greek, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Japanese, Russian, and Hungarian. German and Finnish are both close to being finished and more are on the way. Learn how to change your language. If you spot a problem, we have a mailing list for suggesting improvements. Enjoy!

Using the Basecamp XML export in Excel

Over at Basecamp Answers, Basecamp customer Jasper van der Kolk asks, "Is the Basecamp XML export usable in Excel?"

I want to be able to export my Basecamp data on a regular basis into Excel. I want to add costs to to-do items and sum these in Excel.

My question is whether the XML export can be imported in Excel easily.

Bryan Sebastian replied:

We use "exported" data from Basecamp for internal custom reporting. The XML export file that you can generate is very useful and can be imported into excel. You can use the XML source task pane to map the xml file into an excel spreadsheet and then perform a XML import. However, since the XML export file is a complete view of all your data in a hierarchical view, it can take a lot of effort, in excel, to "flatten" the information in the way you want to see it.

However, if you are, or have a programmer available to you, an easier way to get you data into excel is to use the Basecamp API. You can then develop some code to "pivot" the data into a comma delimited file and the open that file up in Excel. It would not take a heavy amount of coding to do this.

Bryan has actually created a web application that "allows us to pick a project, view all task lists associated with that project and then export that information to a .csv file, which we can open in Excel." He offers more details and contact information at the Q&A page.

TurnHere uses Basecamp to bring online video to businesses of all sizes

TurnHere is an online video production and marketing services company — with a network of more than 7,000 independent filmmaking pros around the world — that creates online video for both big brands and small businesses. Below, Morgan Brown of TurnHere explains how the company uses Basecamp.

Why do you need Basecamp?
Life at TurnHere is fast and furious. Over the last year and a half the company has doubled in size while responding to the overwhelming demand for online video content. It’s the proverbial rebuilding the engine while the tractor trailer speeds down the freeway. As our team grew, email quickly became inefficient in coordinating work needed to build our products, internal back office systems and marketing programs. We use Basecamp to track product development and launches, marketing programs and collateral, operational documents and checklists and more. Using Basecamp has improved communication, reduced email clutter and wasted time trying to track down the latest versions of documents, specs and web site copy. It has allowed us to keep on top of rapid change and keep project teams on the same page even as we’ve grown.

What features do you use the most?
The two features we use the most are the messages and the Writeboards. Basecamp is great at reducing email by keeping conversations in message threads for specific projects. We use messages regularly to track changes, get project status updates and capture business owner approval on requirements, specifications and launches. Messages are essential to our internal communication.

Our second favorite feature is Writeboards. We use Writeboards to ensure that our operational policies remain living documents that adapt to the ever-changing business environment. The Writeboards let managers update documents on the fly, track previous revisions and allow for collaboration across different groups, such as operations and customer service.

A specific story
TurnHere recently launched a new small business focused online web site that required the use of two outside user experience consultants, an outside designer and an outside copywriter to go along with our internal marketing, product and technology teams. Using Basecamp allowed our teams to work seamlessly together to launch the project on time. Using messages, to dos, milestones and writeboards each group stayed up-to-date on the latest developments in terms of business requirements, site architecture, copy and design changes and more. It would’ve been much more difficult to coordinate all of those groups without Basecamp.

A favorite trick
Because we use messages so often we’ve become good at Textile markup to make communicating in messages even clearer. Simple tagging to create numbered lists, tables, and different font sizes really maximize your ability to communicate via messages. Learning Textile is definitely a handy trick to make Basecamp even better at communicating complex thoughts, detailed requirements and requests such as Web site copy changes and more. (Ed. Note: The new Basecamp messages and comments editor makes customizing messages a lot easier, but you can still use Textile if you prefer.)

The TurnHere team.

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

Getting Things Done on webOS with Basecamp and Backpack

David Lich struggled with the lack of full-featured, sync-able task and memo apps on the Palm Pre. He finally settled on a combination of desktop and mobile solutions including Basecamp and Backpack. He details how he puts it all together in "Getting Things Done on webOS with Basecamp and Backpack."

Here he explains how he drags Basecamp to-do items into a "PRIORITY" list:

One of the great features of Basecamp is the ability to drag and drop items between to-do lists and within lists, and also reorder the lists themselves. I have created a to-do list called “PRIORITY” to which I drag items that I want to accomplish today.

And here he details how he uses Backpack reminders:

Backpack has a “Reminders” function that allows the user to establish individual and recurring reminders for specific dates and times. It can then be configured to send out an e-mail, text message or both at the scheduled time. I actually use both. I have an e-mail sent to my Exchange account, and have established a rule in Outlook to automatically move each e-mail with “Backpack” as sender to a separate “reminder” subfolder of my inbox. In addition, I have a text message sent to my Pre which, of course, shows up as a notification. It is truly hard to forget something when it now appears on my desktop in Basecamp, in Outlook in a separate inbox subfolder, and on my Pre as a text message with a notification. I’ll have no one to blame but myself if I somehow manage to ignore all of those reminders.

Read the full piece.

Tip: Put all the information your core team needs in "/root" Basecamp project

"Basecamp is the foundation of our communication flow. We literally store everything in Basecamp," writes Aviv Hadar of Think Brilliant Media Studios. Below he details how the team brain-dumps all internal information into a Basecamp project called “/root.”

First things first – we have a Basecamp project called “/root.” – This is where we brain-dump all of our internal information. All company-wide milestones, messages, writeboards, files and to-do lists go in the /root project. This allows us to never have to worry about making things private. It gives our core team complete freedom when working or adding items to /root. Plus, it allows us to say things like “throw it up in root!”

It’s a highly efficient way of organizing and disseminating information. For example, let’s say we are working on four different products. Each product will have its own partners, clients and external members that will need access to certain pieces of information. While this is fine and dandy for those working within the individual projects, our core team can’t be walking on egg-shells when entering new to-do list items, milestones, writeboards or messages. As designers, developers and engineers, we don’t have time to sit there and think, “should our partners see this? – should our clients see this?” – This is why everything goes in /root.

One great thing about Basecamp is that it doesn’t force you to enter pieces of meta-data that may later need to change. Say I want to enter a milestone for SoulPancake or MacBlogz into our internal /root project. We simply put “SP:” or “MB:” in front of the item, and we all know which project or product it belongs to. Same with to-do items, messages, writeboards and everything else in the /root project. This is why it’s so efficient. All the information our core team needs is in /root (in one place), and our clients and partners can access the information they need by logging into their individual projects.

Read the full piece for more information.

Tip: Add client names to your Basecamp Milestones for quick scanning on your Dashboard

A Basecamp tip from Patrick Morrow at Resolve Digital:

Just a note about Milestones: we type in the name of the client when creating a milestone. That way, we can see the client that any given milestone relates to on the dashboard.

Here's a look at the Dashboard view of Milestones where client names make for easy scanning:

Do you have a tip for other 37signals customers? Let us know.

How KROME uses TimeTrack to count hours in Basecamp

Alan Wong runs KROME, a web design company based in Singapore. He wrote to tell us how he uses TimeTrack, a Basecamp Extra, to track hours.

I use Basecamp everyday to track my project deadlines, keep everyone on the same page to prevent miscommunication, and, of course, I need to measure the amount of time I've spent to always counter check if the project is profitable. TimeTrack is a Basecamp widget on Mac OS that I use as a counter and submit the results directly into the system every time.