37signals Product Blog

Embedding a tutorial video into a Basecamp project

Andrew Angus of Switch Marketing and Communications read yesterday's post "How Blutique uses Litmus and Basecamp to deliver page and test results to clients" and writes in about embedding videos in a project:

Just read the iframe idea for embedding litmus reports... I used the same idea to embed our Camtasia videos into our Tutorials project... solves a huge issue for me since before I could only add a link to the video ... I have attached a image of how it looks. It was a great help.

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

How Blutique uses Litmus and Basecamp to deliver page and test results to clients

Silas Peterson of Blutique®, an interactive consultancy located in New Orleans, Louisiana, writes in to tell us about how his team uses LitmusApp inside of Basecamp to deliver page and email platform test results to their clients.

To ensure cross-platform, cross/email-client compatibility, we generate a test in LitmusApp that includes a variety of common email clients. We then use the 'Publish' function to make the results viewable to clients and embed that URL inside a Basecamp message thread. Below is a simple break down of the process.

To begin, we generate the LitmusApp test and publish the results.

Once the test is published we can use that resource in Basecamp. We create a message in the project and place an iframe within the message with the iframe source set to the published LitmusApp test URL.

Now we can deliver the final assets as well as a comprehensive platform test to the client all within a single interface.

For more information about Blutique, visit www.blutique.com.

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

How do I build a bulk mailing list in Highrise?

Recently added to Highrise's help section:

Question
How do I build a bulk mailing list in Highrise?

Answer
You can do this by giving each contact you want on the mailing list the same tag and then exporting the list.

Here's how: Tag each person you want on the list with a unique tag (for example: "email_list"). There are two ways to do this: 1) Go to each person's contact page and add the tag to that person (click the "Add tags" or "Edit tags" link under the contact's name). 2) Go to the "Contacts" tab and select the checkbox next to any name you want to add to the list. Then click the "add tags" link that shows up at the top of the screen.

Then, click the "Tags" tab and click that specific tag to bring up all contacts on your list. Then click the "Export" link in the sidebar. Choose the format you want and save the list. You can then import this list into the application that you use to send group emails, create mailing labels, etc.

Neat Campfire tricks: Graph your usage and autocomplete names

Dusty Davidson from BrightMix writes in about some creative Campfire tricks:

Absolutely love Campfire, almost to a fault though! I run a web development company, BrightMix, and we hired a bunch of interns for the summer to help us launch a web app. Obviously everyone uses Campfire, but its been funny watching the usage go up, from when we were just a 2 person shop, to a 7 person shop.

One of our interns took some initiative and wrote a spider to go back through and parse the history, and GRAPH our usage!

Anyway... dumb, but kinda fun. Thought you might enjoy.

The Brightmix campfire usage graph (larger version).

You can download the spider from BrightMix too.

Autocomplete function
That post also mentions the nifty little name autocomplete function that Campfire offers. Hit the @ key and the first letter of someone's name and it will fill in their entire name:

Probably my favorite, undocumented feature, of Campfire is using the @ in chat to auto-complete someones name. It is something I have found myself using in other chats besides Campfire, just to find that it does not complete their name for me!

Note: If more than one person in the room have names that start with the same letter, just keep typing. For example, if a room has Jason and Jennifer in it, type "@jas" and Campfire will fill in Jason (the popup will show you what will appear). Or you can use initials, like "@JB" for Jamis Buck.

Keeping track of miles with Basecamp time tracking

In "Basecamp helps "green team" save $2,000 a year and keep a zero carbon footprint" [Product Blog], Martin Carrion, Manager at Creative Field Media, wrote to tell us about how his in-house "green team" uses Basecamp to stay green and save money.

Recently he sent in an example of how his team uses Basecamp's time tracking feature as a mileage log.

In our creative in-house agency, we are constantly running errands for group companies (to the printer for print proofs, to buy supplies for special projects, to the post office, to visit vendors, etc) and each member of my team used to keep an excel spreadsheet as a log for mileage reimbursement purposes.

What we are doing now is using a project folder called mileage log and instead of recording time, we record miles. As a manager, it is easier for me to generate reports per person and date range and attach those to the accounting department for reimbursement purposes.

I don't know if somebody else is using the time tracking feature in this way, but may be a good tool for keeping your internal mileage log organized and up-to-date.

Needles to say that as a creative agency we used the time feature to record time in all the projects that we invoice, we only tweak the purpose of this feature for internal use as a mileage log.

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

How one team sends SVN commit emails to a Backpack page

Matt Johnson writes in to tell us about how his team is using Subversion (SVN), a version control system, to send emails to a Backpack page. The team's clients can then check that page (or the page's RSS feed) to learn when changes were made to their site and what changed.

We recently switched from a fully featured Basecamp account (Time tracking, etc) to a Basic plan of Backpack to manage the team.  The direction of the project we were using Basecamp changed some, so we thought we'd give Backpack a try.

After adjusting a bit to the new workflow, I realized that I could make it a bit easier for my client to read when we make a change, and what we changed.  We use SVN and so I just forwarded my SVN Commit emails to a Backpack page, which my client could then subscribe to the RSS feed of that page.

We'll be setting it up so that SVN sends it to Backpack right away, but for testing purposes I just have my Gmail account using a filter to forward it automatically.  We have the subject of the commit email notification with the Note: syntax.  Allowing the Backpack page to automatically parse the forwarded email into a note.

I thought it was kind of cool, so I thought I'd share it.

Why The Demo Coach switched from Salesforce to Highrise

Nathan Gold is Chief Demo Coach at The Demo Coach, a technology training company. He recently wrote to us and said, "I am now a complete convert to Highrise from Salesforce...Thank you again for a really useful product that I was able to get up and running, without training, in less time than it takes to get Salesforce up and running." We asked Nathan to tell us more and here's what he wrote:

Switching from Salesforce
Before finding Highrise, I was a Salesforce.com addict because it is a way to keep all information and communications about every contact all in one place. It was fairly easy to configure and the reporting features allowed me to give management any information they needed about our client and prospect database. The only real problem with Salesforce.com is that it can be expensive, especially when you have 20 people with user accounts. That's $3,900 each quarter since they bill you 3 months at a time.

So, when I needed a CRM to manage my new SOHO business, I started looking around at other less costly alternatives. A friend of mine mentioned 37signals Basecamp, which led me to Highrise.

To my surprise, Highrise turned out to be an amazing SAAS, which allows us to have basically the same functionality as Salesforce. The biggest differences to me is that the user interface is much more enjoyable to work with and the cost is a fraction of what I am used to paying for CRM. I started with the $12 per month version, which allows me to have 3 user accounts and up to 500 contacts in the database.

I was able to get my account up and running within 15 minutes! It would have been faster, but I received a phone call while I was working on configuring my account. Highrise was up and running The Demo Coach business in record time for any SAAS I had worked with in the past.

Highrise is great on the iPhone
The best part of Highrise to me is that I can use my iPhone to get access to all of my contacts no matter where I am. The Highrise user interface rocks on the iPhone. When I leave to go to an appointment now, I no longer have to use MapQuest to get me there. All I do is bring up the contacts name and there is a Map hyperlink already there. When I click on it, the iPhone shows me exactly where I need to go. It's a wonderful feature and has reduced my stress of getting to appointments on time.

Schedule tasks by emailing Highrise
My other favorite feature of Highrise is that I no longer have to write myself notes to be entered when I get back to the office. I can very easily schedule tasks (to-do's) by simply emailing Highrise! They provide a set of special email addresses with my account called Drop Boxes that automagically schedule tasks for me or others whether for today, tomorrow, or next week. It's amazing and has simplified my working life tremendously.

Everything is easily accessible in one place
One more thing…I was recently at the office of a new client. She was telling me that I never sent a response to her questions. Since I clearly remembered sending it, I simply used my iPhone to access Highrise and I was able to show her the email right under her name! Eventually, she found it in her spam folder! But, Highrise saved the day by having everything about the account in one place and easily accessible. I believe her company is now using Highrise too!

Thank you 37signals for making a wonderfully useful and affordable product that requires no installation or software on my computer! I seriously doubt I will ever go back to Salesforce.com. Highrise is now my shining star and secret weapon to run my business.

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

Web consultant touts forwarding email into Highrise

In "Effective Websites: Forwarding Email As Convenient Means To Enter Data," web effectiveness consultant Alan Rimm-Kaufman touts the ease with which you can email into Highrise:

Highrise is a simple and elegant CRM system from 37signals.

With Highrise, you blind-carbon copy a special drop box, something like [email protected]. The app does all the hard work, determining who you are from the dropbox subdomain, parsing the email to determine where to file it it the CRM system, and associating the message with the right people and companies and dates.

Forwarding an email is really simple. Bccing an email is really simple.

Learn more about how Highrise and email are best friends.

An example of how you can forward an email into Highrise.

One of our favorite uses for Backpack: "How to" pages

One way we love to use Backpack is for "how to" pages that guide us through confusing tech waters. These tutorial pages mean we don't have to waste time relearning processes from scratch. Some examples:

How to change FTP server for existing files
How to checkout apps from the Subversion repo
How to create accounts for Basecamp and Backpack from the console
How to create File Attachments in the console
How to deploy to staging
How to failover to status.37signals.com
How to format dates with strftime
How to merge a branch into trunk
How to rebase in SVN
How to restart a stage on dev
How to run solr locally
How to setup a local nameserver
How to setup MySQL databases for local apps
How to setup the Unix programs required by our apps
How to test local apps in VMware

And here's a look at one:

Jamis put it together and this was the reaction to it (from a Campfire chat):

Ryan: Jamis, thanks much for that page. really informative and well put-together
Jamis: thanks RS! I'm glad it's been helpful
David: haha, I bookmarked that page! went back there a ton of times for the openbar reform. merged trunk more times than I'd care to remember.
Jamis: yeah, svn rebasing is so insane. Most of the reason I made that page was for me to refer back to :)
Ryan: what a great use of Backpack

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

Basecamp's clean print layouts

Did you know? Basecamp has clean print layouts so your projects look as good on paper as they do on screen.

We’re not big printers, but our customers tell us they are. They often have to print screens from Basecamp to take to meetings, present to clients, or prepare a report for their superiors. These print layouts are the perfect way to do it. See larger photo of an example print job.