37signals Product Blog

Writeboard hits "the perfect spot" between features and simplicity for collaborative writing projects

In "Writeboard: Wikis That Actually Make Sense," Matthew Guay of Appstorm says, "37signals hit the perfect spot between features and simplicity with Writeboard, and whenever I need to do a collaborative writing project, it’s always my first choice."

After trying to use wikis for one too many group project that fizzled out because of poor tools, I set out to find something easier to use than email, copying a Word file back and forth, or the dreaded wiki that no one could figure out. Enter Writeboard. This simple online text editor takes the pain out of collaborative writing, and is as simple to use as Notepad or TextEdit. It’s a solution that almost anyone can instantly understand and start using without any learning curve. Keep reading to see why Writeboard might be the perfect solution when wikis fail.

Read the full piece for more details on using Writeboard.

Writeboard and Backpack "make group projects both fun and productive"

"Writeboard: Class projects reinvented" describes how the author used Writeboard and Backpack for a team project at Florida Tech.

Writeboard does support simple text formatting, e.g. asterisk around a word make it bold (*example*). I actually discovered the formatting by accident, because it is just natural to give emphasis to text like that. It also saves every version of our file, so we could easily see what we’d done before or what someone else changed. We all signed in with a simple password; no new accounts for every student to setup. Everyone in my class found it equally easy to use, and we had a vibrant community helping each other with class notes and the group project. Altogether we had over 4,000 words in one Writeboard; not necessarily recommended, but it shows the power of Writeboard! The tech is so easy to use, everyone enjoyed it. And the important thing is that it actually helped us achieve our goals in ways no other tool had ever done. Even though we techies love new features and tools, the truth is that when something needs to be done, just getting it done is sometimes better!

One other tool that helped our team out was my Backpack account. This great tool, which I hope to write about more in the near future, lets you store lists, notes, links (including Writeboards), and more on easy-to-edit pages. For our class, I made a public page where I put a link to our team’s Writeboard, notes with important deadlines and information about the project, and lists of assignments and participants. It just tied everything in the class together easily and quickly. No starting a new website, designing HTML/CSS, or anything, just getting the job done.

I can’t wait to try this out in my next class group project again. If technology can make group projects both fun and productive, that’s really something! So next time you’re in a group project, give Writeboard and Backpack a try; your team might get more done (and a better grade) too!

Read full piece.

"Run your home more like a business" with 37signals tools

101 Tools to Run Your Home More Like a Business:

Home life seems to get more and more complicated as days go by. There are chores, paperwork, and lots of maintenance to deal with, but your home doesn’t have to take over your life. By using tools that streamline the work of businesses, you’ll find that it’s easy to get things done. Read on and you’ll find 101 tools that will make your home run like a business.

Included on the list: Basecamp, Backpack, Highrise, Campfire, and Writeboard.

New in Writeboard: Email notifications

It's been a long time coming, too long actually, but we've finally added email notifications to Writeboards created from Basecamp and Backpack. You can now let people associated with the project in Basecamp or with the account in Backpack know that you've added a new comment or made a revision to a Writeboard.

Underneath both the new version and comment input, there'll be a set of check boxes for all the people it's possible to notify and you can just check off the ones you'd like to be alerted:

We hope you enjoy it. Sorry it took so long.

37signals products are "essential web tools for virtual students"

Three 37signals tools made the list at Ditch the backpack: 100 essential web tools for virtual students. Here's what the list is all about:

While learning at home offers great opportunities for working on your own time and schedule, it can also offer drawbacks when it comes to working with others or getting immediate help on a problem. Whether you need help, collaboration, or just want a little extra knowledge when completing your assignments, these web tools will help you find what you need. From note taking to researching to staying organized, the following resources will have you making top grades in your classes.

And here are the 37signals tools that made the cut:

Campfire. Set up instant chat rooms with your study group or classroom using Campfire and make communicating as a group much easier.

Writeboard. Create a web-based text document with this tool, then use it to either edit, share, or send yourself a text file of your document.

Backpack. This tool can organize anything from just your own studies to that of an entire class. Make pages, use calendars, post announcements, get email or text message reminders, and more.

See the full list.

Use Fluid to get your 37signals web apps on your Mac OS X Leopard desktop

Fluid lets you run any webapp as a separate Mac desktop application if you've got Leopard.

Are you a Gmail, Facebook, Campfire or (Insert Your Favorite Webapp Here) fanatic? Do you have 20 or more browser tabs open at all times? Are you tired of some random site or Flash ad crashing your browser and causing you to lose your (say) Google Spreadsheets data in another tab?

If so, Site Specific Browsers (SSBs) provide a great solution for your webapp woes. Using Fluid, you can create SSBs to run each of your favorite webapps as a separate desktop application. Fluid gives any webapp a home on your Mac OS X desktop complete with Dock icon, standard menu bar, and logical separation from your other web browsing activity...

How does it work?

Fluid itself is a very small application. When launched, Fluid displays a small window where you specify the URL of a webapp you'd like to run in a Site Specific Browser. Provide an application name, click 'Create' and you'll be prompted to launch the new native Mac app you've just created.

Use Fluid to run YouTube, GTalk, Flickr, Basecamp, Delicious, .Mac webmail, or any other webapp as a separate Mac desktop application.

Here are high res logos for Basecamp, Backpack, Campfire and Highrise to use with Fluid.

(If you're not on OS X, Prism does something similar for Windows and Linux powered by the Mozilla engine).

Basecamp: Writeboard comments now show up on Dashboard and Project Overview

Writeboard comments are a great way to offer feedback on a proposal, blog post, marketing copy, or anything else you might write in a Writeboard (see an example).

But there used to be a catch for Basecamp customers: Writeboard comments sometimes went unnoticed since you had to visit the actual Writeboard itself to see if anyone had posted a new comment.

No more! Now, any new Writeboard comments show up on your Dashboard and Project Overview pages.

When there's a Writeboard comment, you'll be in the know. We hope you enjoy this change.

Writeboard and Writeroom = distraction-free writing with version control

Writeboard and WriteRoom are a killer combo. If you don't know, Writeroom is a full-screen, distraction-free writing environment for Mac. When you use it, obstacles fade away. It's just you and your text.

Combine that with the version control of Writeboard and you've got a great writing platform. You have no choice but to write something or get up and do something else. And you've got an easy way to collaborate, track changes, and revert to earlier versions. Give it a whirl.

Use Basecode to easily format text

Looking for an easy way to quickly format text inside your 37signals' applications? Basecode is a Firefox extension that lets you easily modify (e.g. bold, italic, color, font-size, etc.) the text you enter inside our apps. (It now supports Basecamp, Ta-Da lists, Backpack, and Writeboard.)

Basecode is a simple to use Firefox browser extension designed to give easy access to the hidden formatting options available when posting messages and comments in Basecamp. Even better it adds a few extra features to Basecamp to make the day to day project management process even easier.

See all of Basecode's features. Oh yeah, it's "free as chips!" too.