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5 Ways to improve your Messaging in Basecamp
No comments · Posted by Brett Atkin in 37 Signals - Basecamp, Web Applications
37 Signals project collaboration / management application, Basecamp, is a great to tool for keeping you, your team and your clients working smoothly on all projects.
One of the primary features of Basecamp is the Messaging functionality. When used correctly, this feature is a replacement for project related email communications. Rather than CC’ing everyone and then dealing with all the responses (that may or may not have been copied to everyone), you send the message from Basecamp. All replies are saved in Basecamp as well as sent to everyone included in the original Message.
To help you use Basecamp and the Messaging functionality more effiiciently, here are 5 things to remember.
- It is not a replacement for all email. If you want to ask your buddy down the hall for last night’s scores, send an IM or a personal email. Your project manager and your client may not care.
- One topic per message. If you include 3 questions in one message that goes to 10 people, you have the potential for 30 different answers. It will be difficult and time consuming to follow the message thread if everyone responds and/or comments.
- It is about content, not presentation. This is a text-based tool. Special formatting will not be preserved, so focus on the words, not the layout. If you need to convey something where layout and presentation are important, attach a Word doc or PDF.
- Nothing is private or confidential. Just because you unchecked Suzy from email notifications when you created the message, doesn’t mean Suzy can’t read the message. If you have an issue with someone on the project or the project itself, figure it out off-line.
- Use the tool as it was intended. You can only create a new messages while logged into the tool. Accept it, it is what it is. You can reply directly from your email client to a message, but I would suggest you log into the tool for replies as well. Here’s why. You’ll be able to catch up on the entire thread before you reply. You may find that someone else already did and you just missed that email. Reading everything again may spark something new you hadn’t thought about. Finally, Basecamp can’t accurately convert the formatting from the various email clients, so replies you send from Outlook 2007 may loose their returns, bullets, fancy backgrounds, etc (see number 3 above). When you reply directing from Basecamp, you message will look exactly as you typed it.
Basecamp is a great tool with many useful features. As with any tool, it is only as good as those using it. It will take some time to learn and use correctly, but when you do, it will save you, your team and your clients a lot of time and money.
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