One of the underused elements of Basecamp is it’s ability to render tables for columnar data. I used this when detailing out field, page layout, and formula changes prior to implementing them in Salesforce so they can all be seen at a glance and updated in a Writeboard before ever hitting the Salesforce.com admin portal.

Basecamp renders visual tables very well with the help of Textile.

However, there are many other reasons tables are generally useful. One example is sorting by a specific column. You cannot do this in Basecamp but you can in OpenOffice Calc or Excel. However, if it was easy to go back and forth between them then using the best of each when needed would be feasible. This is what I will be illustrating.

I prefer the former so this tip will be using OpenOffice.

I want to create a table in Basecamp but rather than create it as text and insert the pipe (“|”) symbols, etc. as I go, I start with a new Calc doc and drop in my column headings and fill in the rows.

OpenOffice Calc spreadsheet

When I am ready, I simply copy the text I have entered into the spreadsheet and paste it into JEdit, a free java based text editor. The great part about JEdit is you can create custom Macros that do common manipulations to text. In this case, I am replacing the tabs automatically created from my copy/paste operation with pipes (“|”) and new lines with pipe and new line combinations. Here is the macro so you can quickly create your own. My Mac stores them in /Users/joncline/.jedit/macros/, your computer may have a different location.


textArea.goToPrevLine(false);
SearchAndReplace.setSearchString("\\t");
SearchAndReplace.setReplaceString(" | ");
SearchAndReplace.setBeanShellReplace(false);
SearchAndReplace.setIgnoreCase(true);
SearchAndReplace.setRegexp(true);
SearchAndReplace.setSearchFileSet(new CurrentBufferSet());
SearchAndReplace.replaceAll(view);
SearchAndReplace.setSearchString("\\n");
SearchAndReplace.setReplaceString(" |\\n| ");
SearchAndReplace.setBeanShellReplace(false);
SearchAndReplace.setIgnoreCase(true);
SearchAndReplace.setRegexp(true);
SearchAndReplace.setSearchFileSet(new CurrentBufferSet());
SearchAndReplace.replaceAll(view);


So, I paste this now tab separated value (TSV) text block into Jedit:

Field Type Values (CSV) Note Landing
MonthlyUnits number(8) - What is their average monthly unit volume per month? Account
MonthlyUnitSales number(8) - What is their average monthly sales? Account
SeasonalBusiness boolean yes, no From Lead Questionnaire Form Account


Run the macro on it to turn it into this:
(you may have to add the leading or trailing pipe symbol depending whether you had line breaks before or after your tab)


| Field | Type | Values (CSV) | Note | Landing |
| MonthlyUnits | number(8) | - | What is their average monthly unit volume per month? | Account |
| MonthlyUnitSales | number(8) | - | What is their average monthly sales? | Account |
| SeasonalBusiness | boolean | yes, no | From Lead Questionnaire Form | Account |


I can now paste this code directly into any Basecamp Message, Writeboard, ToDo/Milestone Chat, etc. to get a table.

BONUS: What if I want to edit my Basecamp table again or add more fields? Must I do it in basecamp now?

This is a great question and since Basecamp is collaborative, I would expect this. The method is actually quite simple if you are using a Writeboard, which you should be since you are collaborating on the source data, not just commenting on it (read: Message). Instead of opening the spreadsheet and typing in your columns and rows, you simply go to your Writeboard, click the Export button at the top and view the HTML version.

Now, simply copy the columns and rows you want from the HTML file and paste them into your spreadsheet. You may get a confirmation menu to confirm the columns and rows were selected accurately but you quickly are back into the powerful spreadsheet interface for sorting, additional columns, reordering, etc.

Once finished, simply follow the directions above and move the data back into Basecamp from TSV text again.

Keep working together, and that doesn’t mean using “Track Changes” in your favorite Office app!

Your Digital Coach,

P.S.
If you don’t want to do any of this and your data is not confidential, you might consider just embedding a public Google Spreadsheet into your Message, Writeboard, etc. and you can just modify it as needed.

Re: New Website Project
Re: Fwd: New Website Project
Re: New Website Project
Re: Re: Fwd: New Website Project
Re: Call Your Mother
Re: New Website Project
Re: Re: Fwd: Re: New Website Project
Re: Fwd: Re: New Website Project
Offer: Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug

And this is just the first 30 minutes! In my experience, using email for this sort of communication is the norm. All the information and data related to the project is sent via email:

• Questions related to the project
• Updates on the status of the project
• Attached documents related to the project
• Deadlines for the project
• Reference materials for the project

This ultimately leads to your email inbox turning into a repository of information related to many different projects of which this is just one. This brings many challenges including:

• Email was designed for notification so searching it is generally frustrating
• Email often not backed up to prevent data loss
• Email databases struggle to handle the increase in size this task requires resulting in technical difficulties
• Email subject lines are often vague and out of sync with the actual message contents
• Purging old information after a project is complete is very time consuming
• Accidental deletion, spamboxes, and mailbox quotas cause a myriad of resends and repetitive work

Do I need to go on?

We have all experienced this but find ourselves drafting the accouncement email with all the milestones, some of the tasks, and adding our team to the CC: field again and again.

Imagine never having to ask “Can you resend me that file again? I think I deleted it” again. Imagine being able to see status automatically based on what has actually happened, not what someone says has or will happen.

The answer is Basecamp. I hesitate to call it project management as it might scare you off with nightmares of MS Project and Gantt Charts. It is the most accessible and simple way I have found to manage lots of tasks, people, deadlines, and copy.

For example, let’s say you want to find the web design 2 revisions ago that was emailed to you and your team. You deleted it as it has a 50MB attachment and you knew someone else was worrying about it. Now you need it so:

1. Send an email to your 3 other team members and ask them if they have the web design file from an email 2 revisions ago.
2. Your team members each spend their time searching their inboxes to find the 200 emails with “New Website Project” in the subject with an attachment and then find the one with a Photoshop file from 2 revisions ago.
3. Each team member that finds something sends you an email with a 50MB attachment and asks “Is this it?”
4. You then receive the emails, open up each of the files and try and compare which one is the right one.

Total time for 4 people involved: 2.5 hours

Let’s imagine you were using Basecamp to manage your project and you need to find the web design 2 revisions ago. You would need to:

1. Log into Basecamp
2. Navigate to the project called “New Website Project”
3. Click the Files tab
4. Click the Web Design file and download the one from 2 revisions ago.

Total time for 1 person involved: 10 minutes

This is just one example, my next posts will talk about the specific features Basecamp offers and how to benefit from them by using them strategically.

– jc