This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Creating a Project
To create your first project, follow these steps:
- On the Basecamp Dashboard, click the Create Your First Project link. The Create a New Project page opens, shown in Figure 4.1.
Figure 4.1 Create your first Basecamp project in minutes.
- Enter a name for your project in the Name the Project text box.
- Specify who can access the project: only users in your company or users at another company as well.
- If you're allowing users from another company to access your project, select that company's name from the drop-down list. Alternatively, click the Create a New Company link if you didn't set up external companies in Lesson 3.
- Click the Create This Project button.
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The Overview page for the project opens, shown in Figure 4.2.
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Figure 4.2 The Overview page is "command central" for each Basecamp project.
When you first create a project, the Overview page displays a welcome screen with a brief video tutorial to get you started. After you start entering project milestones and to-dos, this content is replaced with actual project data.
From the Overview page, you can do the following:
- Navigate to other project features by clicking one of the tabs to the right of the Overview tab. Depending on the account plan you sign up for, tabs include Messages, To-Do, Milestones, Writeboards, Chat, Time, and Files. You'll learn more about these Basecamp features in later lessons. If one of these tabs is missing from your screen, your account plan doesn't support this functionality.
- Start entering project data by clicking one of the shortcut links to perform common tasks, such as New Message, New To-Do List, New Milestone, or New File.
- Return to the Dashboard by clicking the Back to Dashboard link in the upper-left corner of the screen. Depending on your account plan and number of projects you have, the Back to Projects link could appear instead.
- Open a different project by clicking the Switch to a Different Project link in the upper-left corner of the screen. If you have a free account, the Upgrade Your Free Account link appears instead. If you have only one project, this link isn't available.
- Manage project settings, such as creating an overview page announcement or defining a start page, by clicking the Project Settings link in the upper-right corner of the screen. See "Managing Project Settings" later in this lesson for more information.
- Manage project-specific people and permissions by clicking the People & Permissions tab. See "Assigning People and Permissions to Projects" later in this lesson for more information.
- Search for project data by clicking the Search tab. See "Searching Project Data" later in this lesson for more information.
- Print the contents of the active page by clicking the Printer icon. Basecamp displays a print preview of the page contents and opens the Print dialog box where you can choose a printer.
- Receive a daily email digest of project activity by clicking the Turn on Email Updates link. You'll receive updates on new and completed to-dos and milestones. If there is no new project data, you won't receive an email.
- Subscribe to the RSS feed for this project. See Lesson 14, "Working with RSS Feeds," for more information about the benefits of RSS.
- View a list of people assigned to this project by company as well as by the last date they logged in.
You're probably eager to start entering project data, but first, review the rest of this lesson for important information about managing your project. In particular, you'll want to assign any project-specific permissions and manage your project settings.