One of the best ways to personalize your Basecamp account
is to personalize the tools within your projects.
In this video, I'm gonna quickly show you
how you can change and rename the tools
in your Basecamp project,
but I also wanna show you how you can duplicate tools
and even more importantly,
why you might wanna have duplicate tools inside a project.
We'll go through some scenarios
for when it might make sense to have two message boards
or two separate docs and files tools,
multiple to-do tools or even multiple campfires
inside a project.
I'll even give you a glimpse into a few projects we use here
at Basecamp that are taking advantage
of this multiple tool situation.
Let's get to it.
From inside Basecamp project,
you'll use the three dot menu
at the top right of your project page
and select set up tools.
When you're in a new project,
you'll see the five basic tools at the top
and then three additional tools just below that.
You can toggle on any of the tools
you wanna add to the project
and you can also toggle off any tools you don't need.
On the same screen, you can rename the tools.
We call them to-dos,
but maybe you prefer to call them assignments
or maybe what we call campfire,
you wanna refer to as chat.
We're not offended.
Call it whatever you want.
On the bottom of each tool,
you'll see a link to add another
and clicking it will open up a duplicate of that tool
where you will be able to give it a name.
Now, when you have two of the same types of tools
in a project,
the naming of each tool becomes even more important.
What you call that tool
will help people inside the project know how to use it.
Let's take duplicate message boards, for example.
Here at Basecamp, we have a project called What Works
and it's the place where everyone in the entire company
reports on what they're working on.
In addition to a schedule, to-dos and automatic check-ins,
this project has two message boards,
one called kickoffs and one called heartbeats.
The kickoffs message board
is where each department lead shares a post
about what their team will be working on
during the next six-week cycle.
Those same team leaders add a post
on the heartbeats message board
at the conclusion of the six weeks
to share their department's progress.
Now, while we could have one message board
with both kickoff and heartbeat posts,
having two separate message boards
helps things stay a little more organized.
Our Basecamp mobile team uses multiple card tables
inside their team project.
When they first started working with the card table tool,
they would add the product name, either Basecamp or Hay,
and the platform, either Android or iOS,
to each card table card
to identify what the card was all about.
But once things got a little busier,
they split that up into multiple card table tools.
Their project now has four card table tools,
two for Android and two for iOS.
This helped them to better organize their work
and see more clearly what was on each group's plate.
Now, speaking of seeing what's on everyone's to-do list,
you could use multiple to-do tools
to better separate or organize work amongst your team.
You can still have multiple to-do lists within each tool,
but everything for that person is in one place.
Now, if you wanted to better isolate
different types of events,
you could create multiple schedules within a project.
For example, you could have a schedule
of employees' birthdays and work anniversaries
separate from a schedule of vacation days.
Separate schedules also give you the added flexibility
of subscribing to just one schedule
in a project or another.
At the top of each schedule tool,
you'll see a link to add that schedule
to an external calendar,
like Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook.
When you have multiple schedules within a project,
you can subscribe to one and not the other,
so you see what you want to and nothing more.
Now, duplicating the campfire works really well
when you're working with clients.
You could have one campfire
that only your internal team sees
and a separate campfire tool that's shared with the client.
This keeps both chat features within the same project,
but divides them into private and client-facing categories.
I have a separate video
about working with clients in Basecamp,
so make sure to check that out if you haven't already.
The beauty of Basecamp is that it's incredibly flexible
and it can grow with you as your project grows.
If you start with one docs and file tool
and then find that there are more items
than you can keep up with,
you can easily add a second one and reorganize some things.
You can move items between tools
with the three-dot menu at the top right
and choosing Move.
From there, you'll be able to select Where
to move your item from the dropdown.
Now, keep in mind that when you change, rename,
or duplicate tools in a Basecamp project,
it will change how those tools appear
for everyone on the project.
And the examples that I've given
are certainly not the only ways
you can use duplicate tools within a project,
but I hope this video has given you some ideas
and inspiration,
whether you want one message board or three message boards,
two card tables or five, Basecamp lets you do it.
So go forth, organize your projects.
We'll be right here if you have any questions.