Backpack Weblog

How do I create events that span multiple days in the Backpack Calendar?

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 16:36:52 -0600

To enter events that span multiple days just enter the span and then event title in the “Add an event” sidebar. Any of the formats below will work.

Nov 3 - Nov 10 Vacation in Chicago

-or-

November 3 - November 10 Vacation in Chicago.

-or-

11/3 - 11/10 Vacation in Chicago

-or- you can say “to” instead of using the dash.

Nov 3 to Nov 10 Vacation in Chicago

LAUNCH: The Backpack Calendar

Thu, 27 Jul 2006 12:23:24 -0600

The Backpack Calendar is here. It’s available as a tab in everyone’s Backpack account, but it’s only accessible for paying customers. This is what you call an incentive to upgrade ;)

Watch and learn

A great way to be introduced to something new is to 1. dive in and use it yourself, or 2. watch someone else use it. We’ve put together a few Quicktime movies with audio that help demonstrate the basics:

Overview: Get a feel for the basics (adding events, creating calendars, etc).
Sharing calendars: Check out how easy it is to share your calendars and subscribe to other people’s calendars using the popular iCalendar format.
The layout: A quick overview to the grid and day view.
Getting around: This tour shows you how to move through the calendar and a few shortcut tips to jump directly to any day/month at any time. These shortcuts make Backpack extra useful — especially when someone calls you and says “Hey, are you free on November 12th?”

Props to Sam

Our very own Sam worked his heart out on this one and we love him even more for it. It’s simple on the surface but it was complex behind the scenes. Building a modern web-based calendar is building an entire new product. The development of this calendar took about 2.5 months and a few things didn’t make the 1.0 cut. We’ll be working on those next. The biggest headache was IE 6 support.

What’s next for the calendar

A few things that didn’t make the 1.0 cut that we plan to add are:

Repeating events
European date preference
Drag and drop events in IE (it works great in Firefox and Safari, but IE 6 wasn’t playing nice)
And some minor design issues that we had to introduce in all browsers in order to accomodate for IE 6 (bastard!).

We have some other stuff planned too, and we have some edges to polish up, but we’re really thrilled about this initial release.

We hope you like it

We’re really excited about this calendar. Personally this will be the first web-based calendar I actually use. I’ve tried the others but none of them really resonated with me. Too many popups, too much stuff getting in the way, too many different views, clutter, etc. So here’s our offering. We hope you like it.

If you don’t have a Backpack account please consider signing up. The calendar feature is only available for paying plans, but those start at only $5/month (no contracts, no signup fees, no termination fees, cancel at any time). Thanks again.

Voicemail for your Backpack pages with voiceNotes

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 08:20:44 -0600

We’ve recently been experimenting with celltell voiceNote for Backpack and found it quite useful. Think of it as voicemail for your Backpack account.

All you do is sign up, enter up to three phone numbers you’d call from (your cell, your home, and work, for example), your Backpack URL, and the email address for whichever Backpack page you want to send voice notes to (yes, Backpack pages have email addresses). Then you get a phone number to call. When you call that number you leave a message after the beep and then it shows up on your Backpack page a few minutes later.

A voice note looks and sounds like this:

You can play the note, pause the note, rewind the note, and even save the note to your computer (click the eject button on the right side of the player).

It’s a really cool little tool. It works with all Backpack plans — including the free plans. And as of now the service is free. A big thanks to Ali who put this service together and continues to make it better. We certainly hope you like it.

"Outrageously cool and useful"

Tue, 11 Jul 2006 08:25:19 -0600

“Easier than Outlook. Simpler than notepad. More useful than either. 37signals Backpack is an outrageously cool and useful web application that you can post to, read and edit effortlessly. The basic (advertising-less) service is free and probably useful enough for most people as-is. As the obsession builds your needs may scale and the pricing plan starts at $5/month, cancel at any time. I can’t say enough good things about this tool and have only scratched the surface in my own usage.” -Littlegray Media

Backpack and GTD (Getting Things Done) redux

Tue, 27 Jun 2006 13:20:32 -0600

Patrick has posted his ideas on how he uses Backpack to Get Things Done.

"everything fits together so beautifully...it's a joy to use"

Wed, 24 May 2006 08:06:05 -0600

“I just wanted to thank you for crafting Backpack so well. I’ve only recently started making proper use of my account, and everything fits together so beautifully that it’s a joy to use. I’m most happy about all the complicated things Backpack doesn’t do: negative space is great! So, thanks!” -Alisdair

Manage, archive, and share your RSS feed subscriptions with Backpack

Thu, 27 Apr 2006 09:40:16 -0600

Here’s a cool little tip on how to use Backpack to manage, archive, and share your RSS feed subscriptions.

Using Excel to make Backpack-ready tables

Tue, 28 Mar 2006 10:03:04 -0600

This forum post explains how to write an Excel macro that converts an Excel table-range to a Backpack-style table and copies it to the clipboard so you can paste it into the page body or a note.

Using OS X's Automator to backup files to Backpack

Tue, 21 Mar 2006 22:33:53 -0600

The folks at Nonstopmac.com put together a tutorial on how to backup files on your Mac to your Backpack account using Apple’s Automator tool included with OS X 10.4. Pretty cool stuff. Thanks for writing this up guys!

Backpack Premium is now only $14/month

Tue, 14 Mar 2006 07:26:13 -0600

We’ve dropped the top tier Backpack Premium account to $14/month from $19/month. Now each tier is no more than $5 apart from the previous tier. $5/month for Basic, $9/month for Plus, and $14/month for Premium. And of course there’s still the free account. Check out the updated account chart if you’re interested. And let’s all give a high five to economies of scale!

PackRat for Backpack

Mon, 27 Feb 2006 19:37:58 -0600

PackRat is a tool for Mac OS X users that lets you take your Backpack data offline with you and sync it up when you get back online. Great use of the Backpack API.

Getting Things Done with Backpack

Mon, 06 Feb 2006 10:10:06 -0600

A weblog about Getting Things Done has updated an article on using Backpack to Get Things Done. If you’re a proponent of the GTD method do check out the article.

Backpack Konfabulator Widget

Thu, 02 Feb 2006 14:23:12 -0600

A Backpack user has begun to build a Konfabulator Widget for Backpack. It’s still in early development but it’s certainly worth following if you are a Konfabulator user.

Color code your to-do items (and more)

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 11:38:50 -0600

Here’s a great tip showing you how to color code items in Backpack. You’ll need the Firefox web browser and the Xinha extension, but once you’re all set up it works like a charm. [Thanks Leon!]

Holiday Newsletters Made Simple.

Fri, 23 Dec 2005 12:29:38 -0600

Boy, the holidays come faster and faster every year, don’t they? I bet you’d barely digested that Thanksgiving turkey before the first Christmas card arrived in your mailbox. And now there’s only a few days left of the year and you haven’t even sent out your annual family newsletter! Whatever will you do!?

Have no fear, Backpack is near! In a few minutes you can easily create a quick and simple family newsletter to share with all your friends and family, complete with photos and notes that explain just what’s been keeping you so busy this year.

Use Textile markups to insert images into your header body and the notes section, and you can even upload a copy of the newsletter in a Word format for those friends of yours who’d like to hang it on their fridge. Share the URL publicly or keep it private by inviting people to start a Backpack page of their own.

Who says the holidays have to be stressful and tedious? Backpack makes sending out your newsletters easy and fun. And don’t forget to start a Tada list to keep track of all your card recipients!

A big special thanks to our friend Melissa Summers for the pictures she let us borrow of her beautiful family. There’s one holiday newsletter I can’t wait to get!