Help

Account | Projects | People | Dashboard | To-do lists
Milestones | Messages | Files | Time tracking | General

Watch a video tour of the messages section

The narrated tour will take just under three minutes


Can I add someone to the email notification list after a message has been posted?

You can still add someone to the email notification list for a message after it is posted. Just click on the red "Edit" link associated with the message.
edit message

Go to the "Notify people of this message via email" section of the page and check off the name of the person you want to add. Then click the "Save changes" button.
notify email message

An email notification will be sent to the person (or people) and they'll be on the list to get email notifications when new comments are posted.

How can we format (bold, bullets, italics, etc) our messages or comments?

Basecamp uses Textile formatting so you can use simple, easy-to-write codes to format text. Type the codes in your text and you will see the results after clicking Save.

Some examples:
*bold* → bold
_italic_ → italic

Check this Textile Quick Reference guide to see how to easily make lists, headers, and more.

I changed the global categories, but they didn't change inside my project. Why?

Global categories are applied to new projects, not existing projects. When you change the global categories all future projects you create will inherit those categories.

How do email notifications work?

Email notifications let people stay up to date on message threads via email. Anyone who posts a new message or comments on a message will automatically be "subscribed" to that message. When you are subscribed to the message, you'll get an email notification each time someone else posts a new comment on that message.

It's easy to notify people about one of your messages. When you post a message you'll see a section that says, "Notify people of this message via email." Select whomever you want to be notified. Selected people will receive a copy of the message via email and will also receive any comments posted to that message via email too (they can unsubscribe at any time).
notify email message

Subscriptions are established on a message-by-message basis (there's no "always notify me" option). This keeps you from being inundated with messages you aren't interested in.

subscribe to messagePeople who aren't part of a thread can also subscribe to a message by clicking on the message and then selecting "Yes, email me" in the right sidebar.

What is a "private" message? What does it mean to make something "private"?

Private messages and private to-do lists can be seen by members of your team (including contractors) but can NOT be viewed by your clients. Clients will see no reference to the messages or to-do lists — not on the messages page, not on the to-do list page, not on the overview page, not on the dashboard page, and they won't receive any email notifications related to private items. This allows you to share sensitive or not-yet-finalized information internally without worry about clients accessing these entries.

Private items are called out with a red bar on the left, a light red textured background, and a small red "PRIVATE" item badge in the upper right corner of the item.
private message

To make a message private, select the checkbox next to "Make this message private" when creating or editing a message.
make private message

How can I stop receiving email notifications?

If you'd prefer not to receive email notifications on new comments, you can unsubscribe from a message. First, click the red "Edit" link associated with the message.
edit message

unsubscribe to messageThe people subscribed to a message are listed in the right sidebar. To unsubscribe, click the "remove" link located next to "You."

If you aren't comfortable with the content of messages, comments, files, to-dos and milestones being sent via email (emails are inherently insecure since they are sent in plain text over the internet), you can disable the email notification feature entirely. If disabled, people won't see the email notifications option at all. (Note: The RSS feature is a great alternative to using email for notifications.)

unsubscribe to messageTo turn off all email notifications, go to your Dashboard and click the "Settings" tab in the upper right. Scroll down the page to the section called "Email notification" and select "No email notifications."
no emails

What does "associate with a milestone" mean?

milestone w/ messageWhen you associate a message with a milestone, a link to the message will appear below the milestone you select.

To do this, post a new message (or edit an existing one) and click the link that says "Associate this message with a milestone..."
associate message w/ milestone

Select the milestone you want from the pulldown menu.
select milestone

If this message is part of the completion of the milestone, you can select the checkbox next to "Completes this milestone." The milestone will then be marked as completed in the "Milestones" section.

How do I attach files to messages?

Post a new message (or edit an existing one) and click the link that says "Attach files to this message..."
attach files

You can choose a file on your computer and upload it. Each file should be under 30MB. All files for a project can be viewed by clicking the "Files" tab.

Can we email messages to Basecamp?

No, messages need to be added from your browser. You can always cut and paste copy from an email into your browser window though.

What's the difference between green and grey icons
in List view?

green grey list
New messages or messages with new comments are marked green. Messages/comments you've already viewed are marked grey. For example, in the screenshot above: The first message, "Offsite Backups" has 8 comments, at least 1 of which is new to you. The second message, "timezoneless apps" is new to you, has a file attached, but has no comments. The third message, "Coding conventions for CSS" has 3 comments that you've already viewed. And so on...

More Basecamp FAQs...


Got more questions? Got feature requests? Drop in on the lively customer forums.

If you can't find answers here or in the forums, you can always submit a support request via email