Basecamp Pro Tips

Wanna be a Basecamp power user? Hone your skills with these pro tips, tricks, and shortcuts to get the most out of Basecamp!

Learn more about:

• Change your participation type
• Subscribing and unsubscribing to a comment thread
• Using the jump menu
• Keyboard shortcuts
• Viewing the Heystack page
• Checking the Basecamp announcements
• Using focus mode
• Choosing a theme
• Using emoji ✨
• Choosing and renaming project tools
• Switching between Basecamp accounts
• Closing comment threads

Change your participation type

Are you part of a project that you don't need notifications from? If you choose to "just follow" the project, you’ll still have full access to it but notifications will be muted. You won’t hear from the project unless someone specifically @mentions you or assigns you a to-do.

Click into the project, then on the ••• menu to the right of the project name. Choose the option to " Switch to just following."

Subscribe or Unsubscribe to a Comment Thread

Did you see a conversation happening that you want to get notifications for? Click "Subscribe me" to add yourself to that thread:

Included in a conversation and don't need the comment updates? Click the "Unsubscribe me" button at the bottom of the page to remove yourself from that thread:

The Jump Menu

Need to quickly jump between projects or people? The jump menu is great for that!

It’s as easy as hitting Command-J (Mac) or Ctrl-J (Windows). The jump menu will pop up and you can start typing to narrow down on the person or project (you can search for projects by their description). Click or hit Enter on the selection and you’ll jump right to where you want to go:

Keyboard Shortcuts

You can easily navigate Basecamp using the QWERTY keyboard shortcuts. For Mac users, use Command, while Windows and Linux users should use Ctrl.

• Jump menu: "Command ⌘" + "J" or "Ctrl" + "J"
• My Stuff: "Command ⌘" + ";" or "Ctrl" + ";"
• Find/Search: "Command ⌘" + "/" or "Ctrl" + "/"
• Emoji: "Command ⌘" + "Ctrl" + "Space" or "⊞ Win" + "." (period)
• Home: "Command ⌘" + "Shift" + "H" or "Ctrl" + "Shift" + "H"
• Latest Activity: "Command ⌘" + "Shift" + "A" or "Ctrl" + "Shift" + "A"

• Bold: "Command ⌘" + "B" or "Ctrl" + "B"
• Italic: "Command ⌘" + "I" or "Ctrl" + "I"
• Link: "Command ⌘" + "K" or "Ctrl" + "K"
• Undo: "Command ⌘" + "Z" or "Ctrl" + "Z"
• Redo: "Command ⌘" + "Shift" + "Z" or "Ctrl" + "Shift" + "Z"

There are two more keyboard shortcuts that are specific to the Basecamp Desktop App:

• Go Back: "Command ⌘" + "[" or "Ctrl" + "["
• Go Forward: "Command ⌘" + "]" or "Ctrl" + "]"

Viewing the Heystack page

If you need to access and view your Hey! notifications often, you can open the Heystack page in a separate tab:

This page contains every Hey! notification you’ve ever received from Basecamp. You can even bookmark it in your browser for your convenience!

Dismissed a new feature announcement and can't find it now? Don't worry! You can always find the recent announcements from Basecamp by adding /bulletins/ to your account URL and pressing Enter:

You will end up on the Basecamp announcements page where you can find all the latest features and goodies from the Basecamp team:

Focus Mode

Need to spend some time focused on your work? With Focus mode, notifications and orange unread badges are turned off. They'll automatically turn back on tomorrow.

Just click your avatar located on the top-right corner and select "Turn on Focus Mode":

Choose a Theme

Want to add a splash of color or tone things down a bit? Pick your own color theme!

Click your profile photo/avatar first. Then, choose "Preferences", and you'll see the option on the next page to choose a theme color:

Use Emoji

You can add emoji anywhere you can enter text in Basecamp. You might use them to visually group similar projects, designate priority in a to-do list, jazz up a Chat, or give someone a quick Boost.

Here's a to-do list with emojis showing what's priority and what can wait:

On a Mac, use "Command ⌘" + "Ctrl" + "Space" to pull up emoji:

In Windows 10 or 11, click the "⊞ Win" + "." (period) to pull up the emoji picker:

In Windows 8, look for the keyboard icon in the Windows taskbar in the lower right corner. If you don't have the keyboard set up, here's how.

If you're using Windows 7, you'll see emoji in black-and-white only (how avante garde!). Here's the update you'll need to use emoji. 

Choose and Rename Project Tools

Only using a few of the tools in a project? Need to set up a link to an external service? You can! Customize the tools setup for each project by turning off the tools you don't need.

Just click the more options menu "•••" located at the top-right corner of your project's main page and select the "Setup tools option:

Then, click "Rename" on the tool you'd like to rename:

Enter the tool's new name and click the "Save changes" button:

In addition to that, you can open a Door to other services right in your Basecamp projects! 🚪 A Door is a simple, direct link to any outside services you use like Github, Slack, Zoom, etc.:

To add a Door to your project, click into that project, then the ••• menu at the top right of the page, then click the "Set up tools" option. Choose an existing external service or link to any site using the "External service" option. Learn the ins and outs of Doors here!

Account owners and administrators can also set default names for project tools in Adminland:

Now that you've finished this guide, make sure to check out the Working in Projects guide as well as the Working with Clients guide. They're great resources for after you've set things up!

Back To Top

When you're scrolling through a page in Basecamp, you might see a "Back to top" button that appears on the lower-left side of the page:

That's a one-way ticket to the top of the page that should help you surface from a long post or comment thread. 

Switching between Basecamp accounts

Browser

As long as you use the same exact email address to access each Basecamp account, you can navigate between them in your browser.

You can see all of the accounts you're a part of on the the Launchpad at: https://launchpad.37signals.com/signin.

Or, you can access your other accounts by clicking on the Basecamp logo located on the top-left corner of any Basecamp page:

Apps

If you use the desktop app or mobile app for Basecamp 4 accounts, you can only navigate between other Basecamp 4 accounts. It's not possible to access a Basecamp 2 account from the same Basecamp app, but you can download the Basecamp 2 mobile app here.

In the desktop app for Mac, click the Account menu then choose the account you're looking for. You can even opt to use a keyboard shortcut like ⌘1 to navigate to other accounts even more quickly:

📱 Instructions for switching between Basecamp 4 accounts on the iPhone and iPad are here.

🤖 Instructions for switching between Basecamp 4 accounts on an Android are here.

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