Classic messages & comments

Jump ahead:

Post a message

To post a message inside a project, click the "Messages" tab and then the button that says "Post a new message."

Formatting

Our messages and comments editor (WYSIWYG – “What You See Is What You Get” – editor) lets you make text bold or italic. You can also create bullet lists and numbered lists.

If you’re a Textile fan, you can use Textile/HTML in your messages instead. Just click the “Switch to Textile/HTML” link in the lower right corner below the editor to switch into Textile/HTML mode. Note: You can’t use Textile or HTML in the WYSIWYG mode.

Attach files to a message

Below the text box, you'll have the option to attach files to your message.

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.

Relate a message to a milestone

When you associate a message with a milestone, a link to the message will appear below the milestone you select.

When you're editing your message, you'll see the option to relate your message to an existing milestone. Select the milestone you want from the drop-down menu.

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.

Add code to a message

You can surround any code that you want to be rendered literally in <pre> or <code> tags. This will prevent the code from being interpreted by the browser. Use <pre> for multiline blocks of code. Use <code> for inline code.

That said, though, if you have a lot of complex JavaScript or PHP that you want to post, Basecamp messages might not be a good fit. Better to use a dedicated code service like GitHub and link to your code pastes from your Basecamp message.

Message Categories

You can change the existing message categories for a particular project, or for the account as a whole. 

Inside a project, you'll see the existing categories to the right of the message as you edit:

Click "Edit" to add new categories or change an existing category in that project.

Admins can change all the message categories across the account.  To do this, click the "Settings" tab. On that page, you'll have the option to update categories. 

NOTE: Any changes will affect future projects only. To change existing project categories, use the category links in that particular project.

Move a message to another project

Admins can move messages from one Basecamp project to another. You can find the link to  Move… by editing a message.

The  Move… link invokes a pop-over with a pull-down to select a destination project and some notes about what happens when you move that particular item.

When you move a message:

  • Any comments and attached files (attached to both the message and in comments) will move with it
  • The message will no longer be associated with any milestones once moved
  • People will not be moved with content. You should set up people on the destination project before moving things. People who are already on the destination project will be automatically linked up with the content just as they were before, including notifications and assignments: if you move a message and the author isn’t part of the destination project, they’ll still appear as the author but will not be able to receive email notifications of new replies or be able to post new replies.

Email a message to a project

You can email a message directly to a project. This means you can post messages without even being logged in. Just send a message via email from your desktop, web-based email client, or mobile phone, and it’ll post right to Basecamp as a message.

You can even attach files to those messages. All files attached to messages sent to Basecamp via email can be found in the Messages tab of a project in addition to the Files tab.

Note: Your message must contain some text. A file sent to Basecamp via email that doesn’t include some text in the email body will not be processed by Basecamp.

Each project has a unique email address. And each email address is unique to each user. This is how Basecamp knows which project you want to post the message to, and who’s posting the message.

To get your email-in address, click the Messages tab inside a project. In the sidebar you’ll see the list of categories as well as a new link at the bottom that says: “Post a message via email.” 

Clicking the link takes you to a dialog that gives you your own unique email address for that project, along with some details about how the feature works:

You may want to copy that email address to your address book so you have it any time you want to post a message to that project.

Remember, every project and every user have unique inbound email addresses: don’t share the email address with anyone else. Everyone on your project will see their own email address when they click the “Post a message via email” link. If this email address ever gets spammed, there’s a link on the “Post a message via email” screen that lets you generate a new email address.

Messages posted via email aren’t categorized. If you want to categorize the message you can go into the project later, edit the message, select a category, and save the changes. The same for the private setting – you’ll have to edit the message and make it private in the project later.

And finally, whenever you email in a message everyone on the project will receive an email notification letting them know a new message has been posted. If they don’t want to receive email notifications on that message thread in the future they can opt out by clicking a link at the bottom of the email notification.

Email a comment

When you receive a message or comment notification by email, simply click “reply” and your comment will be posted to the project. At the top of new message and comment notification emails you’ll see this:

"Reply ABOVE THIS LINE to post a comment to the project"

Anything you type above that line will be posted back to the project as a comment on the message. This is especially useful if you’re on a mobile device and you want to reply without having to log into Basecamp.

You can only reply to the message in plain text — HTML emails will not be posted to the project. File attachments are accepted and will be posted to the project if you attach them to your reply.

If the reply option isn't working for you, it's likely that your email program is not set up to use the “reply to” feature. Basecamp messages come from a masked email address that can’t accept incoming mail. When you reply to a message, make sure you are sending to the “reply to” email address so your comment will make it to Basecamp.

Usually this is an easy feature to enable under the Preferences panel of your email client.

Message notifications

Notify users of a message

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.

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).

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.

People 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.

Admins can still add someone to the email notification list for a message after it is posted. 

Click on the red “Edit” link associated with the 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. You can choose whether they're notified right away, or when a new comment is added to that message thread.

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.

Unsubscribe from message 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.

The people subscribed to a message are listed in the right sidebar. To unsubscribe, click the “Unsubscribe” link 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.)

Private messages

Private messages can be seen by members of your primary Basecamp company but cannot be viewed by people in your client companies. Account owners and admins can make files, messages, and to-do lists private.

Clients will see no reference to the private items. They won’t receive any email notifications related to private items. This allows you to share sensitive or not-yet-finalized information internally without needing to worry about clients accessing these entries.

Private items are called out with a small red “PRIVATE” item badge in the upper right corner of the item. 

They are highlighted in red on your Dashboard & Overview pages.

You can enable privacy for messages, files, and to-do lists when you are creating them. You can update this setting later, by clicking the ‘Edit’ link near that item.

Privacy settings are inherited. This means a file attached to a comment on a private to-do list will also be private.

Deleting Messages and Comments


To delete a message, use the 'Delete' link at the top right of the message:

To delete a comment, use the trash can icon to the right of the comment: