Clicking the print icon will print the page exactly as it's shown. Therefore you'll want to sort and filter the page as needed first. For example, before printing a task list you can filter to incomplete tasks, choose a specific user, and sort based on due date. Then when you click the print icon, you will be printing the current view you just setup.

You can also print out a list of contacts with all their information, print the global calendar and global lists, and print any report by clicking the print option within the report. All printing options are nicely formatted, easy to use, and presentable.

By using the advanced search, you can find data across your entire project in seconds. It shows results for your search query across all sections on the project. You can also filter to any specific section from the grey filter bar.

If you click on a search result, it will take you directly to that item. You can also apply an additional filter to only show the search results that apply to a specific user on the project.

The search option is also included on the global Projects Page to let you easily filter your project list. This feature provides a simple way to quickly find anything you need in your project management tool.

To learn more about sharing Vimeo and Youtube videos in your project management tool, visit our support center here. This also includes simple instructions on how to update your security settings if you are using Vimeo Plus.

This change was just made, so after testing it out for a couple weeks let us know in the comments if you like it or not.

To get started, the user first needs to register with your Projecturf account. Simply create a project and add the user to the project to send them the registration email. If you have an existing project, you can just add them to that project. Once they register with your account, you can add them as an admin in the account section under System Settings as shown here.

There are two different types of admins in Projecturf. The first is a System Admin. System Admins have access to everything the account holder has access to including billing and system settings. They can also add and remove admins from your account. The other type is a Project Admin. Project Admins can only create new projects and access the global Address Book.

In the Address Book, there is an icon to denote the System and Project Admins on your account. A gold key (shown below) signifies a System Admin and a gray key signifies a Project Admin. This is a quick way to see which users have admin permissions. You can also view the list of all admins as well as add new admins, remove admins, and set admin permissions under System Settings in the account section.

To learn more about the different permissions available in your project management software, use this permissions infographic or visit the help center topic on roles and permissions.

Using the RSS feed, you can track all activity including when tasks and tickets are marked complete, a new document is uploaded, designs are approved by a client, discussions are created, Timecard entries are marked paid, and when a Whiteboard is updated - just to name a few. Here is an example of a recent event that was created and shows up in the feed:

To access an RSS feed, simply navigate to the Global Projects page and click on the actions panel to the right of the project name you want to track. Then copy the feed to paste into your RSS reader. There is a separate feed for each project, which is easily identified by the project name in the RSS reader.

There are many options when choosing how to view your RSS feeds. You can easily add them to your email client such as Outlook or Mac Mail, bookmark them in your internet browser such as Safari, or use any RSS reader. Some popular RSS readers for tracking your feeds include Google Reader, Feed Demon for Windows, and NetNewsWire for your Mac.

Once you've added your client to a project, you can begin collaborating and getting things done using Projecturf. You can easily calendar upcoming meetings and events, share and collaborate on ideas related to the project using whiteboards, set budgets and track hours and expenses against the budget, create discussions with clients to keep all project related communication in one place, share files and keep track of the latest versions, assign tasks and set due dates, share project schedules, and much more. If you are a designer and need to showcase your work to a client, you can use the Designs section which nicely lays out all your designs in a thumbnail gallery. Clients and co-workers can preview the designs inline, rate them on a five star scale, add comments and feedback, and approve them right in Projecturf.

Projecturf will keep you and your clients up to speed on all the moving parts of your projects at all times. By using the email alerts, you will always get notified of any new items or changes made to your projects. You can also track progress and updates by using the activity dashboards, RSS feeds, and Daily Progress Report emails.

Navigating Projecturf is quick and easy for your clients. They can click any section to quickly access the data they need and to add new items. Lists can be filtered and sorted with only one or two clicks to instantly find what they're looking for. Clients can also use the built in search tool to find items quickly. Also, when your clients receive email notifications, clicking the link in the email will take them directly to that specific item in Projecturf so they can immediately see it and respond if necessary or even reply via email. Visit this previous blog post to learn more about the benefits of the Projecturf user interface.

When viewing your task lists, you can use the built-in filters to view tasks by person and to view incomplete or completed tasks. You can also use the quick sorting options to see them in the order you prefer as described here. These filters and sorting options let you quickly see the tasks that are due today, tasks that were completed, and the tasks that have upcoming deadlines for each person on the project.

You can also view and track the task lists across all projects from the Global Tasks section. If you want to see the overall workloads for each person, the Reports section includes a Global Task Assignment report for easily managing resources.

Another useful tool to get a quick overview of all tasks on your project is the Project Completion Report, which displays the status of every task and subtask (overdue tasks are also shown in red here), the due date, duration, who's responsible, and % complete. This report can be filtered and sorted based on your preferences. Visit this previous blog post to learn more about using the Project Completion Report in your project management tool.

The Address Book is a great way to store your contacts and organize them into groups. This allows you to upload and store as many contacts as you'd like in your Address Book without emailing them all at once and also gives you the flexibility to send out registration emails only to users you will invite to a project.

You can also add users to the project from the Contacts section in the project. Adding someone in the Contacts section will send out the registration email as well.

To learn more about adding users to your project management application, we have outlined this topic in greater detail in the help center. If you prefer video tutorials you can watch the Getting Started video here.

You can easily view data based on your preferences. A simple and useful tool to quickly view your project data in the order you wish to see it in is sorting. Most of the sections in Projecturf include column headings and you can click any heading to sort. For example, if you want to see a task list across all your projects sorted based on when they are due, just click the end date column heading for a quick sort from the Global Tasks section. You can also apply filters before sorting to refine your results. For instance, you can choose filters to show a specific user's tasks and only their unfinished tasks. After applying your filters, simply click a column heading to sort the data. You can also print your lists from your web browser.

The same sorting capabilities apply in the other sections of your project management app such as Timecards, Tickets, Documents, and Whiteboards. Each section in Projecturf has it's own custom column headings based on the relevant functionality for that section. As an example, in the Timecard section you can sort by amount to view the largest entries first or vice versa. This makes it easy to find what you need when you are tracking progress and jumping between projects and sections.

Once the timer has been started, it will remain running even if you jump between sections and projects. The timer icon will always be shown on the left side of the project tab when you have an active timer running in a project and you can run multiple timers at the same time. The timer will continue running until you pause or reload it, even if you logout of your account.

You can easily add your recorded time to a project by clicking the plus button and choosing Grab From Timer from within the Timecard section.

If you wish to add time to a task or ticket, just do a quick search for your task / ticket when entering your time and select it. Once your time is added, the dollars are automatically calculated for you based on your hourly rate. Hours and dollars entered as billable are tracked against the project budget at the bottom of the Timecard section (this is only viewable by project managers). Project managers can see everyone's timecard entries whereas staff members and clients can only view their own. You can learn more about the time tracking capabilities in the Projecturf support center.

In our initial design, we placed the toggle arrow on the inside (to the right) of the checkbox in the tasks section. The arrow allows you to expand and collapse the subtasks that are connected to the parent task, and if no subtasks exist, the arrow simply is not displayed. The mere presence of the arrow indicates that the task has additional items connected to it. The checkbox, in contrast, will exist on every single task on the screen, which allows you to mark the item complete. Given that the checkbox always exists, we initially thought it made sense to have it be the first item on the left. But after we started building the screen and testing it out, we realized this was a mistake that we had to fix.

Something about its placement felt strange. This led to doing some research and we used a computer OS as the foundation of our decision. What we found was that both MAC and Windows placed the arrow to the outside of any additional elements, such as folders or icons. The arrow was always on the far left. When we flipped it's position in our design, it naturally felt odd. This resulted in us moving the arrow to the outside of all elements, whether it's a checkbox or an icon (as you'd find in Documents), and it now feels natural and easy. You no longer think about it; you just intuitively use it.

There is something to be said for familiarity when it comes to interface design. The simple fact that the user is already familiar with how toggling works because they use this functionality on computers already allows us to position our element in the same fashion; essentially eliminating confusion. If the user has to stop and think about something like a toggle arrow (either consciously or subconsciously), we've complicated the experience. Therefore, it's extremely important to consider how a user will inherently perceive the elements in your UI as you are designing them. This is the level of detail of superior interfaces, and that we constantly strive to achieve.

When adding new items in the other sections of your projects such as Documents and Discussions, you simply select who gets access to it. In these sections there isn't a need for a make private option since you're not assigning items to people. Therefore, anyone that isn't granted permission won't be able to see it since they are automatically private. Visit the Projecturf support center to learn more about marking items private.

So, how do you quickly adopt Projecturf into your workflow?

1. Create a Project
2. Add People to the Project
3. Get Things Done

That's it! To start getting organized and collaborating on projects, simply assign users to projects so they can begin utilizing all the tools such as Calendars, Tasks, Documents, and Whiteboards. This will help quickly get you and your team on track and focused on getting things done. You can also customize your account with your logo and colors, make changes to the project settings such as setting a due date for the project, and set permissions from the project settings for each of the user types.

We also offer instructional videos and documentation including a full support center, a demo video, training videos, and an infographic explaining how permissions work. The support center covers all sections and offers screenshots with each topic. I've also included several training videos for those who prefer videos over reading about a specific topic. The getting started page includes step-by-step instructions on setting up your account and creating new projects. The links are below.

• View the demo video of all major capabilities here on the Projecturf Homepage
• Here are the step-by-step instructions on how to get started (includes a video tutorial)
• View video tutorials on several important features
• Search for any topic in our support center here
• View and Print the Permissions Infographic

You can also learn more about how to easily navigate the Projecturf User Interface here. Questions, comments, and feedback are welcome. We are always available via email.

Early this year, some of you may have started to experience slower response times in our application. This slowness is a result of the growth in our user base and traffic, some hardware issues, and to a large extent, our database. We have been focused intensely on this issue and have made serious headway as of today. Our database has been upgraded to an enterprise-level Oracle database and the majority of our procedures have been completely rewritten from scratch. In our testing thus far, in some instances, we are seeing speed increases upwards of 20 times faster than the current application. This, obviously, is a drastic and very important update that we will be rolling out shortly.

This has, unfortunately, stalled our progress with a couple of other projects that are very important to me and our company. These projects include our iPhone app and our API. The good news, however, is that while we have been focusing on the new database, we have been essentially finishing the API at the same time. This does not mean that our API will roll out in conjunction with the speed update, but it does mean that it will be coming shortly afterwards. In addition, the database updates have allowed us to work in a single sign-on approach. This will give many of you the ability to use one email address to sign into Projecturf where you can then access all the various systems and client accounts you work in. This is another big update that I know many of you are waiting for. These two updates should drastically improve your work efficiency.

In short, our aim is to roll out the new speed improvements as soon as we can in the next few weeks and then follow that up with single sign-on ability. After that, we are going to publish the beta version of our API followed by our iPhone app. We are striving to have all these items for summer.

I also wanted to share with you a little bit about our evolution as a product. I will discuss this in more detail in future posts, but needless to say we have been working on the next generation of our app. We started this process last year and it is starting to really ramp up. It's a little too early to share screenshots or other details, but over the next couple of months I will be discussing it more here, on our blog. We have some very exciting things in the works.

There's a lot we're working on this year to make your Projecturf life better. Follow me on Twitter and check our blog often. I am going to start discussing some of the interface challenges and resolutions we work though on a regular basis and will be providing insights and hints as to what you can expect out of Projecturf 4.

Adding and sharing code snippets is just as easy as sharing bookmarks and is a useful tool for developers. You can copy and paste code from any programming languages directly into your project. To add your code, navigate to the Tickets section of your project and click the "+" button next to code snippets. Simply give it a name, select a language, and paste in your code. You can open the code at any time by clicking on the name you gave it. This is shared with everyone on a project and is also added into the Global Tickets section for quickly accessing code snippets for any projects. Visit our support center to learn more about uploading and sharing code snippets.

To duplicate a project, simply select an existing project from the Choose Template drop down menu when adding a new project. Set a start date and give your new project a name. You can learn more about how project templates work by clicking here. Now get started on your project with all your tasks, subtasks, document folders, contacts, and project settings pre-populated!

If a document or design has already been uploaded, you can start a discussion about it from the Discussions section. After you click to add a new discussion, change the type to Document or Design and then select the file name from the drop-down menu. From there, you can set permissions and send email notifications of your new discussion.

Also, if you don't need to use the Designs section on a project, it can be turned off in the project settings.

Before exporting the data, you can set filters to specify your desired output. You can filter the entries by author, billable or non-billable, the time period, and paid or unpaid items. Once filtered, simply click the export icon and it will begin downloading to your computer as a CSV file based on the filters you set. The exported data will show all information including the notes and name of the project associated with each entry. Exporting timecards is available at the project and global level.

This is very handy if you need the data in excel or wish to import it into another software program such as Quickbooks.

• View by contact
• View by project
• View by project, expanded
• View by contact, expanded

These views were added as an additional filter and therefore you can still filter by a specific contact first. The first two options above display a summary by contact or project, whereas the ones which say "expanded" show the summary followed by the break out of the hours and fees for each project by user (as shown below) or the break out of the hours and fees for each user by project.

With these new enhancements, you can quickly see which projects and contacts have the most hours and fees logged and which projects need updating or are not as involved yet. This update was a direct result of feedback received by you. You can submit ideas or vote on existing requests from the suggestion forum.

When viewing the report, only project managers can see everyone's timecard entries on a project. Basic users can only see their own entries.

Also, If you need to have a discussion about the file or have someone update it, you can collaborate on it by starting a discussion when adding the document. This can also be done from the Discussions section and users can reply quickly via email.

This report has various sorting options for easily getting your desired output and also includes basic project statistics such as percent complete of the entire project and the overall status of your tasks. By having this information at your fingertips, you can monitor your projects, provide clients or co-workers with a status report, follow up on incomplete or late tasks, and shift responsibilities based on workloads. The Project Completion Report is a very useful tool which helps you stay focused on getting things done.

With the whiteboard open, simply hover over the collaborators icon on the top right and you will see who has access to it. Any users that are granted permission to the whiteboard are able to view and make edits to it. Access is easily granted by checking off names when creating or modifying the whiteboard.

Whiteboards are a simple and effective way to create lists, share ideas, develop a plan of action, organize project related data, collaborate with multiple users, and much more. Instead of emailing files around to several people and manually consolidating inputs, use the Whiteboards section to centralize, store, and collaborate. To learn about using Whiteboards with Projecturf, visit our support center.

You can use the Ticket Response report to view response times for each user. This report shows the number of open and closed tickets along with the average response times by user. This is great way to see how quickly bugs are solved and the remaining workload for each person. The report can be filtered and sorted based on your preferences and also includes average response times for the entire project. Below is a partial screenshot of an example.

Since each project can be customized, this section can be hidden from any or all users on the project. To learn more about additional features available in the Tickets section such as bookmarking sites and storing and sharing code snippets, click here to visit our support center.

Here are some key components of the User Interface that differentiate Projecturf and make managing your projects simple:

• The Global section stays pinned on the left side to easily access it at any time. By clicking the Global tab, you will see data across all your projects and remain in the same section you were previously viewing in your project. You can also click your logo on the top left at any time to enter the Projects page.

• Pin up to 6 different project tabs to quickly jump back and forth between your projects. Drag and drop project tabs into any order you prefer. The selected project tab will be highlighted and you can close project tabs by clicking the "x" button on the tab. Quickly enter the project settings by clicking on the settings icon on the open project tab.

• Use the "+" button on top right of the main navigation bar to quickly add a new item from any page. The plus button is used in all project sections to add new data.

• Action panels are used throughout the app in all the project sections for changing or removing data. This was designed for consistency across sections, ease of use, and to unclutter data rows with lots of icons.

• Each project section is easily identified by the custom icons at the top of the page. Simply click an icon to enter a project section. Sections and functionality can be turned off in the Project Settings page for any user or for all users on the project.

• Find any data quickly using the gray filter bar or click the magnifying glass to search the project or section. Most sections such as Tasks and Tickets are laid out as simple lists that can be sorted or filtered to instantly access your critical project information. You can also sort the data by using the column headings right above your data.

• Projecturf is professional looking and fully customizable. You can set the background color, upload and crop your logo, set the navigation colors, create a unique subdomain, and also customize the colors for the Gantt charts and calendars.

• Projecturf deploys the latest web technologies such as jQuery and Ajax for a fast and efficient experience. To speed up your work, you can also use drag and drop to move and resize tasks and events on the calendar or the custom Gantt charts. Drag and drop is also utilized in other areas to make quick updates or changes. Contacts are dragged to create groups and project tabs can be moved quickly with drag and drop as well.

The UI is a top priority for us in order to create the best possible experience for our users. This results in a user-friendly and polished application which is easily adaptable into your workflow, without sacrificing features or functionality. Clients and employees will learn how to navigate and fully utilize Projecturf in minutes.

However, we also offer the option to turn off HTML emails if you still wish to receive them in plain text. This can be done by going to the account section as described here.

The new email enhancements were a direct result of feedback from you. You can continue to share new ideas or vote on existing ones by visiting our suggestion forum.

The Daily Progress Report is a nicely formatted HTML email displaying your new and completed tasks and tickets, overdue tasks, and upcoming events and tasks. Now you will be notified of what's due within the next week, upcoming meetings, and which items have been completed. You'll also see when new tasks or tickets are added and who created them. These emails will only show items based on your individual permissions. System admin will see these changes to all projects regardless of whether or not they are assigned to the project. I've included a partial screenshot here with an example of what the report looks like.

Now you have all your project updates available in one simple email. Having this information at your fingertips will ultimately results in greater productivity across project teams, easier communication, and quicker decision making. Everyone on the team will stay informed as each project progresses. To learn more about the Daily Progress Reports, visit the support center by clicking here.

Another enhancement just released is the ability to quickly filter the Timecards by date. This option is available from the global and project Timecard sections. You can easily view costs for a particular month or week and export the data based on the filters you set. To view a specific time period, click the filter option on the gray bar and select the date range.

These features were a direct result of feedback we received on our suggestion forum.

To learn more about how the new drag and drop Gantt charts work, watch this short video tutorial:

1. When logged into your account, hover over your name on the top right of the screen and click Account
2. Under Subscription Details - Subscription, click on Modify Subscription
3. Select the plan you want and click on the drop-down menu for Type and change it to Annual.
4. Click Continue and complete the remaining steps to confirm.

You have now received your one month discount and will not be charged again for 12 months when your account renews.

• Drag and drop Gantt chart that allows you to move and resize your tasks and subtasks to update your timelines quickly. This is available at both the Global level across all your projects and the project level.
• Apply colors to the Gantt charts to easily decipher between projects on the Global Gantt chart when updating your project schedules.
• Add expenses to your Timecard. You can also associate fixed expenses with a task or ticket and track to your budgets.
• Filter timecards based on selected dates to quickly view a specific week, month, etc. and export them based on the applied filters.
• Sync all your tasks and subtasks to any popular calendar application. Simply check a box and the feed will automatically generate.
• Receive a daily digest email in HTML format of all new, completed, and upcoming tasks, tickets, and events.
• Receive nicely formatted HTML emails for all your notifications and discussions. HTML emails can also be turned off if you wish to receive plain text emails.
• Get notified of Projecturf updates, news, features, and blog posts when logged in. This can be turned on and off in the account section.

These new features and enhancements were a direct result of feedback from you. Share ideas and vote on existing suggestions here: Projecturf suggestion box. To learn more about the Gantt chart and task syncing, visit the support center. We have also added a video tutorial of the Gantt chart for those who prefer video over text.

Additional customization options allow you to change the project status, set a color for each project, customize email notifications, and more.

To view workloads for a specific time frame, set the dates at the top of the report and click update. You can also easily sort based on preference, such as who has the highest number of overdue tasks or who has the most tasks to complete over a given time period. This provides a simple way to plan your projects and assign tasks based on user workloads. The Task Assignment report is available at both the global and project level.

You can also enter the settings page from the Projects page using the actions panel to the right of the project name. This enhancement was a direct result of your feedback. To vote on ideas or request new functionality, visit our suggestion forum here.

Website Redesign

We also redesigned our website and released it to the public on Friday, July 1st. The streamlined design offers a quick overview of our plans and simple sign up as well as a video demo of version 3.0, which is included on the Projecturf homepage. This new custom blog is also a major part of the release and provides a sleek design and quick navigation, which we have transitioned over from Wordpress.

We have also updated the calendar to include your project start and end dates. Due dates can be set from the Project Settings page and start dates are set when creating a new project. Along with showing on the Global Dashboard, the project dates are now displayed on the global and project calendars.

To notify you if a project is overdue, it will show up in red on the dashboard when past the due date. These project management tools will enhance your project visibility and tracking.

To add and share a Vimeo or Youtube video in your project management software, copy the URL from the address bar on the video webpage and paste it into the link field when adding a new document in Projecturf. This feature allows you to easily integrate with Vimeo and Youtube for sharing and viewing videos inline while utilizing all of Projecturf's capabilities. For step by step instructions, please visit our Support Center for this feature. This new enhancement was a direct result of feedback from our customers. To submit your ideas and vote on existing suggestions, click here.

This enhancement provides a fast and efficient way to view designs in your project management system.

In addition to the color, you will also see the project name to the right of the event description in parenthesis. Both of these features allow you to quickly and easily differentiate between different projects in your web-based project management application.

This feature was a direct result of your feedback. To share your ideas or vote on existing requests, visit the suggestion forum.

This usability enhancement is available in all project sections such as the Tasks, Calendar, and Document sections - to name a few. To free up more of your time and focus on getting things done, visit Projecturf here.

• Edit event names, change dates and time, and update attendees from the Global Calendar
• Use drag and drop from the Global Calendar to change event and task dates and duration
• Edit task descriptions, dates, and responsibility from the Global Tasks section
• Enter timecard entries, mark tasks complete, include notes, and add subtasks from the Global Tasks section
• Edit timecard descriptions and notes, change rates and dates, and mark items paid from the Global Timecard section
• Add time entries and notes to tickets from the Global Tickets section
• Edit ticket categories, descriptions, priority, responsibility, and upload screenshots from the Global Tickets section

Additionally, if you wish to quickly drill down into a specific item such as a task, just click on the task from the Global Calendar or Global Tasks section and it will filter to that project and task. These new features were a result of customer feedback. To share ideas for your project management application and cast votes on existing requests, go to the Projecturf suggestion forum.

The latest UI enhancements provide more vertical space resulting in less scrolling, inline panels for visibility of your project data when adding items, quick search feature available in most sections, viewing active timers from anywhere, an uncluttered and user-centric layout, and quicker navigation throughout your project management software.

Default permission can also be set at the Global level by admins, which is very helpful when using the same permission settings for each project. The permissions can always be further modified at the project level. If you want to learn more about how permissions work with your web-based project management software, visit the support center by clicking here.

We have also created an infographic which nicely outlines the various roles and permissions and works as a great reference guide, and can also be printed.

Learn more about syncing to iCal, Google Calendar, Outlook, and Mozilla by visiting our help center instructions on calendar syncing. This online project management feature was added due to overwhelming customer feedback. To share your ideas and cast votes on existing requests, go to the Projecturf suggestion forum.

Another benefit of version 3.0 is the ability to search for a task or ticket when adding a new timecard entry from the Timecard section. Use the search field to find what you are looking for and the results will auto-filter and appear in the box below. Simply check off the task or ticket you want to associate your time with and it will link the entry to that task.

These new enhancements provide necessary flexibility and make adding time in your project management application much quicker.

This online project management feature was implemented as a result of multiple customer requests. To share your requests and cast your vote, visit the Projecturf suggestion forum.

Here is a list of several new features and functionality added in version 3.0:

• New User Interface which includes brand new icons resulting in a more modern look and feel, reduced vertical space for less scrolling, inline panels for better visibility when adding items, custom navigation colors, and a simplified layout.
• Advanced user permissions that allow you to set custom project level permissions for managers, staff, and clients. This includes hiding sections and setting read / write or view only access to each section.
• Custom subdomains have been added and therefore your new login address is: yourname.projecturf.com instead of projecturf.com/account/yourname
• Add multiple items at once by clicking add another in the add new panels to quickly enter any items. Available in all project sections.
• Pin up to 6 project tabs to the top of the navigation bar to easily navigate between projects similar to how internet browsers function.
• Drag and drop project tabs to order them based on your priorities.
• View all active timers from any section in the project and also with an icon on the project tabs.
• Run multiple timers at the same time.
• Set Global Calendar colors for each project from the project settings page.
• Add time to tasks and tickets directly from the task / ticket itself by clicking on the timer icon and entering your time.
• Quickly search for tasks and tickets when adding a new timecard. The results will auto-filter.
• View who has posted a ticket
• New support center with FAQ's, instructions on how to use each section, and more.
• Drag and drop calendar items from the Global Calendar while viewing all project schedules in one place
• Use the Global sections to make edits, add timecard entries and notes, and update task, ticket, and timecard entries
• Upgraded servers to add speed enhancements throughout the application which reduces page loading times
• You can now turn SSL security off if you'd like additional speed improvements

We're very excited about sharing Projecturf 3.0 with you and we hope you enjoy the new version and all Projecturf has to offer! We will be describing each of the new project management software features in more details over the coming weeks so stay tuned.

Lightrhythm Visuals LTD is a Design firm that is using Projecturf to easily manage their projects and keep their staff motivated. CEO Ben Sheppee describes why he loves using Projecturf. You can learn more about Lightrhythm Visuals by visiting http://lightrhythmvisuals.com.

What problems/challenges were you facing that prompted your company to look for a new project management tool?
In the past we had a lot of troubles getting staff and clients to use online project managment software - I think this is really because it just looked so boring and drab and they saw it as another boring task to do. So Projecturf worked for us because its interfacing was nicely laid out and attractive to use - just has a better sense of design - and as we are based in visual media - that's really important with who we work with and motivating our staff to use the system.

What other project management tools did you review? Why didn't you select them?
We used r.project for a while and basecamp - both of which were clunky in layout and akward to manage. They were also missing vital features that Projecturf offered such as Gantt Charts (missing in basecamp) and reports (in r.dot project).

What types of tools/features did your company specifically require for your project management needs?
Gantt Charts were a must, but we really like and utilize the Designs Module which works wonders for us to present and get feedback from clients

What specifically did Projecturf bring to the table that made it the right solution for your company/organization?
Projecturf is visually attractive - I felt much more confident inviting clients to this interface.

How has Projecturf been received by your employees to date?
Everybody on the team is now interested in getting organized - its amazing

Business benefit/bottom line results from implementing Projecturf at your company/organization?
Better communication between staff and with clients over the overall workflow.

Why would you recommend other organizations use Projecturf?
Because it motivates staff to actually get organized and specifically for us it engages the clients into the creative process.

• Projecturf Redesign
• New Timer
• Open Multiple Projects
• Custom Permissions
• Enhanced Support Center

Version 3.0 is scheduled for official release before the end of April. We've already shared some of the new project management software features that are coming in the previous posts and the rest will be discussed when we launch. Stay Tuned!

This next release is a major update and will be available to all users. We've been adding new features and improvements along the way and have a lot in store for you! More to come on the new project management software features and enhancements - we plan to release this update in a few weeks and will provide an overview on all the new features at that time.

We've also designed a slick infographic on the new permissions that can be downloaded or printed for quick reference. This new help center makes it easy to find answers about your project management tool. Much more to come...stay tuned!

You can also set active timers on multiple projects at the same time. When you start the timer an icon will appear in the project tab to remind you that you that it's active if you navigate to another project. This project management software usability enhancement will provide important functionality to better manage your time to get things done.

What problems/challenges were you facing that prompted your company to look for a new project management tool?
In previous tools we were not seeing the flexibility of charts and time based entries and post planning that is offered by many desktop suites but not on the web. Our old web based system had become simply a digital time card without much use in planning projects.

If you didn’t have a project management solution in place, what methods did you use prior to selecting Projecturf?
A whiteboard and Daily Task sheets.

What other project management tools did you review? Why didn't you select them?
Basecamp - worked pretty well but all we used it for was time entry. Microsoft Project - it was great but not useable over the internet and therefore very difficult for our sales guys on the road to check in on projects.

What types of tools/features did your company specifically require for your project management needs?
Task/Subtask Planning
Time Entry
Resource Management
Exportability of Information
Clean/Easy to Use interface that was easy to learn.

What specifically did Projecturf bring to the table that made it the right solution for your company?
The ability to generate detailed reports and have resource management information such as charts available with the task planning.

How has Projecturf been received by your employees to date?
Our manager loves it; they don't worry about losing 'time' anymore; and our sales reps love being able to update clients on progress and use report information to estimate production load on our teams before agreeing to hard deadlines.

Business benefit/bottom line results from implementing Projecturf at your company?
Projecturf allows us to accurately plan a project as well as get post project information. This process saves us at least 5 administrative hours per project. In the saved time we have project breakdowns to see where we could have improved, based on the charting information provided by projecturf. Projecturf increases our efficiency by a factor of 5, allowing us to communicate, stay on track, and never feel lost.

Why would you recommend other organizations use Projecturf?
Its a great piece of software that is easy to use, looks great, and gives companies instant progress statistics. Projecturf also does a good job listening to users and implementing new features.

• New User Interface: a major redesign which enhances usability, adds customization options and new functionality, streamlines your workflow, and improves consistency across sections. And of course it will retain the distinct look and feel you've become accustomed to with Projecturf.
• New Permissions: you will be able to customize different types of user access for each project section as well as hide individual sections. The permissions are going to be part of the new UI and therefore will be released in conjunction with this update.
• Subdomains: your accounts will receive a unique subdomain instead of the custom URL for accessing your project management software.
• Speed Enhancements: hardware and software updates that will substantially enhance overall performance and improve page loading times.

There will be more details provided about these features and enhancements when they become available. We also have a lot of new features planned immediately following this release. You can continue to share your ideas and vote on your favorite suggestions on the request forum. More to come!

1. Download the software here: Prism by Mozilla Labs
2. Open the application and type in the following URL followed by your unique Projecturf web address (in bold): https://UniqueWebAddress.projecturf.com
3. Fill in Projecturf for the name and choose which settings you want
4. Create shortcuts to your Desktop or Applications Folder if you are using a Mac. If you are on a PC you can create shortcuts on your Desktop, in your Start Menu, and in your Quick Launch Bar.
   
   
5. Save this icon locally and select it in the "Icon" section:

Prism provides an easy solution for running your project management tool off your desktop and only takes a couple of minutes to set up.

This project management application update also includes new speed enhancements for better overall performance. More details to follow...Stay Tuned!

We have added custom icons for Dropbox links in order to quickly identify them as displayed here:

Here are simple instructions on how to enable sharing and copy the link from your Dropbox account: How do I share a link to a file in my Dropbox folder?

To enter the Dropbox link in Projecturf, go to the project Documents section and click "+ Add New Document." Next, click on the text to the right of the Select File button and paste in your link. You can also add it to a document folder, create a folder, add a message, and set permissions at the same time.

Enhance your online project management workflow with this easy-to-use integration feature.

A screen will drop down with the link to your calendar as seen here:

Copy and paste the link into a calendar reader and it will automatically update as you add and make changes to your Projecturf events. Here's an example on how to subscribe to a calendar feed in iCal:

Start by selecting Calendar->Subscribe from the top menu bar. Then paste in the Projecturf Calendar URL from above and click Subscribe. It will immediately auto populate all of your events - it really is that easy!

Use this new online project management feature to stay informed and to get things done quickly. Calendar syncing had the most votes on the suggestion forum and therefore was a direct result of your requests!

There are many new features planned in the coming months so stay tuned!

• Sync your events to any popular calendar program such as iCal, Google, or Outlook.
• Link to Box.net and Dropbox.com files or folders from the documents section. Simple integration that allows you to set permissions, collaborate, and share files with leading cloud hosting services.
• User-Interface improvements included removing buttons and consolidating them into action panels throughout the entire application for consistency and ease-of-use.
• Enhanced page loading times that significantly speed up the app when navigating or adding/editing items
• Added a privacy icon to identify records that are marked private
• New address book panel allows you to view all projects a contact is associated with
• Ability to remove contacts from all projects when deleting them from your address book

This project management software upgrade enhances workflow and adds flexibility for quickly and easily getting things done.

• Graying out tasks until the task should start
• Sending email notifications when the dependent task starts (when the predecessor is marked complete)
• Automatically shifting dates for dependent tasks when the predecessor task date shifts
• Allow subtasks to be dependent on another subtask or the main task
• Allow tasks to be dependent on another task

For those of you who think this feature is important, please share your thoughts in the comments section of this post and your requests will be given serious consideration as we develop this feature. We appreciate all your feedback and look forward to your responses!

The Projecturf calendar is an easy to use visual for rearranging your project timelines via drag and drop. This prevents you from changing the dates on each task individually as your deadlines start shifting. Simply click and hold on the item you wish to change and move it to another day on the calendar. The dates will update automatically as you move them around.

Realizing that project plans and timelines frequently shift, we have also included the functionality to extend or shorten your tasks and events on the calendar. To modify the duration, move your cursor to the right side of the task or event and your cursor will change into a right pointing arrow as shown below. Just click and hold to drag across your new dates. It’s that simple!

This project management software feature provides a visually appealing and easy-to-use scheduling platform to update your projects. You will save a significant amount of time revising plans and still remain focused on getting things done.

We'll provide more information about these project management software features and enhancements in the next week or two when we release them. Stay Tuned!

Version 2.0 was based heavily on customer feedback and we continue to enhance Projecturf by listening to customer requests. Shortly after the version 2.0 release, we began working on ways to improve the flexibility and add even more features. This included a highly requested custom-built Javascript Gantt Chart, project budgeting, and repeat calendar events - to name a few. We've also added a request forum to make it easy for users to add new ideas and cast their votes.

Similar to 2010, we have several big launches planned for 2011 and have a ton of new ideas that will enhance productivity and simplify project management. Our product development roadmap includes many of the popular features voted on by our customers as well as a number of new and unique ideas that will help you get things done quickly. Much more to come... Stay tuned for all the major improvements and updates in 2011!

You no longer need to login through a browser or open a new tab in your browser. If you have multiple browser windows open, having this app eliminates clicking tabs and searching since it's a separate program running on your computer. It's simple, quick, and efficient. This is an excellent tool that makes accessing Projecturf fast and effortless. Best of all, it's free to download and install. I guarantee you'll love using it.  I'm going to provide very simple instructions on how to download and use the Fluid app with Projecturf.  It will only take a few minutes and I've included a custom Projecturf icon to use as well. Just follow these steps here:

1. Click this image to Download the Projecturf icon and save it locally
   
   
2. Visit Fluid and click Free Download on the right side of the homepage
3. On the "Create a Site Specific Browser" screen that appears when opened, type in the following URL followed by your unique Projecturf web address (in bold):  https://www.projecturf.com/account/UniqueWebAddress
4. Type in the name Projecturf, select the location where you want to save it, and click other on the icon drop-down menu to choose the icon you already downloaded and saved from #1 above
   
   
5. Click Create and then "Reveal in Finder." Next simply drag and drop it into your Dock from Finder
6. Click on the new icon in your Dock to launch the program, then go to Preferences>Advanced. Double click in an empty cell and add *projecturf.com/account*, hit enter and close the Preferences screen.
   
   
7. Enjoy your new desktop application for Projecturf

You now have the custom Projecturf icon in your Dock and quick access anytime! Also, the login screen will always show your company name and logo if you followed the steps above. Please note that Fluid will only work with your online project management account on a Mac.

Your changes will automatically appear on the Hours and Fees report and also show up on the CSV file when you download the timecards. This web based project management feature provides additional flexibility that you have requested on our suggestion forum.

In addition to these changes, there is a new option for freelancers with 5 projects for only $19.99. The individual options still get all the features and unlimited users, however there is a limit on the storage space of 2GB. Also, in support of non-project organizations we are offering a 30% discount off your monthly subscription.

If you are an existing customer and you wish to take advantage of a the pricing, simply go to "My Account" and select "Modify Subscription." If you are a new customer, just choose the number of projects you need by clicking on the plus and minus signs on the signup page:

This project management software pricing update provides more options and flexibility to help you effectively manage your business. We don't charge for extra features like many other tools and therefore you only pay for what you need. To check out the new pricing options, click here.

What problems/challenges were you facing that prompted your company to look for a new project management tool?
As a national IT Helpdesk support company we handle hundreds of projects in a single year. We have always struggled with using multiple applications to handle our time management, project time lines and tasks management, project documentation, etc.

If you didn’t have a project management solution in place, what methods did you use prior to selecting Projecturf?
Because we didn't have a central project management in place we had to rely on using Microsoft Project Manager. This meant emailing our customers PDF documents of the project scope, emailing customers a separate Time Usage log, email documentation, keeping up with email messages, etc.

What other project management tools did you review? Why didn't you select them?
We searched and tested what seemed like hundreds of so-called project managers that were hard to learn for both our project managers and business customers, lacked a modern feel, did not offer all the features we needed and was not cost-effective in pricing and installation. We tested products like Quickbase.intuit, Clarizen, @task, Daptiv, Project insight, the list goes on.

Why did they not work? Outdated designs, hard to navigate, extensive learning curve. On some it took setting up a schedule time for someone to walk you through all the features to learn how to use them or to just setup the application.

What types of tools/features did your company specifically require for your project management needs?
First of all we needed online tools where all the features could be accessed by our project managers and our customers and we needed the WOW factor in ease of use with very little learning curve, say 15 minutes.

We needed task, subtask management, time management, document to project management, white board/discussion board designated to the project, access control, ticket support and calendar/scheduling control under one roof.

What specifically did Projecturf bring to the table that made it the right solution for your company/organization?
Low startup/maintenance cost
Extremely modern design
Central access to both our employees/Customers
15 minute learning curve
Go-live same day

How has Projecturf been received by your employees to date?
This has been the easiest support application we have transitioned to. Our employees love it.

Business benefit/bottom line results from implementing Projecturf at your company/organization?
Since the inception of Projecturf into our company we save on average 2 hours of paid wages per technician per day. We have technicians nation-wide so this can amount to a saving of $150 plus per day per technician. Projecturf has eliminated emailing documents, time cards, project notes to be added to the project by a project manager, setting up chat sessions, scheduling confirmations, etc.

What tools/features Projecturf are you using the most?
We have from the beginning started using all the tools within the Projecturf environment. But the Project>Task Manager, Calendar and Time Manager are our bread and butter.

Why would you recommend other organizations use Projecturf?
From that moment we have continued to receive WOWs and praises from our customer! Way to go Projecturf. We are a happy customer and proud to share our story!

Projecturf also applies filtering tags in the Timecard and Development sections to easily add and remove filters. If filtering by billable items as seen here, a tag will appear and you can click to remove the filter.

These new project management tool enhancements help streamline the workflow and make it much easier to view your project data.

When inputting a recurring event, it will automatically appear on each day it repeats and you can easily edit the event by clicking on any of them. If you simply click download event when you open it, you can add the recurring event to a web-based or local calendar such as Google or iCal. This online project management feature enhances the scheduling and tracking of events on all your projects.

This new project management software feature allows you to quickly enter budgets and will automatically populate the charts to show you where the project spending stands at any given time. You will instantly know if the amounts entered in the timecard section are in line with your budgets. This simple and highly effective tool was designed in an intuitive way to make managing budgets less cumbersome and to keep you focused on getting things done. We also added the ability to check off items that have been paid in a similar fashion to the tasks section by clicking the box on the far left of the timecard entry.

Additionally, you can see the full description of a task by hovering over the task on the far left. The chart is non-flash and therefore works on the Apple iPad and iPhone devices as well as in any modern browser.

The Projecturf Gantt chart is an easy-to-use tool for viewing project plans and resources and making important decisions for your businesses.

• Sleek and robust Gantt Chart built with the same Projecturf style you are used to. Simple to use and allows you to customize the chart at both the project and global levels.
• Repeat events on the Calendar that can be set weekly, monthly or annually.
• Set budgets and track them at the project level using a simple stats chart in the Timecards section
• Added filter tags which allows for having multiple filters and easily seeing what filters are applied.
• Ability to filter the Tasks and Calendar sections by person at both the global and project levels.
• Mark off items in the Timecard section that have been paid and filter by paid and unpaid items
• Date picker now starts on Monday if you select your Calendar week to begin on Mondays
• When clicking on any item from the Dashboard, Calendar, or global sections, it will now filter to only that item

These online project management features provide the necessary tools to quickly get things done and spend less time managing the app. This update will help you make important decisions easily, streamline your workflow, and allow for simple management of your budgets, schedules, timelines, and resources.

Additionally, we have already started on the next round of enhancements based off of your feedback, so stay tuned!

As seen here, we have also created a unique icon to quickly identify your Google docs.

There are several updates and features coming soon so stay tuned!

We added this enhancement based on customer feedback and to make it easy to set task dates on any copied projects within your project management tool.

The low priority setting was just added and is based on recent customer feedback from the suggestion forum. The icons for the priority settings are displayed on the far left of each item. Here is an example of the new low priority icon:

You can also quickly sort by priority by simply clicking on the exclamation mark in that column heading. This new project management software feature will help you easily prioritize your tasks and tickets.

This online project management calendar enhancement provides the necessary functionality in a clear, clean, and simple way.

Contact Groups: Use the advanced drag and drop functionality to create contact groups for quickly adding users to a project, for assigning users to a task or ticket, and setting permissions in any section. This is not only a big time saver when assigning tasks and tickets to pre-defined groups, but a great way to keep all your contacts organized.

Drag and Drop Calendar similar to iCal:  A full calendar for every project which includes your tasks, subtasks, and events. Simply drag and drop events or rearrange project plans quickly. You can view all your schedules from your project calendar and make adjustments on the fly.

Reply to discussions via email: Reply to notifications directly from your inbox and keep all your discussions centralized in one location. Use this section to quickly find old emails and archive past discussions.  You can also create discussions that are linked to specific designs and documents.

RSS Feeds / Email Notifications: Use the detailed RSS feeds to track all your project updates and choose to be notified via email of new project activity. You will be notified every time someone makes a change to a project or adds a new item.

Global Dashboard: Allows you to track all of your projects in a single location. Use reports for simple and clear summaries of your data and resources and view latest activity, calendars, tasks, bug tracking entries, timecards, and more across all your projects. Simplify your existing project plans and stay informed on all projects in one place.

Whiteboards: This section was added to allow users to create, edit, share, and collaborate on documents in Projecturf. It is similar to Google Docs and let's users set permissions, tack versions, and make edits using a custom inline editor. This eliminates emailing around files and asking others for updates. Keep all edits centralized and stay organized using this collaboration software tool.

Project Templates: The project templates allow you to use a set list of tasks, subtasks, and contacts for any new project. The dates from the your task list update automatically when you duplicate the project based on when the project is created. This is a great way to start a new project if you have similar tasks.

File Versioning: If you're like me, then you are constantly collaborating on different documents and making updates and changes to files. In the documents section, click the Actions button to upload a new version. It will always show the latest file along with all prior versions to keep track of the changes.

Approve and Rate Designs: These two features will make a big difference if you work a lot with clients or designers. Whoever is given permissions on a design can digitally approve them and also rate any design based on a 5 star scale. This removes many roadblocks to moving projects along and getting things done.

Project Completion Report: This is my favorite report because it gives you a full picture of your project at any point in time. You can customize the report based on any dates or specific users, it's nicely formatted to print, and the output displays tasks with subtasks, status, due date, who's responsible, and the percent complete.

These project tools are available on all of our Projecturf accounts for your online project management needs.

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This project management collaboration feature improves the online collaboration experience by saving you time and centralizing all of your project related discussions.

In the documents section, underneath the document name it will show how many people have approved the document and it also shows the names and dates in the tooltip when hovering your mouse over the approvers.

In addition, the approvals report now displays every approver on each design.

Many Design agencies and companies are using the approvals to streamline processes with clients and co-workers and also to track and organize them in one place.  Using the Designs section, you can set permissions, create discussions, preview designs inline, group designs by category, email them to others, present them in thumbnail format, and approve them.  This new web based project management feature will help simplify the process further while also adding important functionality for all users. Enjoy the new updates!

You can also use this feature to preview images from the documents sections.

Thanks for your suggestions!  Visit our forum to continue submitting requests and vote for upcoming features - www.projecturf.com/suggestions.

Simply choose one of the 7 color options in the Project Settings page and hit save.  Use colors to separate client projects, distinguish highest activity projects, create categories, differentiate specific types of projects, and more.

This theme was introduced so that the app could have a lighter feel for those who don't like darker sites as much. In addition, if your branding and logo would fit better on a white background, this is the theme for you.

Existing customers may not know about this option because you may already like your color theme and have it set. But if you check out the color swatches,  you'll now see this additional option. Once set, this also affects your custom login page as well.

We hope you enjoy all the new features of Projecturf version 2.0.

Important Notes

Since version 2.0 is such a massive overhaul, there are some things that our clients should understand. First, there are new sections and updates to other ones within the app, so some things have been migrated and moved. But rest assured, all your data is still there and safe, even though it may be formatted a little differently or put in a different place.

We would like you to be aware of a couple of things:

• All timezones have been set to Pacific Standard Time (PST) by default. We now offer full timezone support, so be sure to login to the app, go to My Account and under the Locations tab in My Information you will be able to set your individual timezone preference. You should do this first because it affects all time throughout the app including events on your calendar.
• Discussions were like a big thread before, but now have topics associated with them as a way of organizing them (which you're going to love!). However, old discussion comments are not categorized or organized very well right now. We're going to be addressing this over the next few weeks (we'll help clean up some of the old stuff, and all new stuff will be correct of course).
• You may notice that our gantt chart report is missing. Don't worry. It's coming back, very shortly. Hopefully it'll be back in a week or two at the latest.

With a upgrade this massive, you may encounter minor issues or bugs. Over the next several weeks we will continue to update the app and fix any bugs that arise. Please email us at support@projecturf.com if you find anything and we'll get to them as quick as we can.

Thank you for your patience and support. Enjoy version 2.0!

Please let us know if you experience any problems. Thanks for the support!

Projecturf 2.0 to Redefine On-Demand Project Management Software with More Than 60 New Features and Enhancements

Projecturf Version 2.0 has been developed using the latest technology and includes a streamlined workflow, an enhanced interface, and over 60 new features and enhancements.  As always, these updates coincide with our vision for simple, straightforward, and easy-to-use software.  Our intent is to provide tools for users to spend more work time getting stuff done and less time setting up and managing the application.

We are a customer-centric company and all customer requests receive serious consideration. Thank you for your feedback and feature requests. We are working diligently on the new and improved version of Projecturf due out later this year. All existing customers will receive a free upgrade to version 2.0!

The reason for this update is that IE6 is a very old browser that does not support many of the latest technologies and programming languages we're using to maintain and build additional features in Projecturf. This change will give us the opportunity to provide all users with the best possible product.  We realize some IT departments are very strict with regards to upgrading browsers, but we can no longer support IE6 and continue to develop a next-generation product.

Here are some links to the latest versions of popular browsers to use as replacement or upgrades:
Internet Explorer
Firefox
Safari

The first thing before a project starts typically involves setting some structure around deliverables and requirements.  Usually you'll see project components change direction mid-course, but the initial setup is a critical step in order to meet the end goal for customers, clients, and co-workers. Using Projecturf, simply set up contacts in both the Address Book and Contacts page of a project, and then begin communicating from the Discussions section. Here is a good starting point for any project from Leo Babauta:

1) Clearly defined outcome. Before you even start on the project, you should work with the client to get a clear picture of the desired outcome of the project. Often, the client doesn’t even have a clear picture. But neglecting this step will lead to delays and frustrations down the line. You can communicate through phone, email, or in person, but however you do it, be sure to ask questions to clarify what the client wants, make suggestions, and get a clear picture in your head that shows you how the project will look when it’s done (of course, “look” is a term used loosely here — if the project isn’t visual, you should still have a clear picture in your mind). Once you’ve gone through this process, and have a good idea of the outcome, restate it back to the client to get his or her agreement. Now you have a clear target to shoot at.

Projecturf can be used for entire team collaboration, including discussing different topics on multiple projects. For an overview of each project, we create briefs within the Projecturf dashboard that explain the overall goals of that project. This is critical when working with clients on a project as well.

2) Set up the process. Once the outcome is clearly defined, talk to the client about the process — how you’ll work with him to manage the project. If it’s a simple project that can be done in a day, this step isn’t necessary — you can just do the project and turn it in, and revise it if the client wants revisions. But a longer-term project will require some kind of timeline and communication process, and you’ll want to be clear about this with the client. The following process is recommended, and it’s at this step that it should be communicated. A detailed timeline, however, isn’t recommended — it can be done if the client insists upon it, but detailed timelines have a tendency to fall apart after a week or two, so it should be clear that it’s a flexible timeline.

Projecturf can be used for simple to-do's on projects, and to set important milestones to provide clear direction for everyone and help the team prioritize. The master calendar is very useful because it lets the user know what important due dates are across all projects.

3) Focus on the next action. Instead of having a step-by-step process outlined, with deadlines given to each step of the project, tell your client you want to focus on one step at a time. Now, tell the client the next step required to move the project forward (or in this case, the first step), and set a deadline for submitting that to the client. Don’t worry too much about all the other steps needed to finish the project — you’re just going to focus on the next one. That will reduce the intimidating/overwhelming aspect of a large project — just focus on one step at a time. Make sure that’s a step that can be completed in a day or less. One to three hours is ideal. If it can’t be done in less than a day, break it down into smaller steps.

Using Projecturf, you can break milestones into steps using simple tasks. There is no need for cumbersome gantt charts and spending several days setting up dependencies either. Projecturf allows users to enter tasks quickly, and they can be checked off the list once completed. This is a fast and simple way to get things done.

4) Send it to your client. Once you’ve completed that first step, send it to the client within the deadline you set up. This will show the client you’re moving along, and keep you accountable. If you don’t have to turn in a project until it’s completed, there’s no one to know that you’re procrastinating until the very end, when you cram to get it finished on time (and possibly bust deadline). But if you send each step to the client, even if it’s not finished yet, you are holding yourself accountable.

Projecturf has specific sections for freelancers. Designers can present ideas to the client in the design section, and developers can show work on various servers by bookmarking URL's, as well as logging development progress. You can also track hours in the timecard, which includes billable hours as well as personal tracking. A helpful feature customers rave about is allowing clients to approve designs and documents directly in Projecturf. This speeds things up and eliminates unnecessary meetings. You'll also receive automatic email notifications of all the activity on each project (and you can subscribe to the project's RSS feeds as well). Additionally, clients and co-workers can access documents directly from the email notifications.

5) Communicate. The other great thing about sending each step of a project to the client is that you can get feedback from the client, and modify the project accordingly. This can actually make the project take longer, but in the end you’ll have a better product and the client will be happier. This continual feedback loop is actually integral to a successful project, and building it into the process makes sense.

The Discussions section comes in handy since it helps to centralize all communication. The user can easily track back without going through hundreds of emails. When there are changes discussed, the user can simply update milestones and tasks to reflect the latest discussions and all users in the discussion can quickly see what changes were made and why.

6) Focus on the next action Now that you’ve sent the client the first step, and gotten feedback, focus on the next step. Again, focusing on one step at a time keeps it from being overwhelming. Be sure that you set a deadline, and be sure that the task can be done in 1-3 hours (or a day at the maximum). When it’s done, send it to the client for review and feedback.

The Project Completion Report gives an in-depth overview that helps to keep projects on track - including a full break-down and percent complete for each milestone. Also, your clients are able to see what you are working on and the progress your team is making. Projecturf offers private document sharing for items deemed confidential. In our next release, Projecturf will include a variety of additional privacy features for customers who wish to use them.

7) Repeat until completion. You get the idea. Just keep focusing on one step at a time, setting a deadline for each step as you go along, and sending the completed step to the client. This will keep you on top of things and running smoothly, without the need for a boss.

Projecturf helps users stay on task and meet deadlines. Customers also find that they spend fewer hours on the phone explaining each step of the process and getting feedback from clients. This helps complete projects much quicker and keeps the team on the same page. Clients find it extremely helpful in keeping them organized and more productive throughout the process!

Our customers enjoy getting things done and not wasting time on learning and managing difficult software on various computers. Try projecturf today; we're confident it will help you be more efficient and productive.

These steps are referenced here: http://www.freelanceswitch.com/productivity/a-guide-to-simple-project-management/]]> http://www.projecturf.com/blog/2009/06/keeping-project-management-collaboration-simple-and-effective Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:59:56 PST feedItem76 We just released a new addition to the projects page after receiving feedback from our users.  In order to better manage and track your project deadlines, we've added a due date field for each project.  This should help when working on multiple projects across different teams by having a clear snapshot of what's due and when.  This is separate from the milestones and tasks due dates which roll up under your projects.  To update the due date of one of your projects, just go to the projects settings page and quickly choose it.   We are very excited about the current Projecturf platform, especially the feature set, workflow, and application design.  However, we have a lot of big changes planned in 2009!  Stay tuned :) We just released a new addition to the projects page after receiving feedback from our users.  In order to better manage and track your project deadlines, we've added a due date field for each project.  This should help when working on multiple projects across different teams by having a clear snapshot of what's due and when.  This is separate from the milestones and tasks due dates which roll up under your projects.  To update the due date of one of your projects, just go to the projects settings page and quickly choose it.

We are very excited about the current Projecturf platform, especially the feature set, workflow, and application design.  However, we have a lot of big changes planned in 2009!  Stay tuned :)

For those who want a taste of our product before buying, our newly created Free Trial includes all the features of any paid plan (free trial users are restricted to 2MB of file storage and can only manage a single project) and does not require a credit card to sign up. We have included a sample project with our free trial to demonstrate the simplicity, flexibility, and power of Projecturf in managing your projects.

The other big change is with our pricing plans. Since all paying plans include all features, we reduced the number of plans to make it easier for customers to decide. The new plans include the Start-Up plan at 15 projects, the Business plan at 40 projects, and the Enterprise plan with unlimited projects. Current customers will remain on their old plans until they decide to upgrade or downgrade.

Also, there are a few minor updates to the application to make it easier to manage your projects. One of these updates is that we now included the milestone date when creating a task and associating it with a milestone, making it easier to assign a date to the task the corresponds to the milestone.

Please visit our new website at www.projecturf.com.

Here are a couple of beneficial ways to use this new feature and save yourself extra time

• If you need to create a similar project to an existing one, you are ready to go without re-inputting all of your tasks and milestones. Just make the few changes you'll need on this project and you're good to go!
• Use it as a dummy project (in other words a master list of milestones and tasks) so that you can start with this list on any project where you may need some or all of the same tasks and milestones.

We hope you enjoy the new feature and please keep sending us your requests. As always, our core focus is on the design, user-interface, customer satisfaction, and features.

Ability to apply multiple filters and sorts to Tasks & Milestones
You can drill down to get the data you need by utilizing multiple filters. Users may now apply a filter to a previous filter. These filters include milestones, priority, and responsibility. At each level applied, users may sort by any of the column categories.

Associate any task with a milestone
The Milestone section shows the number of associated tasks. Clicking the associated tasks link takes you to the tasks page and automatically filters by that task. You can also filter by milestone on the task page directly to see the tasks that are associated with a particular milestone.

Re-organized menu items in navigation for easier use
We re-organized the icons on the top to better suit the workflow of your projects. Milestones and tasks are next to each other for consistency.

Added a Tools section with new reporting tools
This is a completely new section designed for tracking and reporting on any project. Some benefits include managing resource allocations, getting graphical representations of tasks and milestones, and printing reports that will help you hit deadlines.

Created a Project Completion Report with percentages to track complete project progress
In the new tools section, there is a link to our new Projects Completion Report. Here you will find all the important aspects of your projects including project status, due dates, percent complete, milestones, and all associated tasks. There is a statistical summary at the bottom that provides a percent complete analysis of your project and a company header with project status info at the top.

Percent complete for each milestone is based on the number of tasks completed divided by the total number of tasks for that milestone. Whereas, percent complete for the project is based on the percent complete of each milestone divided by the total number of milestones. This report improves the project planning process by providing a quick view of all deadlines and time allotted, current milestone completion status, and insight into what team members are working on at that time.

Added a Gantt chart for Milestones and Tasks with ability to dynamically change date range, as well as link directly to milestone or task
Adding the Gantt chart to the tools section is a critical and major update to Projecturf. From this chart, you may select any six month range of your project milestones, associated tasks, dates, duration, and responsible party. Use your mouse to hover over any timeline or tasks, and the details are displayed. Also, users may click on the task or milestone and jump to the task or milestone page to edit them directly.

Added tool tips on all icons throughout application
When hovering your mouse over any icons throughout the application, the browsers tooltip will now display the type of file or icon it is as additional help when using Projecturf.

Changed Project Brief icon to new one on dashboard to enhance the design

Project link in email notifications now open directly to corresponding project and section
When receiving email notifications about any activity from a project, the link in the email now opens directly to the cooresponding project and section, making it much quicker to view and respond to the latest activity in the correct project. This helps those of you managing many projects go to the section by eliminating clicks.

Task email reminders now contain dates and milestone associations

Created new My Alerts section to manually turn on/off email alerts in each section per project
Email notifications of activities on all projecsts are turned on by default. Users can now manage those alerts per project and per section. As an example, if you don’t want to receive notifications about new tasks on project B, then you can turn the task notifications off for project B in my alerts section.

Added start and end dates to tasks
Adding start / end dates to tasks is optional. You may choose to add only a start or an end date. These will show up in the Tools section when associated with a milestone. Keep in mind that the start and end dates are also used on the gantt chart in the Tools section. Therefore, if no start and end dates exist, the gantt chart will display your tasks with the same dates used on the associated milestone.

Removed Projecturf copyright information on paid accounts from the bottom of the application

Please keep sending us your feature requests so that your requests receive serious consideration in the next update. Enjoy the new Projecturf and feel free to email us with any questions, comments, or desires.

All in all, they have ranked us as #6 and mention that there are a few features that would enhance the Projecturf experience. The feature commented on, task/milestone association, has actually been developed and is going to be added to Projecturf in the next release along with many other upgrades and enhancements. Here are some more notable remarks -

Ease of Use

"One of Projecturf’s best features is the streamlined interface. Large icons line the top of the screen presenting you with the navigation, updating and resource links you need to keep your project current. When opening your project interface, the first things to come up are your project briefs, update announcements (since you were last logged in), and the tasks to be completed that day—all of which inform you of immediate concerns regarding your project. Project navigation is simple, as each interface icon leads to a corresponding area, which in turn is divided into two or three tabs for different needs."

Summary

"Projecturf relies on its sleek interface and user forum to make creating, managing and completing projects simple. With its design section, designers will find this project management software ideal for interchanging and displaying graphics and logos for project completion."

Below is the official review (we also have RSS feeds for each project):

Top Ten Project Management Reviews

Be sure to check back soon to read about our new features!

Please explain how your using Projecturf (Size of team, type of projects, streamlining processes)?
We are using Projecturf for most of our creative projects - print ads, brochures, web sites, etc. PT is mainly used between a project manager & designer -- then once initial creative is fleshed out, it's "shared" with the Creative Director. We do this so email alerts don't clog up the Creative Director's inbox until his input is needed.

How has Projecturf Benefited you the most?
The main benefits of Projecturf to us are: the ability and ease to send, comment & keep track of the most recent project proofs & documentation of requested revisions (eliminates the possibility of sending the wrong file to printers or publishers when numerous versions have been produced -- this has happened a few times before PT); the ability to easily "share" large files with clients; and we've also set up a Project called "TTC Drop Site" as an FTP-type place for clients or other agencies to upload photos or large files. 

What feature(s) do you like the most?
The overall collaboration functions.

Additional comments? Would you recommend to others?
For collaboration I would recommend PT to others. We have used BaseCamp in the past and find PT is easier to use and better designed.

Note that in our next release (hopefully in a couple of weeks) we are addressing the email notifications by allowing each users to turn them off and on for each section. Be sure to check back in a couple weeks :)

After receiving several requests from visitors and our users, we've created a walk through of all sections in Projecturf.  This video gives a rather in depth overview of each section and how best to use it. We address setting up your account, using the address book importer, setting user access levels, changing your project settings, using the navigation toolbar, changing the system colors, and managing your projects in each section.  The tutorial allows prospective clients and new members to get a feel for the interface and see the simplicity, fresh design, and extensive set of features.

As you can see, the Projecturf workflow and style make it easy to use and extremely useful in executing projects.  Don't get stuck using the wrong project management tool - it should help simplify and organize your projects, not create more headaches.  All pay plans come with a 30-day free trial and unlimited storage.  Check out the video to gain a better feel of the Projecturf experience!

As we recently mentioned, there are new updates on the way which we will announce here.  Also, there will be a new video tutorial posted to the Projecturf website to give an overview of our new features.  We are very excited about the updates yet to come - great enhancements on the way that will answer some of our customer requests and more!

I also want to thank those who have taken some time to provide feedback via our Forum or over email. We love the fact that our users are passionate enough about Projecturf to not only suggest enhancements, but help us figure out how to best implement them so they fit your needs.

Without getting into great detail, I want to let you all know that there is a major release coming very soon. We have taken some of the feedback we've gotten from current customers and have incorporated the ones we have heard multiple times. We have also added a couple of additional features ourselves (from our very long to-do list). While I cannot tell you exactly when the new release is coming (and while we have a policy not to share what is coming), I can tell you that you should expect to see some major additions to Projecturf within the next few weeks. Of course, all of those with an existing account will get a message. You may check this blog and our website to get a rundown of exactly what the release entails. 

I hope so far that our customers can see that quick responses, openness to customer ideas/input, and continual improvements is something that is very important to our company. We realize that you are the ones that use the product on a daily basis (actually, we do too, of course, but nonetheless), so it is very important to us that you have a voice. We hope to constantly have open dialogue with customers about our product and we hope to continually improve so that Projecturf remains the best Project Management tool on the market. 

In addition, I also wanted to quickly mention that we have a better tutorial / tour coming. For those who want to see how to best use Projecturf, stay tuned (check the main website www.projecturf.com).

In short, there's a lot on the horizon. I think this next update will address a lot of the feedback we've received so far. Thank you to all our customers and we appreciate the feedback on how to make Projecturf a better project manager!

Let me provide an example. Our agency, Rareview Interactive, is working on a new website for a client called ACME Industries. When the client comes on board, we immediately create the project in Projecturf. We add everyone on the client team and on our team as project contacts. This gives everyone access to the project online and also ensures they get notified anytime one of the project team members does something. So Andrew, our designer, has some comps for the client to review. Rather than sending them via email where they can get lost, sent to junk mail, are blocked because they are too big, etc.; he simply uploads them to the design section of Projecturf. Then every member of the team gets a short email notification that a new design was posted by Andrew. The client can login, check it out, make comments, approve it, rate it, and more. Let's say ACME wants the overall color scheme to be blue instead of red. They write a discussion comment and that is automatically emailed to everyone on the team. Even if you're not on the design side, you can easily keep up-to-speed without having to constantly ask other team members where the project stands. This is just one simple example, as Projecturf has many sections to manage the entire project. 

There are a variety of benefits to a project management system. Everything related to the project is stored in one central location, that's always accessible with any Internet connection. Everyone stays informed throughout the process. Files can be stored and organized. Tasks can be created for individuals. Milestones can be managed. You can find anything relating to that project in snap by simply searching for it; and much more.

Of course this isn't only important to those of us in this industry. Almost all industries manage projects. These tools can help government agencies, schools, and businesses alike. It's been critical to managing our projects and I know it can be essential to helping you better manage yours.

Los Angeles, California (PRWEB) -- Rareview (Rareview) announced today the release of a new form of online collaboration and project management software called Projecturf (Projecturf).

With vast growth in popularity over the last several years, online collaboration and project management software has become the single best tool to successfully execute any project. Finding the right software has never been easy, which is why we are proud to introduce Projecturf, a stylish and easy-to-use project management system that you can customize to meet your team's needs.

Over the last five years, Rareview Interactive has built and tailored an in-house project management program for managing large-scale projects, employees, and clients. After realizing the lack of bona fide options on the market, we overhauled our original product, changed the name to Projecturf, and packaged it for external use. In addition to discussions, milestones, integrated calendars, tasks, timecards, and an address book, Projecturf includes both a development and design section specifically created for agencies and freelancers.

"Our objective was to build a product that is visually appealing and easy for anyone to use. We found that most other project management and collaboration solutions are burdensome, difficult to navigate, and unappealing. Therefore, we took a completely different approach to our product and style. Projecturf includes stylish icons with customized colors and a visually pleasing appearance. Combined with super easy navigation and organized features, Projecturf was made for anyone to use as a scalable product for all size projects, teams, and companies," says Chuck Pearson, CEO of Rareview Interactive and Projecturf.

On top of the unique style and intuitive interface, Projecturf differentiates itself with "best in industry" pricing that includes unlimited storage on all paid plans, unlimited users, document permissions, simplicity, and a management team dedicated to customer service and constant system enhancements to improve the fresh Projecturf experience!

To impress your team and clients find out more at www.projecturf.com. It will help you not only manage your projects, but also look good throughout the process!