One of the top Backpack requests has been the ability to move data between pages. The new Backpack makes that possible.
It’s a drag
So how do you move items between pages? You just drag the item to a page in the sidebar. Any “unit” can be moved — a list, a note, a photo gallery, a file, etc. The unit will be dropped at the top of the page.
Drag to make a new page too
Another twist is that you can drag an element to the “Make a new page” button to create a new page out of that content. It’s really handy.
Watch
Watch a quick video demo of the feature in action. Things are slower than they normally would be since we’re running in development mode, but at least you’ll get an idea of what to expect.
Coming soon
The new Backpack is coming soon. Thanks again for your patience and stay tuned for more previews and the launch announcement.
Jason Fried wrote this on Jul 23 2007 There are 50 comments.
Anonymous Coward 23 Jul 07
WHOAAAAA
Tyson Caly 23 Jul 07
Now that is cool
Andrea 23 Jul 07
speechless.
Gayle 23 Jul 07
Oh, HELL yeah. Niiiiice!
Andrea 23 Jul 07
Uhm :-) The page in the video is far more interesting than i though at the beginning…. ....i see also a search button :-)
Ryan Allen 23 Jul 07
Very impressive!
shane 23 Jul 07
This is huge! Very sexy and useful stuff. Thanks.
Question, is there a way to copy rather than move a content block to another page? I realize there are more lengthy ways to accomplish that task but maybe we could hold option like a client while we drag the block to another page?
Alan Jacobs 23 Jul 07
Hmph! I’m not impressed at all.
Okay, I’m lying, I’m totally impressed. This is fab.
Rob Poitras 23 Jul 07
Game changer.
sho'fr 23 Jul 07
option-drag would be ‘mind melting’ cool. As it stand, this is only ‘knock your socks off’ cool.
How about some tutorials on how this was accomplished?
Joe Cotellese 23 Jul 07
Ok, you may of rehooked me. I canceled my account a few months ago because of this missing feature.
I will resign up the day this is released :)
John Stowers 23 Jul 07
Hey There,
I am the author of a synchronization application for Linux/GNOME. I currently support limited syncing of data to baqckpackit.com
The main feature I am missing is the ability to get the modification date for data, notes in particular. This limitation adds some complexity to the client side code.
Is there any chance you could add this ability for the $NEXT_VERSION?
Thanks
John
AdamA 23 Jul 07
Wow nice work – You guys are rock stars! I would also love to see an article on how you achieved this.
Edgardo 23 Jul 07
I know what’s a drag.
QuickTime on Windows Vista!
Tony The Tiger 23 Jul 07
GRRRRRREEEEAAAATTTT !
David Chartier 23 Jul 07
I don’t get misty eyed very often at software, especially web-based software.
Just now, however, you made me get up to go find a tissue. Thank you, 37signals.
Maxime Brusse 23 Jul 07
What’s the font type you guys use for the 37s logo etc. ?
Daniel Drucker 23 Jul 07
I hope that search box does something. That’ll be great. This dragging stuff … very cool, but wasn’t that what you had working a year ago or so?
Will the existing bugs be fixed (e.g., calendar entries showing up at the wrong time)?
Darren Stuart 23 Jul 07
fantastic…... If this update just had this in it I would have been over the moon but to have this and the rest is great.
give it me now!!!
Andrew 23 Jul 07
Wow, this is great. I also canceled my account a couple of months ago in favor of Google Docs, but these (long overdue) improvements might bring me back.
John 23 Jul 07
This is amazing. Great execution and beautiful transitions.
Maxime Brusse 23 Jul 07
I hope this will be the one !
Jeff Mackey 23 Jul 07
Totally friggin’ awesome. You guys are the bomb.
Joshua Kaufman 23 Jul 07
OMG , that’s friggin’ amazing. Speechless.
Rick Baysharam 24 Jul 07
What, still no search?
Anonymous Coward 24 Jul 07
Rick: Did you look in the sidebar? You’ll see a “search” field and a “search” button. I have a feeling that’s not there for decoration.
Jake Ingman 24 Jul 07
dead sexy. no doubt.
Xavier Louveau 24 Jul 07
You are my heroes !
LTL-RC 24 Jul 07
Collapsable lists, for the love of all that is good and holy.
ep 24 Jul 07
Looks like the page is 100 pixel wider. That’s good too.
Stuart 24 Jul 07
This is awesome..!
One thing I would love to see is the same theme set that Basecamp and Highrise has, so that all my accounts can have the same look and feel.
Mimo 24 Jul 07
Impressed. But why are we so impressed by a simple Drag & Drop possibility? Just because we weren’t able to do it in the browser before?
Stefan Seiz 24 Jul 07
Fantastic feature. This is exactly hat makes a Web-app feel more like a desktop app. Great!
Stefan Seiz 24 Jul 07
Oh and btw. i am realy happy, to be able to comment again. I had contacted Akismet and they fixed their data (trust me, i am not a spammer) which prevented me from commenting on any Akismet protected blog.
Christopher 24 Jul 07
Wow .. I have been reading this blog for a year and don’t think I’ve ever posted before—but that is a pretty incredible feature. I agree with Rob, this is a game changer.
webs 24 Jul 07
Fabulous !
rich 24 Jul 07
At last. Now I’ll only have to remember one E-mail address (for the page called ‘Drop Zone’) when sending items to Backpack.
Alex 24 Jul 07
I’ll fall to my knees when I see this working in my own account.
(Unfortunately, I can’t see the demo now because my company’s stupid proxy blocks Quicktime movies.)
John Topley 24 Jul 07
That’s not true at all. There’s been nothing to stop you from having drag and drop in a browser over the past few years. Sure the modern JavaScript libraries such as Prototype and Script.aculo.us make it a lot easier to do, but it’s been possible for ages. Which is not to take anything away from the slickness of the Backpack implementation seen here.
Brian 24 Jul 07
Badness! Can’t wait!!
Jermaine Oosterling 24 Jul 07
Makes you wanna slap your Momma !!
JF 25 Jul 07
We’re live!
Nathan Jones 25 Jul 07
Congrats. It’s an impressive update.
Regarding your next update, have you seen the ALA article titled “Never Use a Warning When you Mean Undo”?
Emil 25 Jul 07
Great! Some really great new features, but where is the Open Bar? Still waiting to connect HR, 2xBC & BP
Marc 25 Jul 07
Good job guys, looks and feels so much more elegant.
Gayle 25 Jul 07
Oh man, exciting.
Y’all are tops in my books.
Gayle 25 Jul 07
Ok hold on, I just noticed you can set reminders for a specific time!!
does a little dance
Andy Kant 25 Jul 07
Overall, awesome update…but it won’t allow me to put line breaks in list items anymore – it saves when I press enter instead (shift-enter doesn’t work either).
Thomas 25 Jul 07
Yes, great update! Congrats! Thomas.
Doug Wick 25 Jul 07
Great update guys, thank you. Really love the new configurability. This opens all new ways for me to use my Backpack.
Suggestion for the upgrade process, for the future: the removal of the natural Backpack organization (for more flexibility) caused my pages to be much less usable and produced a lot of work for me. I would have loved to have the option to automatically put dividers in where the groupings used to be on all of my pages. As upgrades go this is a really smooth one, but some small little traumas remain . . . (always)
This discussion is closed.