The functionality you've been hoping for basically already exists --- it's amazing how many powerful features are hiding in ActiveCollab that get overlooked... we seem to find new features or new uses for those existing features everyday.
Here's the info on New Projects from the UserGuide -- at the bottom you'll see the following excerpt:
"If you work on a lot of similar projects, project templates can come in handy.
Any project can be used as a template for the new one. Simply select it from Project Template drop-down list when creating the new project, and activeCollab will copy all the milestones, tickets and tasks from the template to the new project. System will even alter due dates of the tasks to reflect the differences between start dates of the template and new project if these dates are set.
When you click Submit button the new project will be created, and youʼll be redirected to the People tab of your project where you'll be able to add people who will work with you on that project."
It's definitely a powerful feature and as you continue to tweak those templates, it helps that Progress bar in AC to be much more accurate as to how far along in a project you are.
Taking this one step further... I'd recommend AppsMagnet's Planning Module for ActiveCollab you can import and export plans you've created into projects and it would be a great tool for creating your project templates too because you can create Milestones, Tickets, Tasks, etc all from a one page view. Also the Planning Module adds the ability to copy Pages and Discussions along with the template --- http://www.appsmagnet.com/activecollab-main/planning-module/
I would recommend creating a group called Project Templates and then going into your admin area an assigning that group as the Template Group --- this way only your templates will show up in the list of options under Project Template ... in the New Project dialog.
After ~6months of active use, the 6 of us here at my office are definitely still on the uphill learning curve about how to take the best advantage of the tool... and I see that as a good thing.
aC is a hugely rich and flexible platform.
We reviewed dozens of other options and had been using Basecamp for >6 years, until we arrived on aC as a fit for us.
Thanks again for the pointers on the Project Templates, and happy to be shown they are already baked in!
No problem Marc --- let me know your thoughts after you test it out.
I agree 100% it's hugely rich and flexible -- I was on Basecamp for about 1 year before we took the leap to AC, it made a lot of sense for us for a number of reasons --- not disappointed at all. I have tried so many project management tools before and since and still feel ActiveCollab has something unique in it's approach and flexibility --- and with the potential for modules and hacks, this goes even further.
Since moving to AC ourselves, we've had the opportunity to help several others get setup with AC because we're so excited about what it's brough to our businesses and it's interesting to see how it can be applied to various industries and personalities to work effectively.
Enjoy the project templating experience, if I can help in anyway let me know
Is there a way to have project templates added to activeCollab? Maybe this is an opportunity for a new plug-in?
Adapted from the Basecamp release note ::
Project templates should allow the set up standardized projects with to-dos, milestones, and messages that are automatically added to new projects.