Sidequest is a brand new extension exclusively for Slack that enables you to create helpdesks and personal task inboxes that teams love, 100% inside Slack. With Sidequest, you get the perfect combination of the dependability of a helpdesk system, the effortlessness of a task management app, and the convenience of Slack, all in one terrific, integrated package.

When it comes to helpdesks and request tracking tools, we all seem to share the same love-hate relationship. For many teams, helpdesks are the only way to process a large volume of requests efficiently and reliably, but at the same time, they can feel incredibly impersonal, old-fashioned, and inaccessible, especially when used for internal purposes, such as an IT service desk.

Sidequest makes you love your helpdesk again, by combining the reliability of traditional ticketing systems and the ease of use of modern task managers inside Slack. It allows your workspace members to create tasks in public or private support channels as well as for each other in personal task inboxes. As soon as a ticket has been created, Sidequest becomes the single point of truth, so your team always has a shared understanding of the task at hand, its history, and its status. That way, everyone is on the same page, and nothing slips between the cracks.

Better yet, there is no need to install new software or to set up accounts, as Sidequest lives 100% inside Slack. And because Sidequest is made in Germany, your data and your users are fully protected by GDPR, which is one of the world’s strictest data protection laws.

Start your new helpdesk today with a 30-day free trial of Sidequest by visiting getsidequest.app/macstories. Then, use promo code MACSTORIES for 50% off the first six months. Love your helpdesk again, with Sidequest for Slack.

Our thanks to Sidequest for sponsoring MacStories this week.

Tinderbox is a powerful Mac app that stores and organizes your notes, plans, and ideas, bringing order and insight to the vast amounts of information collected when you’re working on a big project. Whether that’s writing a book, creating course materials, planning a wedding, or just managing your day-to-day life, Tinderbox helps impose structure on your data to keep you organized and productive.

The app, which packs unparalleled power for analyzing, visualizing, and understanding your notes, is beloved by researchers, writers, investigators, product managers, and teachers. That’s because Tinderbox acts as a personal content assistant giving you the tools you need to discover connections and relationships between your notes that you might otherwise miss.

It’s easy to get started by dragging out lines connecting your notes or use Tinderbox’s wiki-like Ziplinks to link notes and ideas together. Best of all, Tinderbox adapts to the way you work. You can use mind maps with shapes, colors, and links to surface connections, or one of many other tools like outlines, word clouds, timelines, and dashboards. Each is a powerful way to gain new perspectives on your ideas, while adding as little or as much structure as you’d like.

Tinderbox also has agents and rules, and employs powerful AI tools to automatically identify names and places, look up addresses, and even suggest links. Of course the app integrates neatly with other apps too. Connect the app to Apple’s Notes app, and notes you enter on your iOS devices or Mac can be automatically categorized in Tinderbox. Of course, the app works with apps like DEVONthink, Scrivener, Bookends, and others, plus there’s a vibrant community.

So download Tinderbox today to try it for free, and when you’re ready to purchase use this link to save more than $50 on the best way to visualize, analyze, and share your ideas.

Our thanks to Tinderbox for sponsoring MacStories this week.