The old tiny-icon toolbar is replaced by a new toolbar with large buttons. Overall, ACT!'s revamped interface looks and acts a lot like Outlook. (Warning: don't click on the Edit Fields button on the Web Info page and put your contact's URL in the LinkedIn or Facebook field, because that will make this contact's page appear in the Web Info page for all your other contacts.) There seems to be no way to store that URL with the contact's information so that you won't have to search again next time, but it's better than nothing. You may need to make a click or two on the resulting social network page to find your contact's actual personal page. The Web page integration works by searching for your contact's name in LinkedIn, Facebook, or other sites in an embedded browser window. Unfortunately, ACT!'s web-based features don't extend to direct integration with online calendars like Google Calendar, but you can get around this limitation by sharing your Outlook calendar with both Google and ACT! ACT! keeps its own full-featured calendar, which it can synchronize with Outlook's calendar at user-specified intervals. When you click on an e-mail address anywhere in ACT!, Outlook (or any other standard mail client that you prefer) creates a blank message. When you exchange e-mails with contacts, ACT! automatically keeps a record of it. Or you can choose a document template and start with boilerplate text already in your letter. There's a more information available with only a few clicks than in any standard PIM, but the layout is clear enough to keep it from being overwhelming.Īs in previous versions, when you click a button to write a letter to a contact, ACT! opens Microsoft Word (or ACT!'s built-in word processor) and inserts your contact's address at the top and your signature at the bottom of the document. ![]() Other tabs lead to notes, documents, and various categories that the contact belongs to, social networking and other web pages, and much more. An "opportunities" tab lists tasks I've set up so that I can follow through on a sales pitch or negotiation. A tabbed interface in the bottom half of the window has twelve tabs each leading to more detailed information than can fit in the top half.Īn "activities" tab shows a tabular color-coded list of calls, meetings, e-mails, and other connections I've made with a contact. ![]() When opening a contract entry, ACT! displays traditional address-book fields in the top half of the window, together with fields listing my most recent activities relating to that contact. (A Premium version extends sharing features to larger businesses.) After a wizard-based installation that creates an empty database, I imported contacts and calendar data from Outlook, a task that took about twenty minutes to import 2200 names. Each user can fine-tune the information that other users can view. ![]() I tested ACT!'s basic version, which allows ten users to share contacts, calendars, and other information. ![]() I'm more impressed than ever by ACT!'s ability to combine in a single interface desktop-centric data like the Outlook address book and Calendar with the online information that I increasingly rely on. This latest edition retains all its amazing powers to organize, link, and display data on contacts and companies, together with its tight integration with Microsoft Outlook, while, for the first time, it adds the ability to link to social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn and online services like Google Maps.
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