ACT! 2007 For Dummies^®

by Karen S. Fredricks (Boca Raton, FL)

• ISBN13: 9780470055144
• ISBN10: 0470055146
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-01
• Publisher: For Dummies

Summary

Find out how to get the most from your ACT! Manage your contacts, communicate, synchronize ACT! with Outlook, and more You have a business or organization to run. ACT! is designed to make that easier, and this book helps you get your ACT! together. Here's how to set up ACT! 2007, enter and organize contact information, use ACT! to track activities, prioritize leads, and produce reports, and make it act exactly as you need it to. Discover how to * View details on a particular contact * Generate faxes, e-mail, or snail mail to a list * Add fields to customize ACT! * Handle backups and eliminate duplications * Group and sort contacts

Author Biography

Karen S. Fredricks is a self-described "fanACTic". She has written ACT! manuals, implemented ACT! for sole practitioners and Fortune 500 corporations, and established South Florida's ACT! User Group.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(1)
About This Book	1	(1)
Conventions Used in This Book	2	(1)
What You Should Read	2	(1)
What You Don't Have to Read	3	(1)
Foolish Assumptions	3	(1)
How This Book Is Organized	3	(3)
Part I: The Opening ACT!	3	(1)
Part II: Putting the ACT! Database to Work	4	(1)
Part III: Sharing Your Information with Others	4	(1)
Part IV: Advanced ACT!ing	4	(1)
Part V: Commonly Overlooked ACT! Features	5	(1)
Part VI: The Part of Tens	5	(1)
Icons Used in This Book	6	(1)
Where to Go from Here	6	(1)
Part I: The Opening ACT!	7	(38)
An Overview of ACT!	9	(6)
What Does ACT! Do?	10	(1)
The Typical ACT! User	11	(1)
A Few Concepts to Get You Started	12	(1)
The Basic ACT! Ground Rules	12	(1)
The Two Versions of ACT! 2007	13	(2)
The Various Faces of ACT!	15	(14)
Locating the Correct Database	15	(2)
The ACT! Login Screen	17	(1)
The Importance of Being My Record	18	(1)
Finding Your Way around in ACT!	19	(6)
The title bar	19	(1)
The record counter	20	(1)
The layout	21	(1)
The menu bar	22	(1)
The toolbar	23	(1)
The Back and Forward bar	23	(1)
The Contact Detail window	23	(1)
The Divider bar	24	(1)
The Navigation bar	24	(1)
The ACT! tabs	24	(1)
Getting Help When You Need It	25	(4)
Getting Your ACT! Together	29	(16)
Creating a New ACT! Database	29	(3)
Working with Passwords	32	(2)
Setting a password	32	(1)
Changing a password	33	(1)
Giving ACT! the Preferential Treatment	34	(3)
General	35	(1)
Colors & Fonts	35	(1)
Calendar & Scheduling	35	(1)
E-mail	36	(1)
Communication	36	(1)
Startup	36	(1)
Customizing the Navigation Bar	37	(1)
Modifying the Icon Bar	38	(2)
Adding items to the toolbar	38	(2)
Tweaking the toolbar icons	40	(1)
Monkeying with the Menus	40	(5)
Ordering additional menu items	41	(1)
Adding a custom command	41	(4)
Part II: Putting the ACT! Database to Work	45	(74)
Making Contact(s)	47	(12)
Adding New Contacts	47	(8)
Letting ACT! do the work for you: Automatic formatting	51	(2)
Getting the most out of ACT!: Using the drop-down lists	53	(2)
Deleting Contact Records	55	(2)
Thinking before deleting a contact	56	(1)
Three warnings before deleting a contact	56	(1)
The Contacts, They Are A'Changin'	57	(2)
A Few Good Tabs and Lists	59	(14)
Meeting the Lists and Tabs	59	(2)
Customizing Lists and Tabs	61	(3)
Adding or removing columns	62	(1)
Changing the order and width of columns	63	(1)
Sorting your lists and Tabs	63	(1)
Contacting the Contact List	64	(2)
Getting to the Contact List is half the fun	64	(1)
Finding a contact in the Contact List	65	(1)
Tagging contacts in the Contact List	65	(1)
Corralling Your Secondary Contacts	66	(3)
Adding a secondary contact	67	(1)
Deleting a secondary contact	68	(1)
Promoting a secondary contact	68	(1)
Documenting Your Documents	69	(2)
Adding a document	70	(1)
Opening a document	70	(1)
Removing a document	71	(1)
Changing the Sort Order	71	(2)
The ACT! Lookup: Searching for Your Contacts	73	(18)
ACT! Is Looking Up	73	(1)
Performing Basic Lookups	74	(3)
Searching Your Groups, Companies, and Opportunities	77	(3)
Grappling with your groups	77	(1)
Calling all companies	78	(1)
Ogling your opportunities	79	(1)
Performing Special ACT! Lookups	80	(6)
Searching by keyword	81	(2)
Annual event lookups	83	(1)
Searching by contact activity	84	(2)
Creating Advanced Queries	86	(5)
Looking up by example	86	(2)
The Advanced Query	88	(3)
Stamping Out the Sticky Note	91	(10)
Getting to Know ACT! Notes	91	(3)
Adding a note	92	(1)
Working with notes	93	(1)
Discovering ACT! Histories	94	(5)
Creating field histories	95	(1)
Clearing activity histories	96	(1)
Manually recording a history	97	(2)
Working with Your Notes and Histories	99	(2)
Playing the Dating Game	101	(18)
Scheduling Your Activities	101	(5)
Working with the ACT! Calendar	106	(3)
The mini-calendar	108	(1)
The Recap List	108	(1)
Using the Task List	109	(2)
Creating a lookup from the Task List	110	(1)
Printing the Task List	110	(1)
Exploring Activities	111	(3)
Viewing the Activities tab	111	(1)
Editing your activities	112	(1)
Clearing activities	112	(2)
Creating an Activity Series	114	(5)
Using the Activity Series Template Creation Wizard	115	(2)
Scheduling an activity series	117	(1)
Modifying an activity series	118	(1)
Part III: Sharing Your Information with Others	119	(56)
Using the ACT! Reports	121	(30)
Working with Various ACT! Forms	121	(14)
Knowing the basic ACT! reports	122	(4)
Running an ACT! report	126	(3)
Creating labels and envelopes	129	(1)
Printing address books	130	(3)
Checking out the calendars	133	(1)
Working with Quick Reports	134	(1)
Using the Report Designer	135	(10)
Changing the report content	135	(4)
Working with existing fields	139	(2)
Adding a field	141	(2)
Adding a summary field	143	(2)
Sectioning Your ACT! Report	145	(2)
Defining report sections	145	(1)
Modifying report sections	146	(1)
Hiding a report section	147	(1)
Customizing Labels and Envelopes	147	(4)
Performing a label lobotomy	147	(1)
Creating new labels	148	(3)
Merging Your Information into a Document	151	(14)
Mail Merge Isn't Just about Mailing	151	(1)
Picking Your Word Processor	152	(2)
Creating a Document Template	154	(3)
Grappling with Graphics	157	(1)
Reaching an Audience of One	158	(2)
We're Off to See the Mail Merge Wizard	160	(5)
ACT! E-Mail	165	(10)
Getting Started with ACT! E-Mail	165	(1)
Setting Your E-Mail Preferences	166	(2)
E-Mailing Your Contacts	168	(7)
E-mailing an individual contact	169	(1)
Sending mass e-mails	170	(3)
Editing e-mail addresses	173	(2)
Part IV: Advanced ACT!ing	175	(96)
Creating and Editing Contact Fields	177	(20)
Understanding the Concept of Fields	177	(2)
Do Your Homework!	179	(1)
Adding a New Field to Your Database	180	(5)
Deleting a Field	185	(1)
Securing Access to Fields	186	(2)
What you see is what you get	186	(1)
Battening down the hatches	187	(1)
Working with Drop-Down Lists	188	(6)
Creating a drop-down list field	189	(1)
Creating a drop-down list	189	(2)
Managing the Product List	191	(2)
Managing the Process List	193	(1)
A Few More Customization Options	194	(3)
Adding custom activity types	194	(2)
Editing priority types	196	(1)
Customizing Layouts	197	(16)
Modifying an Existing ACT! Layout	197	(8)
Arranging fields the way you want them	198	(3)
Adding new fields to the layout	201	(1)
Changing the tabs	202	(1)
Changing the order of things	203	(2)
Beautifying Your Layout	205	(3)
Doing minor touch-up work	205	(1)
Creating an extreme makeover	206	(2)
Adding the Finishing Touches	208	(5)
Lining up fields and labels	208	(1)
Resizing fields	209	(1)
Adding a logo or a graphic	210	(1)
Creating a circle in a square	210	(1)
Adding text boxes	211	(1)
Building a table	212	(1)
Zen and the Art of Database Maintenance	213	(18)
Understanding the Need to Check and Repair	214	(1)
Determining the maintenance frequency	214	(1)
A little shopping list of database horrors	215	(1)
Performing Routine Maintenance	215	(2)
Backing Up the ACT! Database	217	(4)
Performing the basic ACT! backup	218	(1)
Backing up to various media	218	(1)
Restoring a backup copy of your database	219	(2)
Applying ACT! Updates	221	(1)
Performing Spring Housecleaning	222	(9)
Weeding out duplicate contacts	222	(2)
Copying or moving contact data	224	(2)
Removing old data	226	(1)
Deleting a database	227	(1)
Performing a global edit/replace	228	(1)
A few more housekeeping tips	229	(2)
Calling in the Reinforcements	231	(22)
Working with the Database Users	231	(7)
Adding new users to the database	232	(3)
Deleting login users	235	(3)
Locking down the password	238	(1)
Limiting Contact Access	238	(5)
Creating a team	239	(1)
Assigning access rights to the contacts	240	(2)
Finding contacts by access level	242	(1)
Securing the Fields	243	(2)
Networking 101	245	(1)
Getting your network ducks in order	245	(1)
Padding the workstations	246	(1)
The ACT! Scheduler	246	(2)
Importing New Information into ACT!	248	(5)
ACT!ing with Synchronizations	253	(18)
What in the World Is Synchronization?	253	(2)
Why synchronize?	254	(1)
The synchronization cycle in a nutshell	254	(1)
Things that change during a synchronization	255	(1)
Performing a Synchronization in Four ACT!s	255	(11)
ACT! 1: Doing your homework	256	(1)
ACT! 2: Setting up the main database	257	(5)
ACT! 3: Setting up the remote database	262	(1)
ACT! 4: Synchronizing data	263	(3)
Maintaining the Synchronization	266	(5)
Viewing the last data synchronized	266	(1)
Looking up the sync set lookup	267	(1)
Viewing and printing sync settings	267	(1)
Re-creating a remote database	268	(1)
Stopping the synchronization process	269	(2)
Part V: Commonly Overlooked ACT! Features	271	(96)
Integrating ACT! with Microsoft	273	(22)
Changing Your Outlook in ACT!	273	(3)
Importing Outlook contacts into ACT!	274	(2)
E-mailing Outlook contacts via ACT!	276	(1)
Configuring Outlook to Work with ACT!	276	(3)
Showing Outlook the way to your ACT! database	276	(1)
Setting your ACT! history options	277	(2)
Disabling Word as your e-mail editor	279	(1)
Working with ACT! While in Outlook	279	(3)
E-mailing ACT! contacts in Outlook	279	(2)
Creating ACT! history from an e-mail received in Outlook	281	(1)
Creating a new ACT! contact in Outlook	281	(1)
Sharing ACT! and Outlook Calendars	282	(4)
Synchronizing your ACT! and Outlook calendars	283	(1)
Removing Outlook activities from ACT!	283	(1)
Displaying Outlook activities in ACT!	284	(2)
Exploring the Internet	286	(2)
Viewing a contact's Web site	286	(1)
Taking advantage of Internet Links	287	(1)
Attaching a Web page to a contact	287	(1)
Excelling in Excel	288	(3)
Exporting a list to Excel	288	(2)
Importing a product or drop-down list into ACT!	290	(1)
Mapping ACT! fields to Excel	290	(1)
What's in a Word?	291	(4)
Attaching a document to a contact record	292	(1)
Sending a document as an e-mail	292	(1)
Sending a document in a fax	293	(1)
Showing the ACT! mail merge fields	293	(2)
ACT!ing on Your Opportunities	295	(20)
Creating Opportunities	295	(7)
Initiating the opportunity	296	(5)
Modifying the opportunity	301	(1)
Closing the deal	302	(1)
You Can Quote Me on That	302	(3)
Creating a quote for an opportunity	303	(1)
Editing the opportunity quote template	304	(1)
Viewing the Opportunity List	305	(2)
Filtering the Opportunity List	306	(1)
Resetting the Opportunity List filters	306	(1)
Printing the Opportunity List	307	(1)
Working with Opportunity History	307	(1)
Reporting on Opportunities	308	(7)
Reporting on a single contact	308	(1)
Creating an opportunities graph	309	(2)
Viewing the opportunity pipeline	311	(4)
Grouping Your Contacts	315	(14)
A Few Good Reasons to Create a Group	315	(2)
What All Groups Have in Common	317	(1)
Creating a Group	317	(2)
Understanding Group Membership	319	(4)
Adding static group members	319	(2)
Creating dynamic group members	321	(2)
Working with Groups	323	(6)
Using groups to schedule activities	324	(2)
Using notes with groups	326	(3)
Joining a Company	329	(20)
The 411 on Companies	329	(1)
Hey Dude, Where's My Company?	330	(4)
The Companies tab	330	(1)
The Company List	331	(2)
Knowing the juicy company details	333	(1)
Company Housekeeping	334	(3)
Forming a new company	334	(1)
Creating a division (or subdivision)	335	(1)
Deleting a company	336	(1)
Converting a group to a company	336	(1)
Adding New Members to the Company	337	(3)
Getting the entire gang in the company	337	(1)
Starting a company of one	338	(1)
Following the company rules	339	(1)
Hooking Up with a Company	340	(5)
Hyperlinking a contact to a company	341	(1)
Linking the Contact and Company fields	342	(3)
Working with a Company	345	(4)
Jotting down a company note	345	(1)
Associating a note, history, activity, or opportunity with a company	346	(1)
Accessing the company files	347	(1)
Getting the Company Reports	347	(2)
Working with ACT! Premium for Web	349	(18)
You Gotta Love this Product	349	(4)
Looking Before You Leap	353	(3)
Handling the hardware	353	(1)
Going on a Windows fact-finding mission	353	(1)
Installing IIS	354	(1)
What's in an IP name?	355	(1)
Stop the IP, I want to get on	355	(1)
Giving Windows an Internet Makeover	356	(4)
Confirming that IIS is alive and well	356	(1)
Inviting an Internet Guest Account	357	(1)
Making an ASP.NET of yourself	357	(1)
Just call me APFW	358	(2)
Installing ACT! Premium for Web	360	(3)
Opening your database	360	(1)
Web Site Administration tool	361	(2)
Inviting Others to the Party	363	(4)
You can't drive without a license	364	(1)
Can you see me now?	364	(1)
Logging in to ACT! Premium for Web	365	(1)
Feeling a sense of deja vu	365	(2)
Part VI: The Part of Tens	367	(14)
Ten Cool Things Available Only in ACT! 2007 Premium for Workgroups	369	(4)
Allows More Users	369	(1)
Allows More Database Scalability	370	(1)
Limits Access to Various Contacts	370	(1)
Includes Field Level Security	370	(1)
Group Scheduling	371	(1)
Customizable Opportunity Fields	371	(1)
Advanced User Settings	371	(1)
The ACT Scheduler	372	(1)
Integrates with ACT! for Web	372	(1)
Internet Sync	372	(1)
Ten Tips to Make ACT! Work Better	373	(8)
Augmenting Your ACT! Knowledge	373	(2)
Hire an expert	374	(1)
Join a User Group	374	(1)
Improving Your Reporting	375	(1)
Linking ACT! to Other Products or Devices	375	(2)
Link ACT! to your PDA	375	(1)
Link other software to ACT!	376	(1)
Sending E-Mail Blasts	377	(1)
Automating Your Sales Process	377	(1)
Grabbing Tidbits of Information	378	(1)
Checking Your Dashboard	378	(1)
Overcoming Some ACT! Weaknesses	379	(1)
Enhancing ACT!: Those Little Things That Count	380	(1)
Saving Yourself Time	380	(1)
Index	381