ACT! 2007 for dummies

by Karen S. Fredricks

ACT! Certified Consultant and Premier Trainer

ACT! ®

2007

FOR

DUMmIES‰

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by Karen S. Fredricks

ACT! Certified Consultant and Premier Trainer

ACT! ®

2007

FOR

DUMmIES‰

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ACT!® 2007 For Dummies®

Published by

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

111 River Street

Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or

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dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United

States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. ACT! is a registered trade￾mark of Sage Software SB, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2006929467

ISBN-13: 978-0-470-05514-4

ISBN-10: 0-470-05514-6

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

Karen S. Fredricks began her life rather non-technically, growing up in

Kenya. She attended high school in Beirut, Lebanon, where she developed

her sense of humor while dodging bombs. After traveling all over the world,

Karen ended up at the University of Florida and has been an ardent Gator fan

ever since. In addition to undergraduate studies in English and accounting,

Karen has a Master’s degree in psycholinguistics. Beginning her career teach￾ing high school English and theatre, Karen switched to working with the PC

during its inception in the early ’80s and has worked as a full-time computer

consultant and trainer ever since.

Karen is an ACT! Certified Consultant, an ACT! Premier Trainer, a Microsoft

Office User Specialist, and a QuickBooks Pro Certified Advisor. She is the

author of the ACT! 6, ACT! 2005, and ACT! 2006 For Dummies books as well as

many copyrighted training manuals; she is also the editor of ACT! Extra, a

monthly newsletter. She is a frequent guest on several syndicated computer

radio talk shows and has frequent public speaking engagements. A true ACT!

fanACTic, she founded the ACT! Users Group of South Florida and hosted the

Florida stop of the national ACT! 6 Launch Tour. She has served on various

ACT! Product Advisory Councils and has also worked as a facilitator for sev￾eral Sage Software Alpha and Beta events.

Karen resides in Boca Raton, Florida. Her company, Tech Benders, specializes

in contact management software and provides computer consulting, support,

and training services. In her spare time, Karen loves to spend time with family

and friends, play tennis, work out, ride bikes, and write schlocky poetry.

Feel free to send your comments about the book to www.dummies@

techbenders.com.

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Author’s Acknowledgments

There are so many great people in my life that I hardly know where to start.

The people at Wiley Publishing are fantastic to work with and have made

writing this book a pleasure! My acquisitions editor, Kyle Looper, is a joy to

work with. This is the second book I’ve done with my project editor, Blair

Pottenger; I know when to stick with a good thing! Jen Riggs and Teresa

Artman, my copy editors, had the unenviable task of making me look good;

Jen and Teresa, your edits were always right on!

There are so many great people at Sage Software who love ACT! as much as I

do and who work day in and day out to make it the best contact manager on

the market today. Bob Duff, Melissa Lorch, and Latisha Carter spend hours

providing services that benefit ACT! consultants like me. Rich Carey, Victor

Chernauskas, Julie DeMeuse, and Ian Vondrasek help me to get ACT! soft￾ware into the hands of ACT! fanACTics. Larry Ritter, Richard McMakin, Pierre

Samaat, and Beth Kohler are but a few of the great people who continue to

make ACT! better and better, year after year. Joe Bergera is the leader of

the pack who has done wonders at taking over the reigns of the entire ACT!

product line.

Roy Laudenslager worked as an ACT! Support Specialist for over 12 years

before taking the plunge to come work with me. He also let me coerce him

into being the technical editor for this book. He approached that job with the

same thoroughness and cheerfulness that he dedicates to any task. His

incredible knowledge and experience make him a joy to work with. Because

Roy’s knowledge of reporting is second to none, his hand is very much evi￾dent throughout Chapter 9. Thanks, Royel!

The names you see throughout this book are not fictional; they are the names

of all the special people in my life. Greetings go out to my Wednesday,

Saturday, and Sunday tennis games (Kalle, Nancy, Susan, Sue, Joanne, Jo,

Jennifer, Denise, and Linda) and to the whole gang at the Swim and Racquet

Center of Boca Raton — you guys rock! And, where would we all be without

John Steinmann, our super coach at Tam O’Shanter where “it never rains?”

Words can’t describe how special my family is to me. My daughters, Andrea

and Alyssa Fredricks, have brought such joy to my life and are a constant

source of pride. They both love to help and nurture others, which is a won￾derful trait. I love you both! Andrea and Alyssa have a very strong role model

in their grandmother, Frances Conn. Grandma is 90, going on 30, and contin￾ues to out-think us all!

Finally — to Gary Kahn, my wonderful friend, who gives me daily doses of love,

support, and friendship. Hey BT, can we renew the contract for another year?

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Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form

located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and

Media Development

Project Editor: Blair J. Pottenger

Acquisitions Editor: Kyle Looper

Copy Editor: Jen Riggs

Senior Copy Editor: Teresa Artman

Technical Editor: Roy Laudenslager

Editorial Manager: Kevin Kirschner

Media Development Specialists: Angela Denny,

Kate Jenkins, Steven Kudirka, Kit Malone

Media Development Manager:

Laura VanWinkle

Media Development Associate Producer:

Richard Graves

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth

Sr. Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case

Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com)

Composition Services

Project Coordinator: Jennifer Theriot

Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Denny Hager,

Joyce Haughey, Stephanie D. Jumper,

Barbara Moore, Heather Ryan,

Erin Zeltner

Proofreaders: John Greenough,

Jessica Kramer, Techbooks

Indexer: Techbooks

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

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Table of Contents

Introduction..................................................................1

About This Book...............................................................................................1

Conventions Used in This Book .....................................................................2

What You Should Read ....................................................................................2

What You Don’t Have to Read ........................................................................3

Foolish Assumptions .......................................................................................3

How This Book Is Organized...........................................................................3

Part I: The Opening ACT!.......................................................................3

Part II: Putting the ACT! Database to Work .........................................4

Part III: Sharing Your Information with Others...................................4

Part IV: Advanced ACT!ing ....................................................................4

Part V: Commonly Overlooked ACT! Features....................................5

Part VI: The Part of Tens .......................................................................5

Icons Used in This Book..................................................................................6

Where to Go from Here....................................................................................6

Part I: The Opening ACT! ...............................................7

Chapter 1: An Overview of ACT! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

What Does ACT! Do? ......................................................................................10

The Typical ACT! User...................................................................................11

A Few Concepts to Get You Started .............................................................12

The Basic ACT! Ground Rules.......................................................................12

The Two Versions of ACT! 2007....................................................................13

Chapter 2: The Various Faces of ACT! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Locating the Correct Database.....................................................................15

The ACT! Login Screen ..................................................................................17

The Importance of Being My Record...........................................................18

Finding Your Way around in ACT! ................................................................19

The title bar...........................................................................................19

The record counter ..............................................................................20

The layout .............................................................................................21

The menu bar........................................................................................22

The toolbar............................................................................................23

The Back and Forward bar..................................................................23

The Contact Detail window.................................................................23

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The Divider bar.....................................................................................24

The Navigation bar...............................................................................24

The ACT! tabs........................................................................................24

Getting Help When You Need It ....................................................................25

Chapter 3: Getting Your ACT! Together . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Creating a New ACT! Database .....................................................................29

Working with Passwords...............................................................................32

Setting a password ...............................................................................32

Changing a password...........................................................................33

Giving ACT! the Preferential Treatment ......................................................34

General...................................................................................................35

Colors & Fonts ......................................................................................35

Calendar & Scheduling ........................................................................35

E-mail......................................................................................................36

Communication ....................................................................................36

Startup ...................................................................................................36

Customizing the Navigation Bar...................................................................37

Modifying the Icon Bar ..................................................................................38

Adding items to the toolbar................................................................38

Tweaking the toolbar icons.................................................................40

Monkeying with the Menus...........................................................................40

Ordering additional menu items.........................................................41

Adding a custom command ................................................................41

Part II: Putting the ACT! Database to Work ..................45

Chapter 4: Making Contact(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

Adding New Contacts ....................................................................................47

Letting ACT! do the work for you: Automatic formatting................51

Getting the most out of ACT!: Using the drop-down lists................53

Deleting Contact Records .............................................................................55

Thinking before deleting a contact ....................................................56

Three warnings before deleting a contact ........................................56

The Contacts, They Are A’Changin’ .............................................................57

Chapter 5: A Few Good Tabs and Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

Meeting the Lists and Tabs ...........................................................................59

Customizing Lists and Tabs ..........................................................................61

Adding or removing columns .............................................................62

Changing the order and width of columns .......................................63

Sorting your lists and tabs ..................................................................63

viii ACT! 2007 For Dummies

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Contacting the Contact List ..........................................................................64

Getting to the Contact List is half the fun .........................................64

Finding a contact in the Contact List.................................................65

Tagging contacts in the Contact List .................................................65

Corralling Your Secondary Contacts ...........................................................66

Adding a secondary contact ...............................................................67

Deleting a secondary contact .............................................................68

Promoting a secondary contact .........................................................68

Documenting Your Documents.....................................................................69

Adding a document ..............................................................................70

Opening a document............................................................................70

Removing a document .........................................................................71

Changing the Sort Order ...............................................................................71

Chapter 6: The ACT! Lookup: Searching for Your Contacts . . . . . . . . .73

ACT! Is Looking Up.........................................................................................73

Performing Basic Lookups............................................................................74

Searching Your Groups, Companies, and Opportunities ..........................77

Grappling with your groups................................................................77

Calling all companies ...........................................................................78

Ogling your opportunities...................................................................79

Performing Special ACT! Lookups................................................................80

Searching by keyword..........................................................................81

Annual event lookups ..........................................................................83

Searching by contact activity .............................................................84

Creating Advanced Queries ..........................................................................86

Looking up by example........................................................................86

The Advanced Query ...........................................................................88

Chapter 7: Stamping Out the Sticky Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

Getting to Know ACT! Notes .........................................................................91

Adding a note........................................................................................92

Working with notes ..............................................................................93

Discovering ACT! Histories ...........................................................................94

Creating field histories.........................................................................95

Clearing activity histories ...................................................................96

Manually recording a history..............................................................97

Working with Your Notes and Histories ......................................................99

Chapter 8: Playing the Dating Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101

Scheduling Your Activities ..........................................................................101

Working with the ACT! Calendar ................................................................106

The mini-calendar ..............................................................................108

The Recap List ....................................................................................108

Table of Contents ix

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Using the Task List.......................................................................................109

Creating a lookup from the Task List ...............................................110

Printing the Task List .........................................................................110

Exploring Activities......................................................................................111

Viewing the Activities tab..................................................................111

Editing your activities........................................................................112

Clearing activities...............................................................................112

Creating an Activity Series..........................................................................114

Using the Activity Series Template Creation Wizard .....................115

Scheduling an activity series ............................................................117

Modifying an activity series ..............................................................118

Part III: Sharing Your Information with Others ............119

Chapter 9: Using the ACT! Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121

Working with Various ACT! Forms .............................................................121

Knowing the basic ACT! reports.......................................................122

Running an ACT! report .....................................................................126

Creating labels and envelopes..........................................................129

Printing address books......................................................................130

Checking out the calendars ..............................................................133

Working with Quick Reports .............................................................134

Using the Report Designer..........................................................................135

Changing the report content.............................................................135

Working with existing fields ..............................................................139

Adding a field ......................................................................................141

Adding a summary field.....................................................................143

Sectioning Your ACT! Report ......................................................................145

Defining report sections ....................................................................145

Modifying report sections.................................................................146

Hiding a report section......................................................................147

Customizing Labels and Envelopes ...........................................................147

Performing a label lobotomy ............................................................147

Creating new labels ............................................................................148

Chapter 10: Merging Your Information into a Document . . . . . . . . . .151

Mail Merge Isn’t Just about Mailing ...........................................................151

Picking Your Word Processor .....................................................................152

Creating a Document Template..................................................................154

Grappling with Graphics .............................................................................157

Reaching an Audience of One.....................................................................158

We’re Off to See the Mail Merge Wizard ....................................................160

x ACT! 2007 For Dummies

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Chapter 11: ACT! E-Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .165

Getting Started with ACT! E-Mail................................................................165

Setting Your E-Mail Preferences .................................................................166

E-Mailing Your Contacts ..............................................................................168

E-mailing an individual contact ........................................................169

Sending mass e-mails .........................................................................170

Editing e-mail addresses....................................................................173

Part IV: Advanced ACT!ing ........................................175

Chapter 12: Creating and Editing Contact Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .177

Understanding the Concept of Fields ........................................................177

Do Your Homework! .....................................................................................179

Adding a New Field to Your Database .......................................................180

Deleting a Field .............................................................................................185

Securing Access to Fields............................................................................186

What you see is what you get ...........................................................186

Battening down the hatches .............................................................187

Working with Drop-Down Lists...................................................................188

Creating a drop-down list field .........................................................189

Creating a drop-down list ..................................................................189

Managing the Product List ................................................................191

Managing the Process List ................................................................193

A Few More Customization Options ..........................................................194

Adding custom activity types ...........................................................194

Editing priority types.........................................................................196

Chapter 13: Customizing Layouts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .197

Modifying an Existing ACT! Layout............................................................197

Arranging fields the way you want them.........................................198

Adding new fields to the layout........................................................201

Changing the tabs...............................................................................202

Changing the order of things ............................................................203

Beautifying Your Layout..............................................................................205

Doing minor touch-up work ..............................................................205

Creating an extreme makeover.........................................................206

Adding the Finishing Touches ....................................................................208

Lining up fields and labels.................................................................208

Resizing fields .....................................................................................209

Adding a logo or a graphic ................................................................210

Creating a circle in a square..............................................................210

Adding text boxes...............................................................................211

Building a table...................................................................................212

xi Table of Contents

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Chapter 14: Zen and the Art of Database Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . .213

Understanding the Need to Check and Repair.........................................214

Determining the maintenance frequency........................................214

A little shopping list of database horrors .......................................215

Performing Routine Maintenance ..............................................................215

Backing Up the ACT! Database ...................................................................217

Performing the basic ACT! backup...................................................218

Backing up to various media ...........................................................218

Restoring a backup copy of your database ....................................219

Applying ACT! Updates................................................................................221

Performing Spring Housecleaning..............................................................222

Weeding out duplicate contacts .......................................................222

Copying or moving contact data ......................................................224

Removing old data .............................................................................226

Deleting a database............................................................................227

Performing a global edit/replace......................................................228

A few more housekeeping tips..........................................................229

Chapter 15: Calling in the Reinforcements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .231

Working with the Database Users ..............................................................231

Adding new users to the database...................................................232

Deleting login users............................................................................235

Locking down the password .............................................................238

Limiting Contact Access..............................................................................238

Creating a team...................................................................................239

Assigning access rights to the contacts ..........................................240

Finding contacts by access level......................................................242

Securing the Fields.......................................................................................243

Networking 101.............................................................................................245

Getting your network ducks in order...............................................245

Padding the workstations .................................................................246

The ACT! Scheduler .....................................................................................246

Importing New Information into ACT! .......................................................248

Chapter 16: ACT!ing with Synchronizations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .253

What in the World Is Synchronization? .....................................................253

Why synchronize? ..............................................................................254

The synchronization cycle in a nutshell .........................................254

Things that change during a synchronization................................255

Performing a Synchronization in Four ACT!s ...........................................255

ACT! 1: Doing your homework..........................................................256

ACT! 2: Setting up the main database ..............................................257

ACT! 3: Setting up the remote database ..........................................262

ACT! 4: Synchronizing data ...............................................................263

xii ACT! 2007 For Dummies

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