Best Selling Features of ACT! By Sage 2010

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?ACT!-By-Sage-2010---New-Features-Make-Managing-Relationships-As-Easy-As-1-2-3&id=3013565

Customer Organization:

• Social media spreadsheets. With Act 2010, you can view your contacts' social media affiliations using one screen. Once setup, access to clients' membership information with such popular social media sites as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Plaxo is at your fingertips with the click of a tab, allowing you to see with whom they are affiliated as well as pertinent contact information.
  

• Media member management. The software's redesigned interface makes searching your contacts easier and less time-consuming. With a design theme comparative to other popular software programs, Act 2010 allows users to access desired customer information using a collection of one-click buttons that make client tracking a breeze.
  

Client customization:

• Opportunities. Using the newly-designed interface, users of Sage software Act! 2010 can track and focus on clients based upon their specific preferences, such as products and services, group affiliations, and contact history.
  

• Results. Your carefully planned marketing strategies are the bread and butter of your business. By monitoring your marketing results via Act! 2010, you can take advantage of the capabilities of the contact management database and follow your clients through all aspects of your marketing campaigns.
  

Report generation:

• Business integration. One key feature mentioned in any reliable ACT! by Sage 2010 review is the ability to create and generate reports that may be sent and viewed using popular business software programs like Microsoft Excel, Outlook, QuickBooks, and others.
  

• Lead follow-up. Using Sage software Act 2010, independent marketers and business entrepreneurs are able to follow leads from the initial contact through the final sale. The dashboard feature displays client information among various available graphics for efficiently gathering pertinent information at a glance.
  

For more info - http://ezinearticles.com/?ACT!-By-Sage-2010---New-Features-Make-Managing-Relationships-As-Easy-As-1-2-3&id=3013565

Add your ACT! Address Book to Outlook

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

create an email in Outlook and pick the emails from your ACT! contacts.

Here's how:
1. Select Tools >> Preferences >> Options from the ACT! menu
2. Click on the E-mail tab
3. Click on the E-mail System Setup button to open the E-mail Setup Wizard
4. Select MS Outlook as you E-mail system and choose Outlook as your default ACT! email program

You can also use the system options to automatically save emails, you send, to that ACT! contact's History tab.

Create A New Opportunity Process in ACT!

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

Did you know that you can create custom processes to manage your opportunities in ACT!? You can rename or reorder existing processes to better match your company’s workflow. Here's how:

1. From within the Processes dialog, click Create New Opportunity Process.
2. Type the name of the Opportunity process and a Description, if needed.
3. Click the Active check box to allow the new process to be selected when creating a new opportunity. Click Next to advance.
4. Now you can give each sales stage a Name, Description and Probability. To add any additional sales stages, click the Add button. To move a sales stage up or down, click the Move Up or Move Down buttons.
5. When finished adding sales stages, click the Finish button. The original Processes dialog appears and your new sales process will be listed.
6. Click Close to close the Processes dialog.

Your new opportunity process will now be available when creating or modifying opportunities in ACT!.

Productivity add-on: Add contacts in ACT, Schedule Activities, Instantly Look-up ACT Contacts

Source: www.egrabber.com/addressgrabbersuite

Enter Contacts into ACT! 10 times faster!^† - AddressGrabber intelligently extracts all contact details (including name, company, address, email and phone) of your customers or prospects from any website, emails and transfers it in seconds to ACT!

Instant Lookup of ACT! contacts - Example: To look up “Steven Johnson” - Just type “st jo” ! Using Turbo Lookup you can look up any contact in ACT! by simply typing a partial contact name, phone number, company, email or combination thereof.

TimeZone Lookup for ACT! contacts - If your customers or clients are all over the country, you will appreciate this. Time Zone Lookup displays the current time and time zone for each contact as you navigate through ACT!. With this convenient feature you can prioritize your work or decide which if it's an appropriate time to call.

Speed up Scheduling Activities in ACT! - With Quick Scheduler you can schedule activities for a contact in ACT! by simply typing the activity in plain English, eg.,"Meet John at 5 EST". AddressGrabber Suite for ACT! analyzes all the activities to be performed and assigns them to the corresponding contact in ACT!.

How to capture email contacts into ACT

How to capture email contacts into ACT

Schedule Automatic ACT! Database Maintenance

Source: eGrabber Newsletter

Did you know that you can create a schedule in ACT! for database maintenance? It is enough if the computer is running at the scheduled time; your ACT! need not even be open for the automatic maintenance. Here's how you can do it:

1. Select Tools >> ACT! Scheduler.
2. Click on 'Create a task' from the Schedule Tasks box.
3. Use the Browse button and navigate to the database you would like to schedule the maintenance for.
4. Enter a User name and Password for this database.
5. Select 'Database maintenance' from the Task drop-down list, and then click Next
6. Enable Integrity Check and Re-index options. Click Next.
7. Use the Set a Schedule dialog box to specify the schedule and click Finish.
8. To Start the ACT! Scheduler Service, select Tools >> ACT! Scheduler and click on the Start Service option from the Other Tasks section. Click Exit.

Note: Only an Administrator or Manager user can create a schedule for ACT! database maintenance.

Capture Email Contacts to Act - wikiHow

Capture Email Contacts to Act - wikiHow

ACT! Addons from eGrabber

eGrabber ACT! Addons	What does it do?	ACT!™ versions supported	Who can use it?
AddressGrabber Suite for ACT!	A productivity suite comprising 6 add-ons that are designed to speed-up the most frequently used activities in ACT!. Routine activities such as adding contacts, looking up contacts, scheduling activities can be done 10 times (10x) faster with Suite in ACT!.	ACT! 2010 / 2009 / 2008 / 2007 / 2006	Sales and marketing professionals, Small business owners, Office Administrators, Managers.
	More Info	Free Trial	Buy Now
AddressGrabber (Standard & Business Editions)	Captures contact details from emails, web pages and documents and automatically enters them into ACT! and shipping / accounting applications.	ACT! 2010 / 2009 / 2008 / 2007 / 2006 / 2005 / 6.0	Small business owners, Office Administrators, Managers , Accounts / Finance departments, etc.
	More Info	Free Trial	Buy Now
eGrabber Dupchecker	eGrabber DupChecker is a tool that uses advanced fuzzy logic technology to quickly identify hard to find duplicates in your ACT! database. DupChecker automatically scans, identifies and groups duplicates for easy merging and de-duping.	ACT! 2010 / 2009 / 2008 / 2007 / 2006	Sales and marketing professionals, Small business owners, Office Administrators, Managers
	More Info	Free Trial	Buy Now
ListGrabber	Builds a list of fresh leads in ACT! by capturing multiple contacts from online directories, yellow pages, chambers of commerce listings, tradeshow lists, etc	ACT! 2010 / 2009 / 2008 / 2007 / 2006 / 2005 / 6.0	Sales and marketing professionals.
	More Info	Free Trial	Buy Now
ResumeGrabber	Captures and screens for resumes from the Internet, Email and PC folders, sorts them by keywords, experience, skill sets, location and enters them into ACT!.	ACT! 2010 / 2009 / 2008 / 2007 / 2006 / 2005 / 6.0	Recruiters and Hiring managers.
	More Info	Free Trial	Buy Now
eMail-Lead Grabber	Processes email leads coming from online form submissions and third party sites and instantly transfers them into ACT!.	ACT! 2010 / 2009 / 2008 / 2007 / 2006 / 2005 / 6.0	Realtors, Mortgage brokers, Insurance agents, Sales and marketing professionals, Small business owners.
	More Info	Free Trial	Buy Now

Schedule Automatic ACT! Database Maintenance

Source: eGrabber Newsletter

Did you know that you can create a schedule in ACT! for database maintenance? It is enough if the computer is running at the scheduled time; your ACT! need not even be open for the automatic maintenance. Here's how you can do it:

1. Select Tools >> ACT! Scheduler.
2. Click on 'Create a task' from the Schedule Tasks box.
3. Use the Browse button and navigate to the database you would like to schedule the maintenance for.
4. Enter a User name and Password for this database.
5. Select 'Database maintenance' from the Task drop-down list, and then click Next
6. Enable Integrity Check and Re-index options. Click Next.
7. Use the Set a Schedule dialog box to specify the schedule and click Finish.
8. To Start the ACT! Scheduler Service, select Tools >> ACT! Scheduler and click on the Start Service option from the Other Tasks section. Click Exit.

Note: Only an Administrator or Manager user can create a schedule for ACT! database maintenance.

Add Secondary Contacts to your ACT! Record

Source: eGrabber Newsletter

Note: The above is relevant for ACT! 2005 and 2006

Did you know that ACT! allows you to add an unlimited number of secondary contacts for each main contact? Each secondary contact can have its own field values. Here's how you can add a secondary contact:

1. In the ACT! Contacts view, select the Secondary Contacts tab.
2. Click on the New Secondary Contact button in the upper-left corner of the Secondary Contacts tab. The New Contact dialog box will open up.
3. Type in all relevant information for your contact and click OK to add the secondary contact.

Similarly, you can add more than one secondary contact for each main contact.

You can also customize the columns that are displayed for your secondary contacts. Simply click on the Options button in the upper right corner of the Secondary Contacts tab and from the drop-down, select the ‘Customize Columns’ option to do this.

Capture your email contacts into ACT! with a click!

Statistics show that professionals spend at least 20 minutes to 2 hours of their time everyday manually capturing online information (like sales leads, marketing leads, home business leads etc.) into their database. This is the most unproductive use of time. AddressGrabber will help you save your valuable time which you can use for more important tasks.

AddressGrabber is a tool that helps you captures contact details from email signatures, web forms into your lead database in just One Click! AddressGrabber intelligently figures out critical contact details like First Name, Last Name, Title, Company, Street, City, State, Zip, Phone, Fax, Email address and Web site address and adds them automatically into your Address Book. Quickly import lead information directly into ACT!™.

To know more, Click AddressGrabber Business Edition

To download the free trial version click capture email contacts into ACT!

Dial out of ACT! using your Skype Account

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

Did you know that you can dial to Skype numbers from your ACT!? Well, here's how you can do it:

1. Set up a new phone number field called “Skype Number” in ACT!. Set the field Property type as “URL” (Since Skype places calls through the Internet).

2. When you enter the phone number in the field, type callto:// the country code, and then the phone number.
For example, if the phone number is +14087051106 in the Skype Number field, enter callto://+14087051106. The number is automatically created with a blue hyperlink.

3. To the right of the phone number field you will see a button with three dots. Click on that button to set the correct country code (for example, 1 for the USA, 44 for the UK, etc.).

Now to call this contact, simply click on the Skype Number field. Skype will open and begin dialing your call.

How to capture web form responses into ACT!

When customers fill out and submits web-site forms (like the one shown above), an email is sent to the company with all the responses. To enter details from email into ACT!, the user will have to select email details to enter and click on an AddressGrabber Icon. AddressGrabber intelligently figures out all details and places them in appropriate fields in ACT.

AddressGrabber can be mapped to enter custom fields such as number of employees and other custom fields into specific fields into ACT. You only need to train it once!

You can use this to enter Web form submissions, email invoices, PayPal statement, purchase orders and any other type of email into ACT! with just one click! AddressGrabber Business eliminates hassle of manually retyping or cut-n-paste. It is fast, accurate and saves time.

To know more, Click AddressGrabber Business Edition

To download the free trial version click web form response grabber

Move or Copy Items in ACT! Tabs between Contacts

Source: eGrabber Newsletter

Have you ever wanted to copy or move items from the Notes/History, Activities, Sales/Opportunities tabs of an ACT! contact / group to another? Here's how you can do it:

1. Lookup the contact or group that contains the item you would like to move and select the appropriate tab (Notes/ History, Activities, or Sales/Opportunities).
2. Highlight the item you would like to copy or move by clicking on the grey box to the left of the item.
(Note: You can select multiple items in a range by holding down the Shift key while selecting them. Select multiple items that are not in a range by holding down the Ctrl key.)
3. From the menu, select Edit >> Copy (or Edit >> Cut if you are moving the items).
4. Lookup the destination contact or group.
5. From the menu, select Edit >> Paste.

The item will now be pasted to the destination ACT! contact or group.

Contact Capture software for ACT that Capture contacts into ACT!

Do you manually type or copy-paste contact details into ACT! ?

Do you want to automate contacts data entry into ACT! ?

AddressGrabber is the data entry automation tool that quickly captures contact details into ACT!.

Highlight any address and click and AddressGrabber. The contact information gets automatically added to ACT! within seconds.

AddressGrabber intelligently extracts name, address, email, phone and fax number from web forms, email signatures, web pages, documents, etc. and creates contacts in ACT!.

To know more, Click AddressGrabber

Download 10-day free trial version of AddressGrabber.

Automatically Create your Mailing List in ACT!

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

Did you know that you can create mailing lists in ACT! for contacts that have something in common? You can create a list (group)of contacts from a specific industry, region, etc. Every time a new contact is created, it will automatically be added to this list, if it matches your criteria.

Here's how you can do it:

1. Select Groups >> New Group from the Menu.
2. Enter the Group Name. Let's say you wish to create a list of contacts from the Real Estate industry; enter the Group Name as "Real Estate" followed by a description in the next field.
3. Click on the Add/Remove Contacts button and select Edit Criteria.
4. Use the drop-down options here to choose.
Type as Contact, Field Name as Industry, Operator as Contains and Value as Real Estate. Click on the Add to list button.
5. Click OK to create the new group.

Now, every time you mark an ACT! contact as belonging to the Real Estate industry, it will automatically be added to the new group that you created.

ACT! User Group Meetings near your city

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

The Seattle ACT! Users Group will meet on Tuesday, September 29, 2009, at West Seattle, PCC Market, 2749 California Ave. SW, Seattle 98116.

Participate in ACT! User Group Meetings to exchange and learn new ideas and keep up with the latest developments in ACT!. These meetings are ideal for both new and experienced ACT! Users.

Speed-up the Most Frequent Activities in ACT! with AddressGrabber Suite

• Do you often add new contacts to my ACT! database.
• Do you frequently look-up contacts and schedule activities for them.

Each activity takes at least 2-3 minutes which is very time consuming, considering that I work on at least 20 contacts every day.

AddressGrabber Suite is a popular ACT! add-on that speeds-up the three most frequently performed activities in ACT! – entering contacts, looking up contacts and scheduling activities.

• AddressGrabber – Auto-extracts name, address, email, phone and other contact information from any source and enters them into ACT! in 5 seconds.
• Turbo Lookup – Brings up matching results even as your are typing in your request (To Lookup “Steven Johnson” just type “st jo”)
• Quick Scheduler – Understands instructions in simple English and schedules activities (Just type “call John Locke at 11 am next Monday” to schedule an activity for John)
  

With AddressGrabber Suite, you save time and increase your productivity with ACT! by 10X times.

Download your 10 day free trial version of AddressGrabber Suite

Create Graphic HTML Email Templates using ACT!

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

Did you know that you can use ACT! to create and send emails that look like web pages? You can include your company logo, a link to your website, and other graphical elements. Here's how:

1.	Select File >> New from the ACT! menu. Double click Graphical email template.
2.	The ACT! Word processor opens with a list containing Mail Merge fields displayed.
3.	Copy your company logo. Navigate to the ACT! Word processor and Left (mouse) click in the area where you would like your logo to appear. Right click and choose paste.
4.	You can also customize the template with information from ACT!. From the menu, select Insert and choose Mail Merge Fields. Scroll down the list of ACT! fields and double click on the First Name field.
5.	Press the Enter key to insert a blank line, and then type in the message.
6.	To insert a link to your website, choose Hyperlink from the Insert menu and type the website URL.
7.	Finally, save the file (File >> Save As) in the Template sub-folder of ACT!.

Now, whenever you have an ACT! contact for which you would like to send this email, select Write >> Mail Merge >> Current Contact >> Email and select the email template you created.

Issues to be aware of with ACT! 2010

Source: LinkedIn ACT! Fanatics Group Posted By Mike Lazarus ACT! Evangelist

1. Not all add-ons have been updated to the new version or will require upgrades. The upgrade should check for items in the Plugins folder and give the user an opportunity to uninstall them first
2. Custom layouts have a performance issue - Sage are aware of this and are working on it
3. Edit | Replace no-longer allows mass changes to the Record Manager field to re-assign records
4. The report writer doesn't allow proper inclusion of Sales Opportunities or Custom Tables - reports on these areas need third-party tools
5. Quotes need more flexibility to add Sales Opportunity fields
6. Sales Ops should have the option to auto-number with a prefix for the database to avoid conflict with sync users
7. Sales Ops should have an "Only from Drop Down" and prevent other fields being edited when adding Products. Also an option to limit to "One only" or "At least one" contact(s) to prevent Sales Ops without contacts.
8. The top Nav Bar takes up to much screen real-estate and can't be made smaller and, if using Outlook, Write and View email both do the same thing. Also, you can't add custom items like new custom activities
9. The left Nav Bar can't be easily customised and should have tool-tips when minimised
10. The Web 2.0 tab, while great for Google and some other functions is a long way short of providing real Business Intelligence possible from Social Media
11. Adding reports to the Favourite list should also add them to a sub-menu on the main Reports menu

Add Secondary Contacts to your ACT! Record

Source: eGrabber Newsletter

Did you know that ACT! allows you to add an unlimited number of secondary contacts for each main contact? Each secondary contact can have its own field values. Here's how you can add a secondary contact:

1. In the ACT! Contacts view, select the Secondary Contacts tab.
2. Click on the New Secondary Contact button in the upper-left corner of the Secondary Contacts tab.

The New Contact dialog box will open up.

3. Type in all relevant information for your contact and click OK to add the secondary contact.

Similarly, you can add more than one secondary contact for each main contact.

You can also customize the columns that are displayed for your secondary contacts. Simply click on the Options button in the upper right corner of the Secondary Contacts tab and from the drop-down, select the ‘Customize Columns’ option to do this.

Note: The above is relevant for ACT! 2005 and 2006

Dedupe your ACT! database

Duplicate records are normally created in a database through many ways. It can happen when you

1. Import contacts from multiple sources such as online directories, 3rd party lists, etc.
2. Import contacts from other legacy databases.
3. Enter contacts manually.

Now, before you know, your database would have grown big and so also the minor variations in duplicates, which have escaped your regular duplicate filters that you may have set. Some of these variations are

• Spelling/Typo errors (Evan Wistar = Ewan Wystar)
• Company Abbreviations (HP = Hewlett Packard Inc.)
• Common Nicknames (Dr Robert Hicks = Bob Hicks)
• Mis-mapped fields while importing (First Name = Last name; Last name = First Name)
• Same contact having different addresses and many more...

eGrabber DupChecker provides you an easy way to find all such subtle variations of duplicates that generally go unnoticed in your database. It also automatically groups duplicates for merging and de-duping.

After importing any list into ACT!, run DupChecker on your database. The patent pending "fuzzy logic technology" built into DupChecker lists all potential duplicates in your ACT! at one go. It also allows you to do an auto merge of all the duplicates.

For a free trial, Click dedupe your ACT! database with eGrabber Dupchecker

Lookup Contacts by City in ACT!

Source: eGrabber Newsletter

Did you know that you can find all the contacts from a given city or cities, in your ACT! database, using a simple Lookup? Here's how:

1. Select Lookup >> By Example from the main menu.
2. Place the cursor on the City field and type in the city name (for example, San Jose).
3. Hit Search.

Your lookup will return all contacts in San Jose.

To lookup contacts in two cities, use the OR operator ( | ) while entering the city names in step 2 above. For example, to find contacts in San Jose and Sacramento, you will have to enter San Jose || Sacramento.

Note: The “ | ” character is the uppercase character sharing the key with your backslash character " \ " (above the Enter key). To type it, you will have to hold the Shift key and hit the Backslash key.

Use the ACT! Activity Series to Automate Lead Follow-up

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

How many times have you wanted to follow-up on a lead but let it slip away? By using a tool in ACT!, called the Activity Series, you can easily automate a process to ensure that you follow-up on all your leads and avoid losing them forever.

Here's how you can create a set of follow-up activities for every lead that you get from a given lead generation activity - Trade Shows, Webinars, Conferences, etc.

1. From the menu, select Schedule >> Manage >> Activity Series Templates. The Activity Series Template Creation Wizard dialog box appears.
2. Check the 'Create a new activity series' option.
3. Click Next to create a template for the activity series. Enter the Name and Description.
4. The next step in the wizard allows you to enter the activities in the series. Click on the Add button and use the Add Activity dialog box to enter activity type (call, email, etc.), start date, priority, alarms, etc.
5. Click Ok. Repeat the above step to add more activities in the series.
6. Once you have finished adding activities, click Next to finish the wizard.
7. Now to schedule an activity series for a contact, select Schedule >> Activity Series and choose the template you would like to use.
8. In the Series anchor date field, select the anchor date. Now select the activities and from the With list, choose the contacts or users. Click Schedule.
   

By doing this, you can ensure that you do not miss out on any of your valuable leads.

Perform a 'Lookup' on Any Field in ACT!

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

Most of your lookups will involve clicking the Lookup menu and then selecting a field. Have you ever come across a situation where you needed to lookup on a field that is not listed on the lookup menu?

ACT! allows you to search for almost all fields, including the custom fields. Here's how:

1. Select Lookup >> Other Fields from the menu. The Lookup Contacts dialog box appears.
2. The drop-down below 'Look in this field' option shows the list of all fields in your database.
3. Select the field for which you would like to search.
4. In the 'Search for' area, type the field value you would like to lookup.
5. Click OK.

Note: Fields such as Edit Date and Create Date are not searchable in this area.

Tool to Import Contact Lists into ACT!

• Do you prospect for contact lists on the online directories that match your target market?
• Do you manually copy-paste contact list into your ACT?

ListGrabber is a tool that eliminates manual data entry. No more copy-paste. ListGrabber completely eliminates the pain of manually copy-pasting contacts into your ACT!

ListGrabber automatically extracts contact lists from Online Directories such as YellowPages.com, SuperPages.com etc, association websites, membership directories, Chamber of Commerce Lists, White Pages, MLS listings etc. and imports them into ACT!

ListGrabber auto-extracts name, address, email, phone, fax number, etc and enters them into contact fields in ACT!

Download a 10-day free trial version of ListGrabber.

Transfer Records between Databases

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

Did you know that you can move a contact record from one ACT! database to another - along with the corresponding notes and activities - with just a few quick keystrokes or mouse clicks?

Here's how you do it:

1. Find the individual contact(s) you want to export by performing a Lookup.
2. Select File >> Data Exchange >> Export from the main menu. The Export Wizard opens.
3. Select the file type you want to export. You can also export your contacts as a text file.
4. Select the ACT! database that you want to export this information into and hit the Next button.
5. Select the kind of record(s) you want to export. You can choose between Contact, Group or both.
6. Click the Options button and the Merge Options dialog box opens. Here you tell ACT! what you want it to do if it finds the same record in the destination database. Select OK to close the Merge Options box and click Next.
7. Select the Contact or Group records you want to export. Click Next.
8. The final step in the export process is mapping your fields. If your fields aren’t mapped properly you will lose data. Hit Finish.

Now, ACT! will automatically export the selected record(s) from one database to another.

Share Drop-down Lists with other ACT! Users

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

Have you ever created a detailed drop-down list that you would like to share with other ACT! users? Here’s an easy way to do it:

1. Select Edit >> Define Fields from the menu to open the Define Fields dialog box.
2. Select the field that contains the drop-down list and click on the drop-down tab.
3. Click the export tab and give the file a name. ACT! saves the list as a text file.

Now, you can send the text file to other ACT! users. The recipient should select the field he wants to import the list into, and from the drop-down tab click on the Import button.

Automate Manual Entry Of Email Leads Into ACT!

• Do you recieve sales leads, as email, from lead vendors, 3rd party websites and online forms on your website?

• Do you manually copy-paste contact details and other relevant information of the lead from each email into ACT! fields?

Use eMail-Lead Grabber to quickly import email leads into ACT!

How it Works

eMail-Lead Grabber automatically

• Processes your incoming emails and extracts contact information and other relevant details from emails as and when they are received
  
• Enters the contact information into the respective fields in ACT!
• Sends personalized auto-response emails
• Distributes email leads to you sales team.
  

Download the free trial-version of eMail-Lead Grabber to try it by yourself!

Importing Contact Lists into ACT!

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

Whenever you want to work from a new list, it is better to create a separate ACT! database. Never import the new list into your active ACT! database. To do this,

1. Select File >> Save Copy As from the main menu. The ‘Save Copy As’ dialog box opens.

2. Select the Create Empty Copy option. ACT! copies the entire database structure, including the fields, field names, and drop-down menus. By creating a new database this way — instead of using the File >> New command — you do not have to spend time customizing a newly created database.

3. Select File >> Import. ACT!’s Import Wizard opens.

4. Select the file type. Many lists are text delimited.

5. Browse the location of the file on your PC, and click the Next button.

6. Select Contact Records, and click the Next button. Here, you tell ACT! that the list is comma or tab delimited and if you want to import the first record. Click Next twice and the Contact Map Wizard opens up.

7. Map Your Fields. Field Mapping is the most important part of this process. You must make sure that the fields in the list are placed in the correct fields within ACT!. Some lists place first and last names in separate fields. ACT!’s mapping wizard enables you to map your fields to First Name and Last Name.

8. Click the Finish button and ACT! imports your list into your new database.

Move or Copy Items in ACT! Tabs between Contacts

Have you ever wanted to copy or move items from the Notes/History, Activities, Sales/Opportunities tabs of an ACT! contact / group to another? Here's how you can do it:

1. Lookup the contact or group that contains the item you would like to move and select the appropriate tab (Notes/ History, Activities, or Sales/Opportunities).
2. Highlight the item you would like to copy or move by clicking on the grey box to the left of the item.(Note: You can select multiple items in a range by holding down the Shift key while selecting them. Select multiple items that are not in a range by holding down the Ctrl key.)
3. From the menu, select Edit >> Copy (or Edit >> Cut if you are moving the items).
4. Lookup the destination contact or group.
5. From the menu, select Edit >> Paste.
   

The item will now be pasted to the destination ACT! contact or group.

ACT! User Group Meetings near your city

Source: eGrabber Newsletter

The Los Angeles ACT! User Group is meeting on Friday, September 11, 2009, 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM, at The Magic Castle, 7001 Franklin Ave., Hollywood, CA 90028.

Find out more about the ACT! User Group Meetings near your city.

Participate in ACT! User Group Meetings to exchange and learn new ideas and keep up with the latest developments in ACT!. These meetings are ideal for both new and experienced ACT! Users.

Use the ACT! Activity Series to Automate Lead Follow-up

Source: eGrabber Newsletter

How many times have you wanted to follow-up on a lead but let it slip away? By using a tool in ACT!, called the Activity Series, you can easily automate a process to ensure that you follow-up on all your leads and avoid losing them forever.

Here's how you can create a set of follow-up activities for every lead that you get from a given lead generation activity - Trade Shows, Webinars, Conferences, etc.

1. From the menu, select Schedule >> Manage >> Activity Series Templates. The Activity Series Template Creation Wizard dialog box appears.
2. Check the 'Create a new activity series' option.
3. Click Next to create a template for the activity series. Enter the Name and Description.
4. The next step in the wizard allows you to enter the activities in the series. Click on the Add button and use the Add Activity dialog box to enter activity type (call, email, etc.), start date, priority, alarms, etc.
5. Click Ok. Repeat the above step to add more activities in the series.
6. Once you have finished adding activities, click Next to finish the wizard.
7. Now to schedule an activity series for a contact, select Schedule >> Activity Series and choose the template you would like to use.
8. In the Series anchor date field, select the anchor date. Now select the activities and from the With list, choose the contacts or users. Click Schedule.

By doing this, you can ensure that you do not miss out on any of your valuable leads.

Capture Contacts/Addresses from WebPages, Email into ACT!

I manually type or copy-paste contact details into my ACT! everyday. This takes up a lot of my valuable time. Is there a way by which I can automatically enter contacts into ACT!?

AddressGrabber is the quickest and easiest way to accurately capture contact details into your ACT!. All you have to do is just highlight any address and click on AddressGrabber. The contact information gets automatically added to ACT! within seconds.

AddressGrabber intelligently extracts name, address, email, phone and fax number from email signatures, web pages, documents, etc. and creates contacts in ACT!.

AddressGrabber cuts down your time spent on manual data entry by atleast 80%. It also eliminates inaccuracies and other hassles associated with manual data entry. Download your free trial version today or call our sales specialists at 888-227-9175 for a free 2-minute demo.

What's New with ACT! 2010

Source: ACT! by Sage 2010 Solutions

Organize all the details of your customer relationships.

Strong business relationships are essential to your success. Get a complete view of the people you do business with, plus instant access to past interactions and e-mails sent. Next time a customer calls, you’re prepared with a response about what you discussed last time, as well as personal details to set your business apart

Generate actionable demand with end-to-end E-marketing.

Not only can you create and send striking e-mail and drip marketing campaigns using a simple online editor, you’ll also be able to quickly identify your most interested prospects using a ranked call list so you know who to reach out to first.

Take action on your most qualified sales leads.

Focus on your most viable leads by capturing and managing each lead through the sales process. Record detailed progress notes, include your products and services, and see the probability of close. This gives you total visibility and control of your sales pipeline.

Be more productive right away.

Don't worry about a learning curve. ACT! is easy to learn and use. In fact, you can be 25% more productive by simply choosing ACT! over the competition.

To learn more, Click ACT! by Sage 2010 Solutions

Send Email Reminders for Scheduled Activities

Source: eGrabber Newsletter

Did you know that ACT! allows you to send email reminders for activities that you schedule? Here's how you can do it:

1. Select the activity, for which a reminder should be sent, from the task list or from the Activities tab of the contact record.

2. Right-click on the activity and select Send Activity E-mail.

3. A new email message will be opened and addressed to the contact(s), for whom the activity was scheduled.

4. Details about the activity will be added to the body of this email message. The activity will also be attached to the email.

5. You can also edit the message as required and send it.

eGrabber Announces Compatibility With New ACT! by Sage 2010

eGrabber’s complete suite of sales lead and resume capture solutions now support ACT! by Sage 2010, the latest version of Sage's Contact and Customer Management Product.

San Jose, CA, September 01, 2009 - eGrabber Inc. today announced new versions of lead generation and candidate sourcing solutions that are compatible with the new ACT! By Sage 2010 CRM. The products that are now compatible with ACT! by Sage 2010 are AddressGrabber Suite for ACT!, AddressGrabber, ListGrabber, ResumeGrabber, eMail-Lead Grabber and DupChecker for ACT!.

eGrabber solutions enable sales and recruiting professionals to quickly capture and process Internet sales leads and resumes into ACT! by Sage 2010, enabling them to save time and improve productivity.

"We are well known in ACT! by Sage circles as a company dedicated to developing top quality products with the objective of improving ACT! by Sage user productivity," said Chandra Bodapati, President and CEO of eGrabber Inc. "Our continued partnership and support for ACT! by Sage, spanning nearly a decade, is testimonial to eGrabber's commitment to better the professional lives of ACT! by Sage users. I am excited about the new features in ACT! by Sage 2010 and happy to have our products support the new version."

eGrabber's products incorporate patented data-capture technology that eliminates manual data entry byautomatically recognizing and reading the contact information on web pages, online directories, in e-mail signatures, documents, spreadsheets, etc. Essential contact information is accurately extracted and populated within ACT! by Sage for immediate follow-up and tracking.

More information on eGrabber is available at http://www.egrabber.com. In addition, existing customers will be able to benefit from discounted upgrade prices by calling 408-516 4579.

About ACT! by Sage

ACT! by Sage is the #1 selling Contact and Customer Manager worldwide with over 2.8 million users. ACT! users can organize all the details of their customer relationships in one place to improve marketing effectiveness, attract new customers, and create more value from existing relationships. Complete sales pipeline visibility helps ACT! users identify and take action on the most qualified sales opportunities. ACT! is easy to use and integrates with existing business solutions including Microsoft Outlook®, Word, Excel® and Lotus Notes®. For more information call 866-903-0006 or visit www.act.com, www.act.com/facebook, www.act.com/twitter or http://community.act.com.

About eGrabber, Inc.

eGrabber is the leading provider of automated Internet Lead Generation solutions. Founded in 1996, eGrabber pioneered, invented and patented revolutionary Internet research business processes and data capture algorithms. Over 100,000 sales, marketing and recruiting professionals use eGrabber tools to accelerate list-building, candidate-sourcing and Internet lead-research. Our brands include AddressGrabber, ListGrabber, ResumeGrabber, ResumeFinder, LeadFinder, LeadResearcher, SearchBot, ResumeBot and eMail-Lead Grabber.

For more information, please visit www.egrabber.com or call (408) 705-1106.

ACT! is a registered trademark or trademark of Sage Software, Inc.

Add Custom Help Documents to the ACT! Help Menu

Source: eGrabber Newslettters

Did you know that you can add your own custom help documents (MS Word, Excel, PDF) to the ACT! 2007 Premium Help Menu. Here's how:

1. Select Tools >> Customize >> Menus and Toolbars.
2. Select the Custom Commands tab and click on the New button.
3. Specify the Command Name (this name will appear in the Help menu), Tootltip text (this text will appear when you move the mouse pointer over this Help menu item) and the Location of the Custom Help Document (use the Browse button to select the document from the PC).
4. Click on the Add Command button.
5. Now click on the Commands tab and select Custom Commands.
6. Drag & Drop the Custom Command from the left navigation pane to the Menu bar and release when you have the item where you would like it in the Help Menu system.

Note: If your ACT! runs on a server, then the custom help document should be saved in a folder that all users have full rights to.

Create Groups Using Criteria in ACT!

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

Have you ever wanted to create a separate list of ACT! contacts for which you have only email address and no phone number, so that you can run specific email campaigns for them?

Groups are great way for creating quick look-ups based on two or more fields. Here's how you can do it:

1. To create a new group, click on the Groups icon in the ACT! Navigation Bar
2. Click on the New Group icon in the Groups menu
3. Enter the new Group name and click on the Add/Remove Contacts to Group icon from the menu
4. In the Add/Remove Contacts window, click on the Edit Criteria button to open the Group Criteria window
5. Select the following from the different drop-down options

Type: Contact, Field Name: ID/Status, Operator: Contains, Value: Prospect. Click on the Add to list button.

Add another criteria as
Type: Contact, Field Name: Phone, Operator: Contains Data, Value: . Click on the Add to list button.

6. Click OK to create the new group.

Now every time you mark an ACT! contact without phone number as prospect, it will automatically be added to the new group that you created.

Auto-Process your Website Form Submissions into ACT!

Does your website have Contact Us (Inquiry) forms that visitors fill in and submit? Do you manually type or copy-paste contact and other information from these web form submissions into ACT!?

With eMail-Lead Grabber, you can automatically process web form submissions and other email-leads directly into ACT!.

eMail-Lead Grabber intelligently extracts name, address, email, phone and other relevant information from web form submissions and automatically creates contacts in ACT! as when you receive them. It cuts down the time spent on manual processing of such email leads by atleast 80%. It also eliminates inaccuracies and other hassles associated with manual data entry.

Download your free 10-day free-trial version today or call our sales specialists at 888-227-9175 for a free 2-minute demo.

ACT! User Group Meetings near your city

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

The Chicago ACT! User Group will meet on Tuesday, Sept 1, 2009, from 7 PM - 9 PM at the Schaumburg Township Public Library, 130 S. Roselle Road, Schaumburg, IL 60193.

Find out more about the ACT! User Group Meetings near your city.

Participate in ACT! User Group Meetings to exchange and learn new ideas and keep up with the latest developments in ACT!. These meetings are ideal for both new and experienced ACT! Users.

Discount on ACT! Add-ons from eGrabber - Labor Day Special Offer

AddressGrabber Suite for ACT!

AddressGrabber Suite is a popular ACT! add-on that speeds-up the three most frequently performed activities in ACT! – entering contacts, looking up contacts and scheduling activities.

<<Free Trial>> <<Buy Now>>

Use the coupon code "AG20BLG" to get 20% discount on AddressGrabber Suite for ACT!


eMail-Lead Grabber Business 2009

eMail-Lead Grabber automatically extracts lead contact information from email leads purchased from 3rd party vendors, web forms and transfers them into relevant ACT! Fields. With this add-on you can send personalized auto-response emails and automate distribution of leads to your sales team.

<<Free Trial>> <<Buy Now>>

Use the coupon code "ELGB30BLG" to get 30% discount on eMail-Lead Grabber Business 2009


AddressGrabber Business 2009

AddressGrabber is an add on for ACT!, that captures contact information from emails, order forms, web pages and online directories and transfers them into ACT!. With this add-on you can transfer contact information between ACT!, Outlook, Excel, QuickBooks,and more.

<<Free Trial>> <<Buy Now>>

Use the coupon code "AG20BLG" to get 20% discount on AddressGrabber Business 2009

Add-ons to speed up your most frequent activities in ACT!

Do you often add new contacts to your ACT! database?

Do you frequently look-up contacts and schedule activities for them?

Each of these activities takes at least 2-3 minutes, which is time consuming; considering that you work on at least 20 contacts every day.

Let's review an easy view to do this..

AddressGrabber Suite is a popular ACT! add-on that speeds-up the three most frequently performed activities in ACT! – entering contacts, looking up contacts and scheduling activities.

1. AddressGrabber – Automatically extracts name, address, email, phone and other contact information from any source and enters them into ACT! in 5 seconds.

2. Turbo Lookup – Brings up matching results even as your are typing in your request (To Lookup "Steven Johnson" just type "st jo")

3. Quick Scheduler – Understands instructions in simple English and schedules activities (Just type "call John Locke at 11 am next Monday" to schedule an activity for John on April 27th).

With AddressGrabber Suite you save time and increase your productivity with ACT! by 10X times. Download your free 10-day trial.

Find Duplicates that ACT! Cannot

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

I know that I have set filters in ACT! to alert me on duplicates. But now, I see there are many duplicates in my ACT! database that seemed to have mutely grown over a period of time. How do I get rid of these duplicates?

Duplicate records are normally created in a database through many ways. It can happen when you
1. Import contacts from multiple sources such as online directories, 3rd party lists, etc.
2. Import contacts from other legacy databases.
3. Enter contacts manually.

Now, before you know, your database would have grown big and so also the minor variations in duplicates, which have escaped your regular duplicate filters that you may have set. Some of these variations are
- Spelling/Typo errors (Evan Wistar = Ewan Wystar)
- Company Abbreviations (HP = Hewlett Packard Inc.)
- Common Nicknames (Dr Robert Hicks = Bob Hicks)
- Mis-mapped fields while importing (First Name = Last name; Last name = First Name)
- Same contact having different addresses and many more...

eGrabber DupChecker provides you an easy way to find all such subtle variations of duplicates that generally go unnoticed in your database. It also automatically groups duplicates for merging and de-duping.

After importing any list into ACT!, run DupChecker on your database. The patent pending "fuzzy logic technology" built into DupChecker lists all potential duplicates in your ACT! at one go. It also allows you to do an auto merge of all the duplicates.

Works With :

• ACT!™ 2009
• ACT!™ 2008
• ACT!™ 2007 - All Versions
• ACT!™ 2006 - 8.0.2.81 / 8.0.2.82

Attach Documents to ACT! Groups

Attaching a document to a contact, group or company in your ACT! is an easy way to keep track of important documents.

Here's how you can do it:

1. Save the document / file you wish to attach on your computer.
2. Open the ACT! Group Detail view.
3. Click on the Documents tab.
4. Right-click in the white area and the shortcut menu will appear.
5. Click on Add Document. The Attach File dialog box appears.
6. Browse and Open the desired file. The file will now appear in your Documents tab.

A copy of the file is saved in the database supplemental files folder so that the attached file will be backed up in your ACT! database.

Automate importing Leads into ACT!

• Do you receive sales leads as email from the online forms on your website or from 3rd party websites?
  

• Do you purchase email leads from lead vendors?
  

• Do you manually copy-paste contact details and other relevant information from each email lead into ACT! Fields?
  

• Why waste your time manually copy-pasting the lead contact information into ACT!?

Use eMail-Lead Grabber to automate importing email leads into ACT!

eMail-Lead Grabber automatically parses the incoming email leads, extracts contact information and other relevant details from the email leads, as, and when they are received, and enters them into respective fields into ACT!.

Download the free 10-day trial version of eMail-Lead Grabber to try it by yourself.

eMail-Lead Grabber Works With:

ACT! 2009 / 2008 / 2007 / 2006 for Windows

ACT! 2009 / 2008 / 2007 / 2006 Premium for Workgroup

ACT! 2005 - Build Version:7.0.4.82 (Windows and Premium for Workgroup)

ACT! 6.0/ 2000

Hide Activities from other ACT! Users

Source: eGrabber Newsletters

Did you know that you can schedule activities in ACT!, that will be invisible to other ACT! users? You can hide an activity from other ACT! users by scheduling it as a private activity.

Here's how you can do it:

1. Select Preferences >> Tools from the menu
2. Select the Calendar & Scheduling tab
3. Click on the Scheduling Preferences button
4. Uncheck the 'Make new activities public' option
5. Click OK

Now, any activity that you schedule will be hidden from the other ACT! users.

Hello Everyone

Thank you for visiting my blog. This is my personal space to share information about ACT! add-ons.

I'm writing this blog to help the ACT! community to be aware of the Add-ons from eGrabber to increase ACT! productivity and I will be publishing tips from eGrabber for the ACT! users.