Married couples everywhere have been searching for this feature forever. It’s amazing that Microsoft has still failed to address this issue in a way that is convenient and affordable for people in business that would like to not maintain two calendars - one for their work life and one for their home life. Over the last few years Google has done a much better job with this nerve wracking issue with their shared calendars. Users can use a system that lets you essentially ‘push-botton’ or toggle your work calendar or home calendar on or off. You can see one or the other or both. It works fairly well and will also send the information down to your mobile device. If you are using the Android operating system, there is almost no effort involved in seeing the combination of the calendars on your mobile device, complete with color coding, as you would see in your browser. So why did I say it works ‘fairly well’ if it uses a push button system and it works on your mobile device - and it’s FREE?

Enter from stage left the Ultimate Husband and Wife Calendar: Sage ACT! Contact Manager sync’ed with Google via Gmail. What does Google’s shared calendars not have that the combination has?
- A sophisticated system for marketing to your business contacts
- The ability to tie a contact name to a meeting, conference call etc., sounds basic, it’s not. While you have someone on the phone you decide to meet on Tuesday, you simply schedule an appointment with who you had on the phone [it knows] and pick a time
- Ability to convert an email with details into an appointment or scheduled phone call at a specific time

So imagine this - this is a real life possibility - You receive an email from a customer that sets and agenda for a dinner meeting next week on Thursday, not only can you see your family calendar to determine if you need to take your son to his soccer practice, you confirm via email and convert the Outlook email to an appointment on your calendar with one button and it automatically blocks out your time so your husband/wife knows he/she can’t move one of her appointments that require you to be at home to make dinner that night. And you don’t have to buy extra software for your husband/wife or teach him/her how to use it - the partner is just using Google’s shared calendar. It goes beyond with Microsoft and Google can do on their own OR combined. If you need to see it in action, call us.

Popularity: 2% [?]

We have a separate blog post about Large ACT! Backup files, this post pertains to an ACT! database file that is growing rapidly or much too large for the number of contacts that are in the database. How did you find out? You may have stumbled on it but an over-sized ACT! database file will make the database run slower or cause other data issues. How did it get that way, you ask?

If it’s not related to overall file attachment sizes then another area to look is to check if there are old sync users [remote database users] that are no longer in use but never had their sync disabled. If the old sync files are sitting around the ACT! database is continuing to accumulate data on all of the changes to contacts, notes, history etc. that have not been released to the remote database that is no longer in use - the result, a massively growing tumor attached to your ACT! database that will bloat the size of the ACT! data file.

Remedy: Disable the old sync’s so the database doesn’t keep tracking the changes and things should return to normal. If the file size does not reduce immediately, call a Certified ACT! Consultant or the Sage support line.

Popularity: 5% [?]

It happened again. It’s not uncommon for us to go into a company that has been managing their own ACT! database and find an enormous ACT! backup file greater than 3Gigs. The latest is a company with under 20,000 contacts and not a significant number of attachments. So what’s the deal?

There are several situations that can cause the backup of an ACT! database to grow in rapid proportion to the size that it should be:
Scenario 1: The administrator is saving other data in the backup folder and it is pulled into future backups
Scenario 2: Left over files from backups that did not complete. If an ACT! backup does not complete there will be temporary files that are normally removed at the end of the backup process left in the backup folder. If they are left behind, they will be pulled into every future backup. The left over files can be very large - especially if the backup went most of the way to completion. Take this example. If the normal size of the backup file when completed is 1.5 Gig and a failed backup made it most of the way through to 1.3 G it will then add them together to create new ongoing backups that are about 2.8 Gig. So what happens if you have a backup that then runs to completion at 2.8 Gig then fails again and is picked up by the next backup it will then be 4.3 Gigs.

Remedy: If you aren’t sure what you are looking at - call a Certified ACT! Consultant or Sage Tech Support - sorry, this one is not for novices.

Popularity: 4% [?]

It has been reported that Act! 2011 users using Terminal Services [A Microsoft Remote Connection to a Server running Act!] to connect to their Act! database are having significant slowness when trying to clear activities from the task list and from the calendar.  The situation usually presents itself to be more of a problem the longer that the user is signed on to Act! and then clears up if you exit Act! and then re-open the software.  Most or all Terminal Services users of Act! will experience the slowness at the same time due to the nature of the problem.  Task Manager will show a high allocation of memory RAM being used by one or more than one user that is using Act!

 Most indications are that the problem is occurring specifically for users that initiate email messages from the Act! Contact Detail screen by clicking on the email address hyperlink to create an email.  Users that create the email from scratch using Outlook and then identify who to send it to by using the Act! address book are not experiencing the same issue.  In the background a significant amount of RAM is being used by Act! after the emails are initiated using the hyperlink and other functions like closing an activity are effected in a negative way.  The problem also exists if the user initiates the email from the Contact Detail screen and clicks on the Email Button on the Act! toolbar.

There is a hot fix that will be addressing this issue [expected in SP1 - Hot Fix 3] but there is a work-around in the mean time.  If the Act! software starts to perform slowly, close Act! and re-open it to reset the amount of RAM allocated to the application.  From that point forward, use Outlook to initiate email as described above and use the Act! address book to fill in the To: Field or copy and paste the email address from the Act! Contact Detail screen if your address book is not set up properly on your computer [this is fixable with a phone call to our help line].

 The problem described here is significantly persistent for people that use Act! via Microsoft’s remote connectivity feature - Terminal Services.

Popularity: 11% [?]

It has been reported that Act! 2011 users are having significant slowness when trying to clear activities from the task list and from the calendar.  The situation usually presents itself to be more of a problem the longer that the user is signed on to Act! and then clears up if you exit Act! and then re-open the software.

 Most indications are that the problem is occurring specifically for users that initiate email messages from the Act! Contact Detail screen by clicking on the email address hyperlink to create an email.  Users that create the email from scratch using Outlook and then identify who to send it to by using the Act! address book are not experiencing the same issue.  In the background a significant amount of RAM is being used by Act! after the emails are initiated using the hyperlink and other functions like closing an activity are effected in a negative way.

There is a hot fix that will be addressing this issue [expected in SP1 - Hot Fix 3] but there is a work-around in the mean time.  If the Act! software starts to perform slowly, close Act! and re-open it to reset the amount of RAM allocated to the application.  From that point forward, use Outlook to initiate email as described above and use the Act! address book to fill in the To: Field or copy and paste the email address from the Act! Contact Detail screen if your address book is not set up properly on your computer [this is fixable with a phone call to our help line].

 The problem described here is significantly persistent for people that use Act! via Microsoft’s remote connectivity feature - Terminal Services.�

Popularity: 10% [?]

Adding Custom Help Documents to ACT! Help Menu

You can add your own custom help documents (PDF, MS WORD, EXCEL) to the ACT! 2007 Premium Help Menu NOTE:  the corresponding applications (Adobe Reader, MS Word, MS Excel, etc.) must be installed on the computer or server where ACT! is running so that the help document can be opened.

1.  Save the custom help document in a folder on the ACT Server that all users have full rights to.

2.  Open ACT!

3.  Choose Tools | Customize | Menus and Toolbars

4.  Click on the Custom Commands tab

5.  Click on the New button

6.  Specify the following:

            a.  Command Name (what will appear on the Help Menu)

            b.  Tooltip text (displays when user puts mouse pointer on Help Menu item)

            c.  Location of the Custom Help Document (use the Browse button)

7.  Click on the Add Command button

8.  Click on the Commands tab and select Custom Commands

9.  Click, 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

10.  Close the Customize Menus and Toolbars window

Popularity: 65% [?]

Did you recently install the Act! software or Upgrade Act! from a previous version?  Are you noticing some things that just don’t seem to be working correctly?  Here are the most common problems that occur when an Act! Upgrade or Installation did not go as well as planned.  It’s important to note that sometimes there isn’t an error that pops up during the installation or conversion process that’s causing the issue.  There could be a step in the instructions that was skipped or you could have another piece of software on your PC interfering with the Act! Software. 

Here are the common problems:
Installation or Upgrade procedure didn’t finish.
     Solution:  Start a completely fresh installation or upgrade - do not try to reconvert the same Act! database!  If you do it will be very painful and extremely frustrating.

Computer froze during the installation or upgrade process.
     Solution:  Start a completely fresh installation or upgrade - check that your PC and Server meet OUR recommended requirements for Act! before continuing.  Don’t go with it what it says on the side of the cereal box, look at our requirement, RAM is cheap and Speed Rules!

Email is not working properly - ex. you pull up a contact and click on their email address and it doesn’t open a new blank email for the contact.  Also, you might be sending emails and expecting Act! to attach the email to the contact record so you can simply click on the email history item to launch the email but there is no link back to the email.
     Solution:  Your Act! settings for email are not configured properly.

Notes and History are missing from new database.
     Solution:  Database was not converted correctly - Start a completely fresh installation or upgrade - do not try to reconvert the same Act! database!

Act! is running slowly or has Act! has poor performance.
     Solution:  Several things could be causing the poor performance, hardware not being up to the recommended requirements (Check OUR recommendations for processing power, remember Speed Rules….) and conflicts with other software applications, this one should be dealt with by a professional, call an Act! Certified Consultant.  When properly installed on a computer that has the required processing power the Act! software does NOT run slowly or perform poorly - it has a very good response time when configured properly.

Popularity: 100% [?]

As with a lot of software, Act! has a recommended minimal requirement for the PC or Server on which you will be running the software.  If the Act! software is running slowly or performing poorly, there is a problem in one or more of the following areas:

1) The PC or Server does not have enough horsepower.

2) The software was not installed correctly and probably needs to be reinstalled.

3) There are other software programs conflicting with the Act! software and as soon as you work through the conflicts, the Act! software will begin zipping from screen to screen.

Here are Compu-Tutor’s recommendation for running Act! on a PC or Server:

1) PC’s should have an absolute minimum of 1Gig of RAM, but we recommend running 2Gig of RAM.  RAM is Cheap and Speed rules when it comes to software, just do it!  Remember not to rub your feet on the carpet when holding the RAM, you’ll zap it before it ever gets into your computer.  We recommend visiting www.crucial.com for determining what RAM is available for your PC - it will scan your PC, tell you how much RAM you can put in and it will let you order it right from their site.

2) Servers should have a min of 4Gigs of RAM, yes we know Act! says you need less, scroll up and read - RAM is Cheap etc….

3) Using a PC as a Server for installs with more than 2 or 3 people is not a good idea.  Many installs in the last decade were configured with a fast PC acting as an Act! Server, we do not recommend doing this because of potential problems that it is going to cause.  People with this configuration always call our Help Desk more often and have longer resolution efforts than people that do it properly.  A smaller end RAID 1 configuration Server with a backup method running Windows 2003 Server or above (not Windows Small Business Server) is the recommended configuration.

4) Do not run Act! on a wireless network.  Let us explain in more detail - DO NOT run Act! on a wireless network.  Can it be done, yes.  Is it a good idea, NO.  There is a tremendous amount of data that goes back and forth between a PC and the server, the data transfer is going to slow down other processes on the wireless network and make Act! perform poorly.  Exceptions to this rule:  running a standalone version of Act! on a PC and the data sits on the same PC - even though wireless, will not be a problem; running a wireless connection through Terminal Services to an Act! server - should perform ok, not great but ok; networks with very little other traffic happening (still haven’t seen one of these in a company running Act!) would be ok.

5) Connecting to Act! via a VPN connection is not recommended.  The overhead of the VPN typically kills the Act! connection and causes the application to perform poorly.  There are other methods of connecting into an Act! database including Terminal Services, Configuring a Port for Act! traffic, and Act! for Web.  An Act! Certified Consultant should be contacted for all three of these types of connectivity.

Popularity: 74% [?]

The most common and potentially most costly mistake that the owner of an Act! 6 database can make is not properly backing up their database.  We receive numerous calls from people using version 6 of Act! that believe that simply copying the Act! database file to a back-up drive or the entire Act! folder on their computer to a back-up drive will allow them to restore the Act! database if it becomes corrupt or inoperable.  Often they use an automated process that scans their computer for directories or files that have changed since the last back-up and they assume that the scan will provide a copy of an Act! database that they can restore if a problem occurs, but they are wrong.  

The ONLY restorable Act! 6 database file is a .zip file that is created from the Act! Backup procedure that is initiated using the Act! Software.  If you are reading this and you currently aren’t running the backup procedure out of Act!, stop what you are doing, ask everyone to get out of the Act! database, sign on as the Administrator, and create a backup.  Your data has the potential of being lost in total if you don’t produce a proper backup immediately.

Instructions for backing up an Act! 6 Database:

1. On the File menu (inside the Act! 6 appication) choose Backup.  Follow the prompts and choose to save the Zip file to the hard drive of the computer you are working on or better yet on a removable drive or external hard drive.

2. We recommend rotating backup files and taking a copy off-site in case of a local flood or fire that wipes out the computer that holds the Act! database currently.

Remember, based on the date of this posting if you are still running an Act! 6 database it means that your Act! software and database are probably at least 4 years old.  The Act! 6 software is no longer supported by the manufacturer, Sage, so you won’t have much recourse if your database becomes corrupt or you have a hard drive failure.

If you would like to upgrade your Act! 6 database to a newer version of Act! - don’t take this step lightly.  The back-end database for Act! 6 data is FoxPro and you will be converting to a Microsoft SQL Server database.  This conversion is not for do-it-yourself-ers.  If you want your data in tact, you should have it converted by an Act! Certified Consultant.  Read more in one of our Blog entries about converting Act! 6 Databases.

Restoring an Act! 6 Database is an easy task - IF - you have a properly backed up database to restore.  You cannot restore an Act! 6 database using the restore function in Act! if you do not have the .zip file that is created from the Act! Backup process.  A copy of the Act! 6 database file that was saved to an external drive without using the Act! procedure (for example - an Act! file that was saved by copying the entire Act! directory to an external drive) is not recoverable using the Act! software and the data is most likely lost.  To determine if you are backing your data up properly - read the beginning portion of this entry.

Instructions for restoring an Act! 6 Database:

1. On the File menu (inside the Act! 6 appication) choose Restore. 

Popularity: 70% [?]