CONTACT MANAGERS: ACT!
What are they?
Contact managers are essentially databases: Combination address books and personal organizers with calendars, appointment books, and to-do lists, combined with a few other timesaving features. You can make one yourself with most word processors, but unless you’re a real whiz they won’t have the bells and whistles of the store-bought variety.
Why do I need one?
Contact managers help you keep all your business contacts in order. No more scrambling through a Rolodex or coffee-stained organizer to find names and addresses—the information is consolidated and accessible at the push of a button. And you can do all sorts of nifty things with it. Transfer it directly into letters on your word processor instead of re-typing the information each time. Need to get in touch with that agent you spoke to—was it last month? And he has a pet cockatiel, or was it parakeet? Contact managers allow you to keep helpful notes along with contact information. Have a mailing for all the opera companies in California? With a contact manager, you can quickly create a mail merge document for just the companies you’re interested in.
Tell me more!
Symantec’s ACT 4.0 is the one of the most popular programs, highly rated by PC Computing, Computer Shopper, and Macintosh outlets. ACT is also especially recommended for small business users, and is excellent for networking purposes.
* It’s user-friendly, with online video tutorials and an easy-to-read manual.
* You can customize the database entry fields.
* It’s not necessary to retype existing databases—they can be imported into ACT.
* Don’t know the full name of the person you want to reach? Type in the name you remember. ACT! will bring up a list of all entries with that name, along with other information to jog your memory.
* Included is an application called SideAct—the computer equivalent of Post-It notes. It exists as an icon on your desktop. Instead of launching the full ACT! program every time you have a new bit of information to scrawl, you simply click on the SideAct icon and enter notes, which can later be transferred into ACT! [not available on a Mac version]
* The program has a very basic word processor with plenty of templates for memos, letters, cover sheets, and faxes. For fancier correspondence, it can be integrated with Microsoft Word and WordPerfect. Click a button and your letter is dated, addressed and signed—you can custom-design all the templates. All you have to do is write the text. The letter is attached to the history of each contact, so you can go back through all your correspondence.
Features include an easy-to-use calendar showing daily, weekly, and monthly views; a floating three-month mini-calendar, an alarm to notify you of meetings, calls and to-do’s and the ability to print your own address book and planner pages in a number of formats.
* Schedule or revise activities easily with drag-and-drop.
* ACT!’s suite of Internet tools allows you to go online and retrieve information directly into your database. For example, you can hook up with Yahoo’s MapQuest (http://maps.yahoo.com/py/maps.py) and download an area map or driving directions to your next audition.
* ACT!’s fully integrated Internet e-mail, supported through Mail, CompuServe, Microsoft Exchange, Eudora Pro 4.0 and ACT!’s own email client, allow you to send mail directly from the program. Again, ACT tracks the history of your outgoing correspondence.
* Fax directly from ACT! with WinFax, or for Mac users, with Faxstf. Faxes are attached to the history, and you can design your own fax template.
* ACT! will dial phone numbers for you automatically, and with certain software will even read your caller ID and bring up the record of the person calling so you are prepared! If you open the notepad attached to each record, the current date comes up and you can keep a record of conversations—invaluable for managers and negotiation information.
* The Macintosh version has not been upgraded as recently as the PC version, and doesn’t have quite as many bells and whistles.
* ACT! retails for $199.95 for the PC version, and $169.95 for the Mac version. If you are currently using Sidekick or another early program, you can sometimes talk the salesman into giving you an upgrade price. Check with PC Zone, at 1(800)408-9663, or MacZone, at 1(888)211-5032.
