Most software packages, including the new version of ACT! 2011, don’t currently supporting the 64-bit version of Microsoft Office 2010.  However, ACT! 2011 does work with the 32-bit version of Microsoft Office 2010, Office 2007 and Office 2003.  Check out the compatibility and system requirements for both ACT! 2011 and Office 2010, and then check with your ACT! software consultant for additional information. I have included a link to the Microsoft website where you can read for yourself. What is making it difficult and expensive for software developers, like Sage to support the 64-bit version of Office 2010? 

Since 64-bit servers and desktops are becoming main stream, a lot of people are thinking they need to jump on the band wagon, and install the 64-bit version of Office 2010. Hold your horses! By default the 32-bit version of Office 2010 is installed even on 64-bit computers. That’s good because if you use any third party software add-ins or plug-ins, most of these programs are written for 32-bit computers. In fact developers are still writing the tools that are needed to write the 64-bit add-ins for integration with MS Office 2010.

Stay tuned; I am pretty sure Windows Mobile phones still can’t sync with Outlook 2010 at all. Remember there was a version of Office 2003 for 64-bit computers. Was there a 64-bit version of Office 2007? Answer is no. So take your time do some homework before you decide to install Office 2010.

Back to reality, if you’re like most of my customers you’re not opening 2 gig or larger spreadsheets in Excel. If you are opening huge spreadsheets, and you don’t rely on any integration from any third party developers, you should consider installing 64-bit version of Microsoft Office 2010. By the way 32-bit version of Excel 2010 will open 2 gig and larger Excel spreadsheets. Go ahead upgrade!

For more in-depth information use this link from Microsoft. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee681792.aspx This article was written back in May 2010, so some information maybe a little dated. Trying to find one source for good information was tuff. This link should save you trying  to sift through dozens of articles. Quick note of appreciation goes out to fellow Act! Certified Consultant Susan Luongo Stellar Technology Consulting, she found the above link.

I am thinking Sage ACT! 2011 is slightly ahead of most of the CRM competitors at this point, with the soon to be released ACT! 2011 which is supporting the 32-bit version of MS Office when released. Not even MSCRM claims to integrate with either the 32-bit or the 64-bit version of Office 2010 to date. System requirements for ACT! 2011 are available at the following link http://www.act.com/2011/system/actpro/

Arthur G. Russ
Act! Certified Consultant
Indiana
agruss@exec-info-services.com
317-843-0186
Member of the National CRM Alliance

If you don’t already have a Twitter Account you need to signup. You can’t search for people on Twitter without a Twitter account. The “Twitter UserName” link will be useful once you know a contact’s “Twitter Username”. I called my Web Info Tab link the “Twitter UserName”.  I also named the new Act Contact Field “Twitter UserName” field (no quotes), to be consistent with why I created the field. This link will automatically focus on the Tweets of your currently displayed Act Contact, by automatically inserting the “Twitter Username” into the Twitter URL link from the Act WebInfo Tab.

Adding Twitter UserName URL to the Web Info Tab in ACT! 2010  will take several steps. First, defining a new Act Contact Field, then editing your Contact Layout so you can view and use the new Act field. A very useful tutorial is provided in Act 2010, demonstrating creating a drop down list, creating a new Act field, and editing a contact layout. Please note, you will not need a drop down list for the TwitterUserName Field. If you have not customized your Act database or an Act Layout, now would be a good time to view the Customization Tour.  From the Act menu click Help, then Features Tour, and then Customization. The Customization Tour takes about 10 minutes to view.

Create a new Contact field called “Twitter UserName”.
Define a new Act Contact field called “Twitter UserName” (no quotes necessary), and then add the field to an Act Contact Layout so you can see the field. By the way you don’t have to name your Act Contact Field the same as mine, just trying to be consistent. After you create the new field, close the define fields window, a popup will ask if you want to add the new field to your Contact Layout, say yes. The Contact Layout is how the Act fields are displayed on your monitor.  After you have added the new Act field and customized the Act layout, go to you’re contact record(My Record), and insert your Twitter User Name in the new field. Stay on your contact record, and now proceed to creating the Web Info Tab Link below.

Create the “Twitter UserName” link on the Web Info Tab.
Start Act and click the Web Info tab. The Web Info Tab in Act 2010 has several default links that were automatically created when Act was installed. Some of the Act WebInfo Tab default links are for use with Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Maps, and Yahoo People, etc. Click the “Edit Links” button, your now viewing the “Edit Links Window”. Now click the “Add Button”.  In the “Site Name” box name the link “Twitter UserName”. Twitter URL is http://twitter.com . Click on the “Advanced Edit” button. Now your viewing the “Advanced Edit” window, which shows a list of the Act Contact Fields in your Act database. Scroll the list until you find the “Twitter UserName” field, or what ever you named your Twitter Field, left click to highlight. Click the Add button. Please observe the complete url will look like this http://twitter.com/{Contact.Twitter UserName} there will be an example value displaying the current Act contact’s TwitterUserName in your database. Please note the result URL field be automatically filled in also.PS – Don’t forget to populate your contact’s “Twitter UserName” field with data. No data nothing to pass to the “Twitter UserName” link. Click the link and you will be viewing Tweets from your current contact.

Well, sometimes there is no print preview. There are several scenarios when you can’t do a print preview in Act.  Bummer!?!? Not if you know how to create PDF files.

What do you get when you Right Click in the Act Contact Window?
You get a shortcut menu with Print Contact option, but no option to preview. Right click in the Notes Tab, or right click in the History Tab. You get a shortcut menu with an option to print, but you can’t do a print preview. If you already have a PDF Printer you will not need the PDFCreator. For those of you that have a PDF Printer driver installed just print to PDF file and save. For those of you that don’t have a pdf creator program read on!

What you need to create PDF files
To create PDF files you will need to get a PDF creation program, if you don’t already have one that is. When don’t you have print preview available how could you do a print preview? It is like printing to a printer, instead you’ll create a PDF file. Install a PDF creation program and create PDF files that can be used like Print Preview. With one of these PDF Creation programs you can print from any windows program not just Act!

Some of the more common PDF creation programs are PDF995, and of course Adobe Acrobate. Just in case you don’t have a PDF Printer driver installed try PDFCreator. PDFCreator is a software program that is Open Source and is a GNU General Public License(GPL) available at http://www.sourceforge.net.  Nothing to purchase. Please note the address ends in .net not .com. Search at the sourceforge.net website for “pdfcreator”, no quotes no spaces, all one word. Using PDFCreator is just like printing without the paper or the physical printer.

Tip:  No Virus – I hate to say never, but as far as I know, know one has ever gotten a virus from opening a PDF file.

Other Good Reasons to create PDF files
Stop sending Power Power Point presentations, and hoping the receipient has MS PPT, intead send them a PDF File. Print your PPT to a PDF send the pdf file. Instead of sending a Word Doc send them a PDF(looks exactly like you intended the doc to look including the margins, sentences, paragraphs, graphics locations). How do you know how the document will look on someone elses computer? Simple, you previewed the pdf file before sending.

Tip: File Size – If you print to PDF and your power point presentation or your Word Doc was 4 gigs in size, your PDF file will most likely be close to the same 4 gigs in size.

Summary
What are you going to do if you don’t have Print Preview available?
Print to a pdf file. Save paper, save ink, email the pdf file and let someone else print if printing is necessary. Convienently save paper, ink, money and trees, works like print preview when you don’t have print preview available. In our example it is the right click pick print from the shortcut menu.

In closing, I hope you found this information helpful, and useful.

Using the Groups feature in ACT! can be an effective way to review contacts that you have edited today. An edited ACT! contact is anyone that you have added information to, such as a new note, recorded an activity with, updated a field such as adding a zip code, or sent an email, for instance. At the end of the day or any time during the day you can quickly view a list of Contacts that you edited so far today.

You can create a Lookup of those contacts, or go directly to one of the contacts by clicking on the blue hyperlinked contact name.  To create a Current Lookup of all the contacts in the group, right click in the Groups Contacts Tab window.

If you are new to using ACT! Groups – view your Groups by clicking the Groups icon on the left side of the ACT! screen. Click the Act Groups button and view the group called “Contacts Edited Today”. Opps, you don’t have that Group to choose from do you, unless of course you have already created the group yourself. As an example you may already have several groups that are dynamically filled with contacts. ACT! 2007 databases and newer already have several groups such as “Recently Edited Contacts” and “Recently Added Contacts. The “Recently Edited Contacts” group is dynamically(automatically) filled with Contacts that have been edited in the last 30 days.

You can check to see if a rule is setup by clicking on Add/Remove Contacts button.  If you see a rule in the membership rule box you are looking at a Dynamic Group in Act. Members are automatically added and removed based on the rule. Members of groups are your contacts, which are people in your Act database.

You can create your own dynamic Act Groups based on what ever criteria your little heart desires. Contacts edited today, in the last 7 days, in the last 3 months, last year, or yesterday for example.

How To Make a Dynamic Membership Group
So let’s make that new Group “Contacts Edited Today”. Click on Groups then “New Group” from the Group menu. Now type in a name for your new group. In this example try “Contacts Edited Today”. Your group name is pretty descriptive so you probably don’t need to add a description, but there is a place for the description. Next, please notice the Tabs similar Tabs in the “View Contacts Window”. See the Groups “Contacts Tab”? Click on the Contact Tab to select it, and then click on Add/Remove Contacts button. You are now presented with a Window where you can create a rule for Dynamically adding and removing Contacts to this group. Act Groups go way back to Act 6 and before when we could manually add contacts, but since Act 2005 we can now add contacts dynamically. Click the “Edit Criteria” button, now we can add a rule to our Group. The Group Criteria window should now be open. In the Type: Box we want to see Contacts, in the “Field Name Box” click the down arrow and scroll until you see “Edit Date” field, in the “Operator” field select “Equal To (=)” and in the “Value” field select “Today”. Click “Add to List” and then click the “Preview Button”. If your formula is correct, and you have edited some contacts today, you will see some familiar names, at least I hope they are familiar names in the Preview Pane. Now you know how to create a Dynamic Group in Act.

Shared DB Tip: If you are using a shared database with other Act Users put your intials in front of your group names. Example “AGR-Contact Edited Today”.

Groups are listed in alphabetical order your groups would be grouped together starting by your intials. If you are sharing an Act database you will also need to add another rule to your group which would include the “Record Manager Field” or “Assigned Sales Person” field for instance. Skys the limit hope you found this information useful. Catch’em before they slip through the cracks. How do you use groups? What criteria do you use to automatically fill your Act Groups.