Finally moving from ACT! to Outlook...question

[ponyboy]

Well, after many years of being a loyal ACT! fan I have decided to move on to
Outlook with the Business Contact Manager. I'm tired of being a "Public Beta
Tester" of their new version 2005 v7.4. There are so many bugs with their
program it is time to bid farewell.

But I am so used to how ACT! worked I am trying to re-adjust. So a few
questions for those who use or used to use ACT! Bear in mind this is
referring to Business Contact Manager side of the program.

1. The whole premise of ACT! was based around "you" as the main contact, but
in Outlook is that the same case? Do I even create a contact of myself in
Outlook?

2. So if I create a new task, do I create it through my own self Contact or
through the contact, or account I will be doing the task with (such as a
meeting or a phone call)?

thx

 

[SSinha]

Q1. The whole premise of ACT! was based around "you" as the main contact, but
in Outlook is that the same case? Do I even create a contact of myself in
Outlook?
Ans: No, you don't need to create a Contact of yourself in Business Contact
Manager. But if you want you can create it.

Q2. So if I create a new task, do I create it through my own self Contact or
through the contact, or account I will be doing the task with (such as a
meeting or a phone call)?
Ans: You can add the Task to the Account or to the Business Contact you are
doing the Task with.

 

[Luther]

1.
You can add yourself as a contact, but its not needed for hierarchical
purposes. The taxony in BCM is:

An Account can have many Contacts, Opportunities, and Activities.
A Contact can have many Opportunities, and Activities.
An Opportunity can have many Activities.

An Activity can be of type: document, task, appointment, phone log,
note.

2.
You create tasks and other activities from an Account, Contact or
Opportunity, and they remain associated. You can also associate
Activities with other Contacts (e.g. a meeting with several Contacts).

 

[ponyboy]

So you say I don't really need to create a contact record of myelf. Ok, I
will try that.

But then how does it contain information o0n myself?

For example, where does it gather the information on say my home or
business address if I am drafting up a letter?

For those of you who have also made the switch are you pretty glad you did?
Some things missing you wish you still had? Other things in Outlook that
were a pleasant surprise? Two things I can think of that I noticed right
off:

1. - Email already contains a spam filter - ACT! has no protection.
2. - Looks like you can use WinFax Pro with Outlook. No longer is ACT!
compatible to use it .

thx

 

[AJS]

I am not familiar with ACT, but here are my answers about BCM:
1 - you don;t have too. If you want, you can, but I don't see the point
for;
2 - to use Outlook you need a Profile (maybe what you mean by Act
contact). But in BCM you can associate your tasks with any contacts or
accounts you have. Each BCM entity (account, contact, etc,) has its own
history, including items like tasks, phone calls, etc.

Hope it helps.

 

[Tim Peterson via OfficeKB.com]

Pony Boy,

With Outlook & BCM you are not as restricted with navigation or how you link
or associate items. You are more free to structure how you relate everything
to your preferences. This "freedom" took me a while to get used to myself
because over attachment to specific software can create a scripting of habits
that limits perspective on how to go about doing things. It really is too
bad that the latest ACT 2005 was such a buggy disaster because it's design
has a lot of potential. I am a former ACT user myself and always hated the
hassle of trying to coexist between ACT & Outlook. I love working with only
one familiar interface now and as email has become the dominant electronic
correspondence medium you just can't beat Outlook for it's features. I even
scrubbed my Winfax and now use a sendtofax.com faxing/email service so even
faxing easy comes and goes via my email folders. ACT 2005 does have some
nice features but they are really not anything that major that I can't also
do in Outlook, just different. (Ex: Look-ups vs. Searches) I was a little
lost at first without my ACT but after more learning and usage of Outlook I
really like the simplicity and interface with the rest of the office system.
Microsoft seems to be evolving this relationship (although much slower than I
would like to see at times) functionality. Give it some time and you will
likely find that this application will work just great for you.

-THP

 

[Tim Peterson via OfficeKB.com]

Some additional thoughts:

A "pleasant surprise" that I found with Outlook is that once I learned more
how to work with the various features I became much more confident that
Outlook could meet my needs by itself.

There are 5 things I would suggest one should become very proficient with:
1) Using the "Find" tools (Quick, Simple, & Advanced)
2) How to customize different views. This initially confused me a lot.
3) Linking of items.
4) Understanding and using categories well.
5) Understanding how to back-up and restore the data file.

Good luck with your transition from ACT!

-THP