We all know ACT! is a powerful relationship database, but are you fully using them? Learn what relationships can do, how to configure them, and what their purpose in ACT! is this week. Become a pro.
Virtual User Group for Tuesday, May 22nd – Advanced Lookups
Learn how to create dynamic groups, advanced keywords-based lookups, continually changing criteria, and much more in this week’s session.
This is especially useful for segmentation and marketing, but certainly is far from limited to just that.
Heads up- This meeting may be a little complex!
ACT! Quick Trick: Integrating with Google Calendar
[box style=”note”]All ACT! Quick Tricks are pulled verbatim from the Sage Community Boards. Full credit goes to the original authors of the posts, in most instances Brian Whalen. Please consider viewing the original article on the ACT Community Board here.[/box]
With Sage ACT! 2012, you don’t have to check two different places or manage two different calendars for a complete view of your business and personal lives. Sage ACT! works seamlessly with tools like Google Gmail, Contacts, and Calendar, so you can keep all or just a subset of your emails, contacts, and activities updated in both places. In this tip, you’ll learn how to integrate your Sage ACT! and Google Calendar, so you are always aware of upcoming tasks and activities!
Configuring Google Calendar Integration:
After you have verfied the Sage ACT! database you want to integrate with Google is correct, and you have authorized Sage ACT! to access your Google account, you may proceed to configure your integration preferences. For more information regarding authorizing Sage ACT! to access Google, refer to last week’s tip: Getting Started with Google Integration.
1. From within Sage ACT!, select Tools > Integrate with Google > Google Integration Preferences.
2. On the “Synchronize Calendar” tab, select the Enable Calendar Synchronization with Google check box. This activates the other options on the tab.
3. After this has been enabled, use the following options to configure the behavior of Google Calendar Integration:
- If the same activity has been updated in both Sage ACT! and Google and a conflict occurs, select which change should be saved (Sage ACT! or Google). By default, the option to Keep the Sage ACT! activity is selected.
- If an activity is cleared (completed) in Sage ACT!, select what should happen to the activity in Google when sync occurs. By default, the option to Delete the activity from the Google calendar is selected. You can change this to leave the activity on your Google calendar.
4. To set or change default calendar sync options, such as selecting the types of Sage ACT! activities and date ranges of scheduled activities to sync, as well as alarms, click Advanced Preferences.
- In the Activity Type list, select or clear the check box for each Sage ACT! activity type that you want to sync or not sync between Sage ACT! and Google. Some activity types are selected by default, but you can clear them.
- Use the Select days on calendar to synchronize drop-downs to determine a past and future time frame of the activities to sync. Activities that occurred in the past will no longer be updated once they are outside of the selected range. Activities that occur in the future will be synchronized once the activity scheduled date is within the future range. You can select from future dates of 7 days up to 2 years.
- Use the Specify where activity alarms will ring drop down to select the application that will display the activity reminder alarm. By default, the alarm is set to ring in both Sage ACT! and Google. The alarm lead time is based on your preference settings for the activity type. For example, if you set a meeting activity type to ring an alarm at 15 minutes before the scheduled time, then it will ring at 15 minutes before the scheduled time in the selected application.
- Click OK.
5. After setting your preferences, click OK again to exit the Google Integration Preferences window. When prompted to Integrate Sage ACT! and Google now, click Yes to start the initial sync.
As you can see, setting up Google Integration only takes a few minutes, and is well worth the time saved because you can look to one location to see all of your personal and business appointments!
ACT! 2013 is coming! What would you like to see?
[box style=”approved”]All Roadshow attendants receive LARGE discounts on licenses![/box] Out with the old, in with the new! Sage ACT! 2013 is en route for its Fall debut. Come get a first look at the Beta with this year’s ACT Roadshow! Following the success of previous years’ Roadshows, Twelve/Three will once again be hosting a free […]
Virtual User Group for Tuesday, May 15th – Exploring the Task List
How often do you even click to use the Task List in ACT? Not very often? Didn’t think so.
Join this week’s meeting so we can give you a few good reasons of why this feature can actually be really useful if your company uses it properly.
ACT! Quick Trick: Getting Started with Google Integration
[box style=”note”]All ACT! Quick Tricks are pulled verbatim from the Sage Community Boards. Full credit goes to the original authors of the posts, in most instances Brian Whalen. Please consider viewing the original article on the ACT Community Board here.[/box]
With Sage ACT! 2012, you don’t have to check two different places or manage two different calendars for a complete view of your business and personal lives. Sage ACT! works seamlessly with tools like Google Gmail, Contacts, and Calendar, so you can keep all or just a subset of your emails, contacts, and activities updated in both places. In this tip, you’ll learn how to manage application authorization in Google. Then in the coming weeks, you’ll learn how to configure Sage ACT! to integrate with Google applications for a streamlined view of your business and personal data.
Managing Application Authorization in Google
Before you can begin taking advantage of Google integration, you must authorize Sage ACT! to access your Google account. Authorization is an important piece of the puzzle, because it enables you to integrate Sage ACT! and Google applications without having to store your Google username and password within the database. Authorization may be revoked at any time to disable Sage ACT! from accessing your Google account data.
1. From within Sage ACT!, click the Tools menu, point to Integrate with Google, and then click Google Integration Preferences.
2. Select a Sage ACT! database for use with Google integration by clicking Change. Then browse to, and select your Sage ACT! database (.PAD file).
3. To grant Sage ACT! permission to access your Google account, click Register. If you do not have a Google account yet, you will need to create one by visiting http://www.google.com/ before proceeding.
4. On the Google accounts page, enter your Google username and password.
5. After logging in. on the Google accounts page, click Grant access.
Removing Authorization
Removing authorization enables you to re-authorize Sage ACT! to access a different Google account, or disable Sage ACT! and Google Integration.
1. If at any point, you would like to remove authorization: log in to your Google account. Then, in the upper right corner of your Google page, click the arrow next to your email address to expand a menu of account options. Click Account Settings.
2. On the Google accounts page, in the Security section, click the Authorizing applications & sites link.
3. On the next page, under Connected Sites, Apps, and Services, you will see “Sage ACT! Google Integration” listed as an authorized application. Click the Revoke Access link.
4. After clicking the link, you will see confirmation that access has been revoked.
Virtual User Group for Tuesday, May 8th – Topline Designer
Expand the functionality of ACT! with custom tables for tracking customer service, support, projects, manufacturing and more. TopLine Designer allows you to add custom tabs at the contact, company, group or opportunity level – quickly customizing ACT! with specific industry and management solutions. TopLine Designer includes templates for industries such as real estate, healthcare and financial management along with general management solutions such as contracts, equipment and event planning.
ACT! Quick Trick: Sharing Made Easy
from the Sage Community Boards. original authors Brian Whalen.
Centralizing data in a shared database has several advantages, including the ability to share templates, layouts, contacts, opportunities and other data. Additionally, administrators only have to back up the central database rather than each individual database. To take advantage of these benefits, the Sage ACT! database must be shared, and that is a task that has been made easier in Sage ACT! 2012.
Sharing a Sage ACT! Database
Prior to sharing a database, verify the following requirements are met:
- You and your colleagues are working in a network environment.
- You are a Windows administrator or have administrator rights on the Host computer where the database is located.
- You have a Sage ACT! license for each Client computer that will access the shared database.
- All computers (Host and Clients) have the same version of Sage ACT! installed. (Verify by clicking Help > About ACT!)
- You have added Sage ACT! to the list of firewall exclusions on all computers. Refer to Windows Help for more information.
- You are a Sage ACT! Administrator user in the database you want to share.
1. On the Host computer, open Sage ACT!.
2. On the File menu, click Open/Share Database.
3. Locate the database in the list, and click Share. You will be prompted to supply the user name and password of an administrator of that database.
4. Next you will be notified that files associated with the database will also be shared. This message is referring to Supplemental Files (layouts, templates, dashboards, etc.). Click OK.
5. After the database has been shared, you will need to distribute a shortcut to the .PAD file to all users on the Client computers by doing one of the following:
- Attach the .PAD file to an email message stating that the users are to save the .PAD file to their local desktop.
- Place the .PAD file in a shared folder on your Local Area Network (LAN) and instruct users to browse to that location and copy it to their local desktop.
6. To use the shared database, users on the Client computers copy the .pad file to their desktop, and double-click it to open Sage ACT!.
OppLinx Allows Linking Outlook Emails to ACT! Opportunities
[box style=”approved”]New software by Twelve/Three allows easy linking of Outlook Emails to ACT! Opportunities[/box] Outlook Emails have always been easily linked to ACT! Contacts and Companies automatically. Previously, there was no way to link emails to ACT! Opportunities quickly and easily. Twelve/Three’s newest ACT! Add-On does just that- quick and simple linking of an […]
Virtual User Group for Tuesday, May 1st – Outlook Calendar and Contacts Synchronizing
Geoff will discuss how to synchronize you contacts and calendar between your Outlook and ACT! databases.