.

February 2004

News from Your ACT! Certified Consultant

.  ACT! Tips and Tricks  
in this issue..........

.


News of Interest


QuickBooks Accounting

 

 

RealNetworks has warned that three security flaws in a number of the company's popular media players could allow hackers to take control of a user's computer.

An attacker could exploit these vulnerabilities by creating music or video files containing malicious code. If certain RealNetworks players were used to stream or play such files, a user's PC would be compromised.

The flaws exist in the company's RealOne Enterprise products, RealOne Player, RealOne Player version 2, RealPlayer 8 and RealPlayer 10 Beta.

We suggest that you stop using RealOne and RealPlayer products until a security fix is available.

 

 

Wireless Connection to ACT! with the Blackberry 

 

Quick Links...


I want to create a lookup of only those contacts with a scheduled activity.  How can I do this?

Using the Task List to Create a Lookup
  1. On the View menu, click Task List. The Task List view opens.
  2. On the View menu, click Filter Task List. The Filter Activities dialog box appears.
  3. Set the filters to display the activities you wish to view. Click Apply, and then OK when satisfied.
  4. Right-click somewhere on the Task List view. On the shortcut menu, click Create Lookup. ACT! switches to the Contacts view, and generates a lookup that contains only contacts for whom you have a scheduled activity in the Task List view.

    Tip: To create a lookup from the Task List which contains only contacts associated with selected activities, select the particular activities by clicking the grey box to the left, while holding down the CTRL key on the keyboard. When satisfied with the selected activities, right-click on one of the highlighted ones, then click Go to Contact on the shortcut menu. ACT! switches to the Contacts view, and generates a lookup that contains only contacts for whom you selected on activity on the Task List.

Using the Calendar Views to Create a Lookup
  1. On the View menu, point to Calendar, and then click the desired calendar view: Daily, Weekly, or Monthly. The desired view opens.
  2. Display the desired day, week, or month.
  3. On the View menu, click Filter Calendar. The Filter Calendar dialog box appears.
  4. Set the filters to display the activities you wish to view. Click Apply, and then OK when satisfied.
  5. Right-click somewhere on the calendar view. On the shortcut menu, click Create Lookup. ACT! switches to the Contacts view, and generates a lookup that contains only contacts for whom you have a scheduled activity that day, week, or month (depending on which view was current when you clicked Create Lookup).

How can I really check my ACT! database for duplicates?

Acknowledgement:  Thanks to Liz Hendon, ACC from Market Tech Services for providing this Tip!

From the menu tool bar in ACT!, choose Tools | Scan for Duplicates.

Do you know the default criteria ACT! uses to determine duplicates?  It's based on an exact match of the three fields:  Company , Contact and Phone.  Users with Administrative privileges can lock the database and check these settings by clicking on their Edit menu and then choosing Define Fields , and selecting the Advanced tab in the dialog box.

However, this may not be the best criteria for duplicate checking in your database.  Contact records with slightly different company field data will not be detected by the scan.  (Acme Co. vs. Acme Company.)  Similarly, the same contact, entered twice with different first names, will not be detected. 

If you change the duplicate checking criteria ( Edit | Define Fields | Advanced ) to check the database on Last Name , then Phone.  ( Note - you must have administrative privileges in the database to perform this function.  In addition, users must be locked out of the database to access the Define Fields feature.  As always, Compass Technology STRONGLY recommends backing up your database before making any changes in the Define Fields area.  Remember to restore the original duplicate settings when you are through with your scans.

Once the setting is changed and you click OK, note the duplicates that appeared after the Scan for Duplicates feature was run:

None of these duplicates had been caught on the first scan with the default settings.  You might find the best duplicate checking settings for your database through trial and error.

If you have a large number of duplicates and would like to have them merged together, there are Add-on Tools available for purchase or contact us.   We do offer data cleanup services.

 

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