October 2003

News from Your ACT! Certified Consultant
 ACT! Tips and Tricks  
in this issue..........  

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News of Interest


How do we do send these e-mails using ACT!?

We currently send three e-mail broadcasts each month to approximately 700 ACT! users.  ACT!6.0 can be used to send e-mails like this one, but you have performance problems (a.k.a. ACT! slows down and then locks ups) if you try to send more than about 100 at a time.  To get around this problem, we use ACEMailer by PowerMerge.

The software allows us to send all of the e-mails at one time. We use Microsoft Front Page to create the HTML e-mail, a far more powerful tool than ACT!'s Word Processor.  Like ACT!, ACEMailer does require a POP/SMTP e-mail program.  The software costs $129 per copy. Click Here to download a 15-day trial version or to buy a full version

 

Safeguarding your computer!

Many people recently learned that running Anti-virus software is not enough to protect them from a computers virus. Unlike a virus that arrives in e-mail, virus' can be transmitted from computer to computer using open ports.  Ports are used by software applications to communicate with other computers in a network or on the internet.  For example, ports 25 and 110 are typically used to send/receive e-mail.   

Using a Firewall will secure the ports on your computer from unauthorized data being received or transmitted, thus safeguarding your computer from virus' and hackers.

We highly recommend Zone Alarm firewall.  It is free and works well. Click here to download Zone Alarm.

We recommend Computer Associates E-Trust as the best Anti-Virus software. Click here for more information. 

 

Quick Links...

Here are some ACT! Tips and Tricks we would like to share with you!

 

I visit a many of my clients and prospects.  Is there an easy way for me to find driving directions or maps using ACT!?

Absolutely. ACT!5.0/2000 has the feature built in. In ACT!6.0, this feature was removed, but can be reinstalled in less than one minute. 

 

To install this feature in ACT!6.0:

  1. Close ACT! and connect to the Internet.
  2. Click Here to download the file.
  3. When prompted to Save or Open the file, click Open.
  4. The WinZip Self-Extractor will open.
  5. Click the Unzip button.
  6. Open ACT! 

You can lookup the contact record for whom you need driving directions (for this example, we looked up John Doe of Acme Company.)

From ACT!'s menu, choose Online , then select 'Internet Links' from the Online Menu.

Choose Driving Directions from the menu choices.

You'll see that ACT! has filled in the contact's address information for you.

Click the 'Create Map' button.

This will launch Yahoo Maps with a map and your driving directions.

Extra Tip: You can highlight and copy these driving directions and paste them into the details section of the ACT! Activity for this contact or copy the directions and paste them directly into a Note on the contact record.

 

How can I easily send a contact's name, address and phone number e-mail to someone outside my company? 

 

If the intended recipient does not have ACT! or Outlook/Outlook Express or you are unsure what software they use, we suggest the following:

  1. Lookup the contact that you want to share with another person.
  2. From the menu, choose “Edit” then “Copy”
  3. Open Outlook, Outlook Express or whatever e-mail software that you use.
  4. In the message body of the e-mail, right mouse click and click "Paste".
  5. The contacts names, company, address and phone number will appear in the body of the e-mail.

     email: info@compasstek.com
   voice: 303-278-2737
   web:   http://www.compasstek.com