There’s A Method to My Madness! » ACT! 2010

ACT! 2010 SP1 Hotfix 5

Marshall Knapp — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 16:32:07 +0000

ACT! has released the fifth hotfix for ACT! 2010 and it addresses the following issues:

Area	Description	What the Hot Fix Does
Web Client – Contacts	City, State and County dropdowns do not contain values when adding a secondary contact through the ACT! for Web Secondary Contact tab.	Populates the dropdowns
Contacts	When duplicating contacts, the contact duplicates successfully but the user sees the following error message “Value cannot be NULL”.	Enables the contact to be duplicated without displaying the error message.
Outlook® Integration	The following error message displays in the history queue when using Outlook Integration with ACT!, and sending email to two or more distribution lists. “System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object”.	Enables history information for email to 2 or more distribution lists to be recorded successfully.

For more information and to apply the hotfix, check out the ACT! Knowledge Base Article How to Download and Apply the ACT! by Sage 2010 SP1 Hotfix 5.

2 New ACT! Hotfixes

Marshall Knapp — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 20:46:14 +0000

If you’re running ACT! 2010, you’ll want to check out How to Download and Apply the ACT! by Sage 2010 SP1 Hot Fix 4.

And if you’re running ACT! 2011, you’ll want to check out How to Download and Apply Sage ACT! 2011 Hot ... [Read more: 2 New ACT! Hotfixes]

Office 2010 & ACT!

Marshall Knapp — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 16:29:24 +0000

Previously on this blog we discussed that ACT! 2010 is not compatible with Office 2010. While still not fully supported with ACT! 2010, Office 2010 users do have some options (see next paragraph). This is good news for ACT! 2010 users but even better news is that Sage ACT! 2011 fully supports MS Office 2010 32-bit edition. For more information on Sage ACT! 2011, check out http://www.aspen-tech.com/SageACT2011.html.

This new ACT! Knowledge Base Article (ACT! by Sage Compatibility With MS Office 2010) details the options available to ACT! 2010 users and how to set it up. Basically, here’s what you can and can’t do when you have ACT! 2010 and Office 2010:

Can…

Send email from ACT! using Outlook 2010
Record email history to ACT!
“Quick Attach” messages to ACT!
“Attach to ACT! Contacts”

Can’t…

Integrate the ACT! Calendar with Outlook 2010
Export to Excel 2010
Use Word 2010 as your Word Processor

ACT! 2010 SP1 – Hotfix 2

Marshall Knapp — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:41:20 +0000

Hotfix 2 was recently released for ACT! 2010 SP1. This applies to ACT! by Sage 2010 SP1, ACT! Premium 2010 SP1, and ACT! Premium for Web 2010 SP1. There are a few key items fixed with this update:

New in Hot Fix 2

Area	Description	What the Fix Does

Contacts	In ACT! Premium for Web, heavily formatted notes cause script errors when creating new notes on the same contact.	Enables new notes to be added to a contact without generating script errors.
Microsoft® Outlook	Processing unhandled e-mail messages out of queue causes performance issues.	Enables the Outlook service to stop trying to attach the e-mail after 10 failed attempts.
Microsoft Word	ACT! Premium for Web users are unable to create new letter or e-mail templates from the Web Client when using Microsoft Word 2003\2007.	Enables users to create new letter or e-mail templates from the Web Client when using Microsoft Word 2003\2007.
Opportunities	Product Name field is not an available option when customizing columns in the Opportunity list.	Adds the Product Name field as a customization option.

Additionally, if you have not applied ACT! 2010 SP1 Hotfix 1, the Hotfix 2 update also includes these items:

Fixed in Hot Fix 1

Area	Description	What the Fix Does
Database Schema	ACT! users who share a database with others and upgrade to ACT! 2010 SP1 before the server is upgraded see error messages.	Replaces the error message with one that prompts to install ACT! 2010 SP1 on the server.
Web Info Tab	Several Web Info tab links become non-functional after upgrading to ACT! 2010 SP1.	Enables the Web Info tab links.
Performance	Users who have multiple or heavily-formatted notes notice a decrease in performance and/or ACT! stops responding for several minutes.	Improves performance.
Documents tab	Users are unable to add folders to the Documents tab after adding shortcuts to the folder.	Enables opening linked folders from the Documents tab.
Drop-down lists	After upgrading to ACT! 2010 SP1, users are unable to save items to drop-down lists.	Enables the drop-down list to accept edits.

For more information on this hotfix and how to apply it, check out http://kb.sagesoftwareonline.com/cgi-bin/sagesoftwareonline.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=25996.

Installing ACT! 2010 on XP – MUST BE SP3

Marshall Knapp — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:35:12 +0000

If you’re installing or planning to install ACT! 2010 on Windows XP, make sure you have SP3 installed. System crashes have been reported on XP SP2 systems as a result of an issue with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP3. This is detailed in the following ACT! Knowledge Base article: Blue Stop Error and System Crash When Installing ACT! 2010. The ACT! 2010 System Requirements have also been updated to require Windows XP SP3. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact the AspenTech for support.

ACT! 2010′s Redesigned Opportunities Save You Time

Marshall Knapp — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:57:31 +0000

FULLY CUSTOMIZABLE OPPORTUNITIES!!! Why am I so excited about this? Fully customizable opportunities have been one thing our clients have been asking for for years and Sage really delivers in ACT! 2010. Managing your leads and your sales pipeline is now much easier. With the new ACT! 2010 opportunities, you can:

Add an unlimited number of custom fields to the opportunity layout.
Customize the opportunity layout just like you can the contacts layout.
Associate notes, histories, activities, and documents to an opportunity.
Customize the products/services grid.

In case you’re just tuning in, here’s the countdown:

#10 – Big “Easy” Buttons

#5 – New Reports/View

#4 – Web Info Tab

#3 – Marketing Results/eMarketing

#2 – Welcome Page

ACT! 2010′s Welcome Page Saves You Time

Marshall Knapp — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:52:40 +0000

The new ACT! 2010 Welcome Page eliminates the need for users to click all over the place in the application looking for helpful information. The Welcome Page includes Getting Started guides, information on new features, How Do I information, Video Tutorials, access to Support & Services, and much more.

In case you’re just tuning in, here’s the countdown:

#10 – Big “Easy” Buttons

#5 – New Reports/View

#4 – Web Info Tab

#3 – Marketing Results/eMarketing

ACT! 2010′s E-Marketing Saves You Time

Marshall Knapp — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:47:08 +0000

With the integration of eMarketing into ACT! 2010, our #3 timesaver is the Marketing Results tab. This new tab, when combined with the end-to-end eMarketing capabilities of ACT! 2010, allows you to quickly and easily identify who your hottest prospects are. It also shows you your next activity, last history, and last note. In addition, you can view your eMarketing history to determine which of your marketing campaigns were most effective.

In case you’re just tuning in, here’s the countdown:

#10 – Big “Easy” Buttons

#5 – New Reports/View

#4 – Web Info Tab

ACT! 2010′s Web Info Tab Saves You Time

Marshall Knapp — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:41:55 +0000

How often do you Google a prospect or current customer? Use GoogleMaps to get directions to their office? Use LinkedIn to connect with your important business contacts? For most of you I bet the answer is “pretty often”. ACT! 2010′s new Web Info tab allows you to get all of this information and more, including the ability to customize your own links. Need to do some research on a company in your database on Hoover’s? You can add a custom link.

In case you’re just tuning in, here’s the countdown:

#10 – Big “Easy” Buttons

#5 – New Reports/View

ACT! 2010′s Reports Save You Time

Marshall Knapp — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:59:58 +0000

For anyone who uses ACT! reports regularly, the new streamlined reports view in ACT! 2010 makes your life a whole lot easier! The new reports view shows you all of the available reports as well as descriptions. The report names and descriptions are all easily customizable by end-users and you can also select your “favorite” reports, moving any of those to the top of the list. Also, there are 13 new report templates!

In case you’re just tuning in, here’s the countdown:

#10 – Big “Easy” Buttons