ACT! 6.0 for 2004 Upgrade

Rating:
Summary: No free support
Review: I have been an ACT user for over 6 years. I purcahsed the 6.0 upgrade due to the fact I bought a new copmputer that runs XP. I had a problem printing the monthly calander (did not have any problem with my old ACT version) I called ACT customer service and was told there is no free tech support for my problem. I could pay and receive help. I just want anyone looking to buy ACT to know that you get NO FREE tech support!!!

Rating:
Summary: Not a whole lot different from Act 2000
Review: I love Act and have been using it for 6 years now. However, little bugs that I experienced from Act 2000 have STILL not been fixed. Like when you are SCHEDULING an event and the little calendar drop-down appears - then I move the mouse cursor down in to the calendar area to select a date- then the drop-down DISAPPEARS!? Very frustrating.

The email is better - but still does not work flawlessly with Outlook Express. It's best to use the cc:mail and enter your POP3 and SMTP and use the Act system instead - which does a good job- but not as fast as Outlook Express.

The improvements made to ACT 6 are mainly additional features, not improvements of existing features. Was it worth my money? - not this time around. I should have waited for the next version where hopefully they would make this product solid in all the important areas.

It is still the best program out there however in my judgement. I have investigated getting another program, but haven't felt comfortable with any other format. ACT has the best visual interface in my opinion. They just need to get the minor bugs out of the most important parts.

Rating:
Summary: Not a whole lot different from Act 2000
Review: I love Act and have been using it for 6 years now. However, little bugs that I experienced from Act 2000 have STILL not been fixed. Like when you are SCHEDULING an event and the little calendar drop-down appears - then I move the mouse cursor down in to the calendar area to select a date- then the drop-down DISAPPEARS!? Very frustrating.

The email is better - but still does not work flawlessly with Outlook Express. It's best to use the cc:mail and enter your POP3 and SMTP and use the Act system instead - which does a good job- but not as fast as Outlook Express.

The improvements made to ACT 6 are mainly additional features, not improvements of existing features. Was it worth my money? - not this time around. I should have waited for the next version where hopefully they would make this product solid in all the important areas.

It is still the best program out there however in my judgement. I have investigated getting another program, but haven't felt comfortable with any other format. ACT has the best visual interface in my opinion. They just need to get the minor bugs out of the most important parts.

Rating:
Summary: Limp Effort to Enhance Act 2000
Review: Most of the improvements made to Act 2000 are with the email and it's interaction with the Act database. They should not have released this when they did. Using it is like reading a book with missing words. I purchased the upgrade purely for the improved merge of email to database. The result is beautiful in theory, but it craps out in practice. The whole program has become unstable as a result. I am now constantly treated to bizarre freeze ups where whole panels dissapear, drop out, and various buttons and whole bars go blank. The only remedy is to restart the program. You can expect to get from 15 to 30 mins. of work time between freeze ups. Since this update to ACT 2000 has been around for over a year, you would expect that there would be fixes or patches to fix this. But no. Instead they just released a new version, ACT 2005, to the price of around $130. I don't know when software writers decided that the consumer should pay for their mistakes, but thats what's happening here. Biggest problem is, how can you trust them to have corrected anything in the new 2005 edition. I can't. I feel like I have paid them to try a beta version of their software already. I think this software title is headed to "where the sun don't shine". Too bad too. It used to be the best of it's class. I fear that in an effort to go against Bill Gates's Microsoft Outlook, they tried to do too much on the cheap. The software title itself has changed companies several times. ACT 2000 was perhaps the high water mark. Unless now owner developer Cisco makes a serious effort to produce some solid product, there will be nothing after 2005. I myself will not purchase another upgrade until someone writes a patch for the one I already own. They owe it to me.

Rating:
Summary: Prepare Yourself For Some Frustration
Review: The scroll wheel doesn't work in searching the contact list which is annoying with large databases. When you print lists of contacts there is no control of the font size. Get out your magnifying glass to see the default size ACT selected.

Tech support: Pay per incident is $50 for the first 10 minutes and $5 for each minute thereafter!!! 5 incidents for $199/year. $300/year for unlimited support. WOW. And try the online message board. Good luck. For all the complaining about Micrsosoft products, at least there are newsgroups worth something where you can get real answers.

I've talked to tech support. No plans to change any of the above. Oh yes, ACT crashed twice before we got it running. We're returning it.