Rating: 
Summary: buggy resource hog
Review: A longtime ACT fan, I upgraded to 6.0 for the email integration and library tab. They don't work unless I turn off scripting protection in Norton AntiVirus - tedious at best and I'm unwilling to leave it turned off. The ACT for Palm feature, the other item that sold me, is very limited - for example shows me only the primary contact for a given company. The real problem is the bugs. It causes unrelenting problems on my XP system. I have 1 GB of RAM and a 2.8 processor! Yet somehow it manages to cause memory shortages and locks up regularly. I've almost stopped using it because it's as much an annoyance as help. I've never had a software program that I evaluate before launching: do I have time for a lock up? NONE of my other software programs cause these kinds of problems, and I run some heavy-duty graphics programs. I'm at the point of looking for another contact manager, which is too bad because I was a solid ACT user for so many years.
Rating:
Summary: Little improvement since Act 2000
Review: Act 6.0 incorporates a number of changes to make it more like Outlook, but nothing for users interested in real customer relationship functionality. There is no way to track competitors, no way to modify the screen for opportunities, no ability to track accounts (group is a klutzy workaround). In short those users who hoped that a little of the Saleslogix capability wwould trickle down into this new version of Act will be sorely disappointed. I learned from a dealer that Microsoft's new product will offer all these features, but it isn't due out until later this year. I'm eager to make a switch then!
Rating:
Summary: buggy resource hog
Review: As a long time user of ACT!, we were enticed to do the 6.0 upgrade to finally get a useable integrated e-mail capability. Interestingly enough, the e-mail piece is the only real upgrade worth noting in 6.0... what a shame that it stinks! At least the old 5.0 e-mail module worked, although primative. 6.0 e-mail is buggy, crashes the computers, is a resource hog, slow, in fact, there is nothing good to say about it, even the html capability doesn't work. In my view I'd go back to 5.0 in a heartbeat. Don't waste your time or money.
Rating: 
Summary: Regret Ever Upgrading to ACT! 6.0
Review: As a long time user of ACT!, we were enticed to do the 6.0 upgrade to finally get a useable integrated e-mail capability. Interestingly enough, the e-mail piece is the only real upgrade worth noting in 6.0... what a shame that it stinks! At least the old 5.0 e-mail module worked, although primative. 6.0 e-mail is buggy, crashes the computers, is a resource hog, slow, in fact, there is nothing good to say about it, even the html capability doesn't work. In my view I'd go back to 5.0 in a heartbeat. Don't waste your time or money.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent upgrade
Review: Been using ACT! since 1991; this is an effective and incremental upgrade. A good deal of the development effort apparently went into the e-mail functionality, which allows you to create and send graphical (HTML) e-mail. I've already used a template to create a newsletter for my business and mail it out to about a hundred clients, personalized with their name, etc. Another new feature is the library tab, which allows you to display a graphics file (or MS Word, Excel, or Adobe Acrobat file) alongside a contact record. The Outlook integration allows you to attach an e-mail received in Outlook against an ACT! record, to provide an inbound and outbound record of communications with contacts. Several new reports, a few new lookup features, including one that lets you search for contacts that you haven't done anything with in a while. For me, having a more robust e-mail client inside ACT! made the purchase worthwhile. It's always been the favorite of most salespeople who've used it because it's well-designed, easy to learn, and for the price, a phenomenal deal. There's nothing else out there like it.
Rating:
Summary: OK for database novices
Review: I administer and use ACT at our 10 employee company. They used ACT before I came to the company so I am not to blame for choosing it as a solution. The program is built from Access so if you might be better off just going with that program. There is a steeper learning curve but you will not be slowed down by features you wont use.
ACT does provide features you might want connected to your contact DB, like email and sales tools. If you choose to go with this almost turnkey solution understand that the program will probably lock up regularly if more than one user connects to it. And it is slow. But I would recommend for a single user without database experience.
Rating:
Summary: OK for database novices
Review: I administer and use ACT at our 10 employee company. They used ACT before I came to the company so I am not to blame for choosing it as a solution. The program is built from Access so if you might be better off just going with that program. There is a steeper learning curve but you will not be slowed down by features you wont use.
ACT does provide features you might want connected to your contact DB, like email and sales tools. If you choose to go with this almost turnkey solution understand that the program will probably lock up regularly if more than one user connects to it. And it is slow. But I would recommend for a single user without database experience.
Rating:
Summary: Very Dissapointed in 6.0
Review: I am a 10 year user of ACT and waited 3 years for the latest version. The Outlook integration is poor at best. If you want a simple company logo in your signature forget it. I messed around for 2 days even writing my own HTML code to do it but it doesn't work. It doesn't even support different font styles when integrated with Outlook. SAVE YOUR MONEY. When looking up email addresses it takes forever and I am running the latest laptop. The sales forecasting has no improvements and not very customizable. What have they been doing for 3 years the new features are of a point release caliber? Also you can't use MS Word anymore for your email editor. 1 step forward and 3 steps backwards.
Rating:
Summary: Please run as far away as you can if you see ACT! software!
Review: I am a long time user of ACT! software from the time it was a DOS program. It has become progressively worse. One of their key elements is the email programm which allows the user to send out emails to their contacts which automatically drops the email into their history file. This feature often either does not work or it crashes the program. There are many other detailed features of the email portion that do not work. The latest release of 7.0 is so filled with bugs as to almost render it unusable not only in the email area but also the contact database section. I am continuing with it only because I have so much time invested. I would not recommend this software to anyone under any circunstances. Their tech support is non-existent, you have to buy their yearly support plan just to get anyone on the phone and then when you cone to the end of a long session and discover that the problem is not solvable, their answer is that "they're working on a solution, we don't know when it will be addressed". This is about $300. It appears that BEST Software allows ACT! to be released without proper testing and with known bugs. It is interesting to note that ACT! 7.0 is not offered on Amazon. In closing, ACT! is a complete and utter time waste.
Rating: 
Summary: Not perfect but perfect for my needs.
Review: I am a Virtual Assistant who works with several clients who use ACT. I keep their databases up to date and synchronize with them whenever necessary. ACT 6.0 is a bit bloated and has unnecessary features but on my machine it has been stable and was easy to set up. This is a good, solid database program that has great customer forums available on their web site.
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