Managing Your Contacts

Creating a New Record

ACT! opens to the Contact Detail window by default. From here, you can add, edit and delete contacts as necessary, as well as view and add notes, schedule activities, and attach documents.

To return to the Contact Detail window from other areas of the application, select the Contacts icon on the Act! navigation bar.

To add a contact, complete the fields on the Contact Detail form:

1. If necessary, click the New Contact  button on the toolbar to open a blank form.
2. In the Contact field, enter the contact's full name.

Act! will separate the first, middle and last name and use these, along with the contact's title, when you compose letters. To confirm that Act! has correctly recorded the names you've entered, click the browse (.) button next to the Contact field. This opens the Contact Name dialog:

3. If necessary, change the names are recorded by selecting the appropriate names from the drop-down menus. Then click OK.
4. Complete the remainder of the contact fields on the form.
5. The Last Results field lets you specify the results of your most recent contact with this person, such as "Followed up" or "Got appointment". If appropriate, you can select a result from the list, or add one not included in the list. To add a new result:
   1. Select Edit List Values.
   2. In the Edit List window, click Add.
   3. In the new row, enter the result you want to add.
   4. Click OK.

The new result appears in the list, where you can select it.

The contact record is automatically saved when you move away from the form. To add a new contact, click the New Contact button on the toolbar.

You can also add additional information for the contact, such as notes, activities, secondary contacts or a home address, using the tabs at the bottom of the window.

Adding Secondary Contacts

Secondary contacts are additional contacts related to the primary contact, such as a secretary or assistant. Secondary contacts do not appear in the main contact list. You can promote a secondary contact to full contact, but in doing so, you will lose its connection to the main contact.

To add a secondary contact:

1. At the bottom of the Contact Detail form, select the Secondary Contacts tab.
2. Click the New Secondary Contact  button at the top of the tab.

The New Secondary Contact dialog opens.

3. Enter the contact's details and click OK.

The contact appears in the list on the Secondary Contacts tab.

To delete a secondary contact, right-click it in the list and select Delete Secondary Contact from the shortcut menu.

To promote a secondary contact:

1. Select the secondary contact in the list.
2. Click the Promote  button.
3. In the dialog box that opens, select whether or not you want the primary fields to be duplicated and click OK.

Restricting User Access to a Record

By default, new contact records are made public to all users. However, you can make a contact record private, restricting access to only yourself:

1. At the bottom of the Contact Detail form, select the Contact Info tab.
2. Under Contact Access, select Private.