GL Computing awarded Experts-Exchange Titan award – 2nd year in a row

The epic performance of GL computing in 2009 has earned a spot as a Top Expert in the 6th Annual Expert Awards.

From a competitive field of over 30,000 qualified experts worldwide, GL Computing has been awarded the:

Titan Award - 2009

From Experts-Exchange: “Thank you for sharing your unparalleled, inconceivable, and brilliant knowledge with the members of Experts Exchange, without you Experts Exchange would not be the #1 IT resource in the web.”

GL Computing also won the Titan Award – 2008 and is the only Experts-Exchange Certified ACT! Sage

Tips for converting ACT! 6.0 (or earlier) data to Act! v19

The most common problem with converting the older versions of ACT! to ACT! by Sage is if there is some damage in the database. Unfortunately, the older versions could become corrupt but not be noticed if you didn’t access that part of the data. As everything needs to be read for a conversion or sync, these functions can show up issues that might have been there for some time.

First, no-matter which version you have, make sure you have a backup of the data before you start.

You should also make sure you have the User Name and Password for someone with Administrator access to the database.

Because the repair tools were improved could fix more types of damage as the versions progressed, I recommend always upgrading earlier databases to ACT! 6.0 and cleaning them there before converting to ACT! by Sage.

If you don’t have ACT! 6.0, you can download the ACT! 6.0 30-day Trial – this will give you the time to convert, clean and repair your database to ready it for converting to the later versions.

Convert Earlier Versions to ACT! 6.0

Always perform a database compress and reindex in the version you have before going to ACT! 6.0. The steps for that conversion depends on how old your version is:

Repair and Clean the ACT! 6.0 Database

Next you should do a repair with ACTDIAG as per:
How To Use The ACT! Data Diagnostic Tool (ACTDIAG) to Scan and Repair a Database

If you already have a later version installed, you’ll need to start ACTDIAG as per:
How to Use the ACT! 6.0 Diagnostic Tool When a Later Edition of ACT! is also Installed

Please note: If you got any red check marks, keep running it till they show all green
But if you’re still getting red checks after 3-4 runs, you’ll need to use additional tools to repair it
or have it professionally repaired

If getting an ACT! Consultant to help you with the conversion (recommended)
I also recommend that they run ABC_Scan on the database

If you are having problems are want to be really sure about your data, I recommend:
Red Flags from Cornerstone Solutions

If it still won’t clean or the conversion below still fails, please contact GL Computing

Centralising Attached Files

If you have attached files, especially if they are stored in different locations or on local workstations on a LAN, you should move these to one folder. You will then need to adjust the links in the database to show the new location. There are a number of tools to do this, I personally use Oak!Check! – Validate Attachments. You can also use it to do any other data cleaning you might need.

Converting to Act! 7.0 – 19.1

You are now ready to install the new Act! as per: Sharing ACT! – Network or Sync (Part 1)

Which ever version of Act! you are converting to, make sure you have the latest build and Hotfix.
See the Act! Download Centre – you might need BOTH a Service Pack and a Hotfix, depending on your install.

Then you should just be able to open the database from ACT! 2010 and it will convert. See:
How to convert an ACT! 3.x, 4.x, 5.x (2000) or 6.x (2004) database to versions 2005 (v7) through v19.1

If you have any questions, please post a comment here or in the LinkedIn Act! Fanatics Group

Quick tip to improve speed on ACT! Premium for Web

A user recently pointed out to me that the favicon.ico file used by ACT! Premium for Web is about 300KB.

For those who don’t know, the favicon.ico is an optional file that can be included on a web site and shows as a logo in web browsers next to the URL, the Browser tab and in bookmarks.

For more information, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favicon

This file loads with every page, increasing the bandwidth. Consequently, these should be kept as small as possible.

The file on an APFW server is /APFW/images/favicon.ico

If you are using ACT! Premium for Web, you might find an improvement by using an ICO editor to reduce the file size… this is especially important if supporting clients on slower connections or if you have a lot of users.

If you don’t have an ICO editor, feel free to download a small ACT! favicon I created:

www.glcomputing.com.au/ACT-favicon.zip

Extract the favicon.ico to the folder I mentioned above on your server. It’s not too pretty, but as it’s under 4KB will save nearly 300KB per page

It’s not a huge improvement, but every bit helps, right?

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Handheld Contact Professional Edition for Windows Mobile update

Version 1.4.0.0 of the Windows Mobile application for Handheld Contact Professional Edition is now available.

To upgrade, sync Handheld Contact from the device first to ensure the latest changes are updated in ACT! and then visit www.handheldcontact.com/ota on your Windows Mobile phone.

This release of the Handheld Contact Professional Edition phone application includes improvements that include:

  • Integrated Google Maps with Contacts. Clicking an address will load it in the Google Maps application for Windows Mobile.
  • Handheld Contact application now supports mapping as many yes/no fields and date fields as desired up to the field mapping limit. Previously these fields were limited to 10 mappings.
  • Read only contacts fields in ACT! are now also read only on the phone.
  • Task list is now easier to read and use with updated interface.
  • Contact list is now easier to read and use with updated interface.
  • Calendar-Agenda view is now easier to read and use with updated interface.
  • Increased the activities custom type description to 60 characters.
  • Corrected an issue that could potentially stop the Handheld Contact application when placing a call.

For more information of putting ACT! on your smart phone, see Handheld Contact