2,001 Tips
Applications
PIMs

ACT 2.0

Print a Contact Screen

To capture your contact screen layout or the values in the pop-up menus, use the Print Screen key on your keyboard. Press the Print Screen key while in ACT. Then (in Windows 3.1x) Alt+Tab to Program Manager, open the Accessories window, then choose Write/Edit/Paste. The contents of Clipboard are pasted to Write. Choose File and Print. In Windows 95, you can print from WordPad instead. Choose Start/Programs/Accessories/WordPad, then press Ctrl+V, Ctrl+P and press Enter.

Disappearing Toolbars

Low memory can cause your toolbar to disappear. To turn it back on, choose Edit/Preferences in the main menu. In the Modify list, choose Bar position. Then, under Tool Bar, select Fixed and click on OK.

Add ACT to Office

Place your mouse cursor on top of the Microsoft Office toolbar arrayed along the right side of your screen. Right click, choose Customization from the resulting menu, then choose Buttons/Add File. Navigate the resulting dialog box until you locate the ACTWIN2.EXE file, usually located in the ACTWIN2 directory. Double- click on this file, and you'll see its icon added to your Office toolbar.

Screen Shenanigans

Sometimes ACT's display changes even without any alterations to the video driver. You can edit the Window Positions section in your ACTWIN2.INI file to repair this. Using a text editor, such as Notepad, open the file, which is usually in the WINDOWS directory. Under the Windows Positions section toward the bottom of the file, you will see the Main Window= line. Delete the values to the right of the equal sign, restart ACT, and your display will return to its default settings.

One Contact, Many Labels

It's easy to print a sheet of labels for a particular contact. Call up the person's name from the Lookup menu, then choose Report from the main menu. Pick the Other option and select the filename of the label sheet you're using. In the Prepare Report dialog box, select Active Contact under Use, and Document under Output. Click OK-a single label will appear on the screen. Choose Edit and click Select All. Click on Edit again and then Copy. Go to File on the main menu and close the file, but don't Save Changes. Next, perform any lookup that has at least as many contacts as labels on the sheet. Go to Report and choose Edit Template. Select the same filename as before. Highlight all the lines between, but not including, Start_Contact and End_Contact, and select Edit/Paste. The contact-relevant data will replace the merge field codes that have been highlighted. Make sure you didn't remove any blank lines between Start_Contact and End_Contact. Go to Format/Create Report and use Active Lookup and Document as your output. Place a full sheet of labels in your printer and press Control+P, then Enter.

Multiplying Area Codes

Rapidly multiplying area codes can be a problem for the standard installation of ACT, since your local call area includes more than one. To make sure that the software doesn't get confused, open the ACTWIN2.INI file with a text editor and eliminate the phone number from the Me Phone line under [Me Record] section.

Those DOS Blues

If you have problems trying to import an ACT for DOS database into ACT for Windows 2.0, first export the file to a DOS format. Then reimport the file into ACT for Windows 2.0.

Change of Orientation

The HP 550C printer driver HP VER 6.0 might cause your envelopes to print with the wrong orientation. Changing the orientation from Portrait to Landscape should resolve the problem. Your Print Setup should consist of the following: ENV3, Top=1.0, Bottom=.5, Left=1.0, Right=1.0, Paper size=#10, Source Tray and Landscape.

Opening ACT

You can customize the way ACT opens with a macro. Press Alt+F5 to bring up the Record Macro dialog, then type a name and description. In the Mouse box, select Ignore Mouse. Press the Record button and perform the following key strokes: Alt+V, G, Down arrow to highlight the group, Tab key (selects OK button), and Enter to select the group. With the mouse, stop recording the macro by selecting Edit from the main menu, Macro and then Stop Macro. Finally, choose Edit/Preferences. Highlight Startup in the Modify box to the left of the dialog box, set the Database as the Default file and list the Macro in the Startup box.

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