Act

1.0 stars

"Horrible; unstable. Not user-friendly. Limited functionality."

March 4, 2007  |   By vex1

Version: Act 7.0.399

Pros

You get what you pay for. I am able to plug my way through what I need to do for importing and mail merge but there's a lot of manual steps.

Cons

ACT! 2005 crashes all the time sometimes with out error -- just crashes.

It requires company name but sometimes I only have individual names so those individual's become company names. There's a lot of tweaking of the data because of that. It's generally bad to use a field for two different uses. This is coming from someone who has an I.T. background in ERP systems so I deal with databases all the time.

Trying to use mail merge, it doesn't handle all fonts that MS word has. The software has an option to change the editor but doesn't allow you to change it so you're stuck with the software's database. Hence, I was forced to copy/paste into MS Word and so a replace all on a font. I doubt you could use this software without another word editor.

There's no conditional formatting (or the documentation and google doesn't elude to ACT! having this feature) for mail merge or importing.

There's 10 custom fields and I'm using many of them. I have to keep a paper taped to my computer to remind me of the custom field's meaning. There's no way to create a custom label or heading for that column.

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1.0 stars

"If You Have XP Pro, DON'T BUY ACT!!"

March 9, 2006  |   By John370

Version: Act 7.0.399

Pros

Looked nice for the few minutes it actually ran on my computer

Cons

To get it to run on my brand new Dell with Windows XP Pro, I had to talk to 3 techs over a 6 hour span that were in India and hard to understand. After giving one of them access to mess with my internal files online for a couple hours, ACT finally worked but slowed my computer way down. I restored my system to before they messed with it, and sent the software back.

DON'T BOTHER!! If it were any good, why do they come out with a new version every year? By the way, all customer support wants you to do is buy a support plan for $300 (oh but they'll give you $100 off if within 30 days of purchase. Big F***ing deal. Hey Sage, here's a thought, how about giving me software that actually works so I don't have to be on the phone with support. Also, there are classes you can take to learn the software for about $1,200. So, if you have money shooting out your a$$, and time to burn talking to a support person you don't understand, then this software is for you!!

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1.0 stars

"Don't Buy ACT2006!!!!!!!!"

January 5, 2006  |   By RHScott

Version: Act 7.0.399

Pros

I'm trying to find something

Cons

I just spent 2.5 days trying to get ACT2006 to reload after it crashed and I unstalled it. The crash took my current database. Thank God for a 90 percent backup in ACT2005 on another computer!It has bugs that can't be fixed. One "fix" when printed out was two pages and NOT something an average user should tackle. I tried a live internet chat on one issue and the person on the other, who I think was in another country, simply could not get what I was saying or communicate understandably. I finally got it back up and running but barely. I am now stuck with it, because you can't go back. I tried to uninstall it and put ACT2005 back on but ACT2005 acted oddly. I am so PO's I am thinking of going over to Microsoft Outlook. When you think about going to Microsoft as an improvement, that's pretty damning. DON'T buy this until there is a new version that Sage software's CEO will stake his life and childrens' lives on. It is hell!!!!!!

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1.0 stars

"this is the worst piece of software ever inflicted on an unsuspecting planet"

December 17, 2005  |   By johndigbyluxton

Version: Act 7.0.399

Pros

there is nothing to recommend this truly awful travesty against humanity. maybe I like the fact that someone had the sense of humour to develop something so completely horrible and then charge people for the experience of trying to survive it

Cons

the internet isn't big enough to contain the issues with ACT 7. I have been a loyal user since ACT 2.0 and have even made various companies I have been with use it over the years and until v.7 it was fantastic. But now, it uses more resources than the entire NASA space programme, it crashes more often than my Grandmother full of gin, it takes longer to get started and warmed up than a nun at a prayer retreat and best of all, once you convert to it, you can never, ever go back. I have had slimy salesmen telling me that it is just fine and the next patch will fix the few small glitches (which of course never happens). Then, I speak to a techie who not only knows and enthusiastically sums up his product as "absolute crap", but admits that it is so awful, they are completely rewriting it. Thankfully, we will all have the fabulous opportunity to spend yet more money buying it all over again.... unless someone can tell me of something that will do the job ACT is supposed to without the tears. Please help...

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1.0 stars

"Stay with your "old" version"

July 29, 2005  |   By dab1100

Version: Act 7.0.399

Pros

I do like the fact that you can add unlimited secondary contacts, but that does not offset the other terrible features of this supposed upgrade.

Cons

This program is terrible! It was released with many bugs. When you go to their site, they tell you the bug was fixed with the updates.... it hasn't been. Forget about Customer Service. You get 30 days free, and every time you call, you get a hard-sell for support packages or books and then get stuck on hold for 45 minutes. Once you get someone they generally just e-mail you something from their database which in many cases doesn't work anyway. The program is slow... it consumes great amounts of memory and lacks many of the convenience features that former versions have. The reports take forever to compile. You can't change the default colors on one of the priorites which means it's sky-blue color is virtually illegible on screen or in print. You have to go through extra steps to print out a task list. The dates do not roll over correctly, you lose information when inputting the "regarding" field, and the program randomly crashes. Importing database from previous version is cumbersome... it takes about an hour.

If it weren't for the fact that my earlier version did not support Pocket PC I would have sent it back for a refund during the 30-day trial. If you think you must try it, download the 30-day trial from the interenet and be sure to keep your old program loaded and the database handy. You'll probably want to go back after a week. If there are any attorneys out there, you might want to consider a class action suit against the software maker. It simply does not do what it claims to do.

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2.0 stars

"Complete Waste of Time and Money"

April 18, 2005  |   By dustincobb

Version: Act 7.0.399

Pros

NONE!

Cons

Slow, Inconsistant, full of bugs that tech support can not fix or explain. My company has wasted over 40 man hours trying to resolve these issues. Our last option...unistall and light on fire! Burn ACT Burn you useless piece of *^$%!

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1.0 stars

"So Slow - Unusable"

April 9, 2005  |   By iteams

Version: Act 7.0.399

Pros

I don't see any!

Cons

This new version is completly unusable, it is so slow. You can click the mouse and nothing happens for 30 seconds. I have two brand new high end computers.

They have had three patches in the last few weeks, what does that tell you. The new one is 53MB.

Support, what support!

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2.0 stars

"Dont be a beta tester!"

February 24, 2005  |   By Carlcarl

Version: Act 7.0.399

Cons

The dynamic company link 'feature' is a fraud; you cant group contacts based on the company data fields. Very slow unless used on high spec PC, and bugs galore - heaps of sleep depriving 'Object error' codes popping up regularly when concluding data entry - DONT BE A BETA TESTER WITH YOUR DATA - LET SOMEONE ELSE FEEL THE PAIN!

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1.0 stars

"Switch - Don't fight it!"

February 10, 2005  |   By Dellaera

Version: Act 7.0.399

Pros

Nothing major to write home about.

Cons

It's slow and has many bugs that will waste you plenty of time. I would not recommend it to anyone. Greatly disappointed!!!!!!!!!! I was using version 5 and it was working a lot better.

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