Act! Pro v18 (2016) - 1 User

I have been using Act since v2.0. I temporarily stopped upgrading Act! after v6.0.3 and waited until v13.0 was released, since the interim upgrades had so many issues. Still, that migration was a difficult project. In trying to make my existing computer system Windows 10 ready, I was pleasantly surprised to see how smoothly the upgrade from Act! v13.0 to v18.0 went. The only issues I encountered were:1) Running into a Protexis licensing issue which was probably more related to the registry on my computer than to this application. Since I had seen it before, I know what to do to fix it.2) Tweaking some settings on the Windows Firewall to avoid warning messages.3) Having to re-log in to your Act! e-mail address book whenever you perform a database backup and restore. This was different but makes sense when you think about it as the way it was before was probably a security risk.4) Database restorations seem reliable (if you follow a strict sequence of steps) but less robust (they will fail in certain contexts).The updated user interface is nice and most things work the same as before so there is no learning curve. I'm glad they finally added a sorely needed activity query/report. The Microsoft Excel export saves a lot of work and I like the global search feature. Overall, I'm pretty happy. I find Act! indispensable in keeping my life well organized.7/28/16 Update: I just finished my Windows 10 upgrade and noticed the following:1) On Windows 10, Act! runs off of a 2014 rather than 2008R2 SQL server, so I had to convert my database (I guess you have to keep up with the times). This conversion was automatic and went fine.2) The Backup/Restore As command required a database conversion whenever moving one from a Windows 7 to a Windows 10 platform. The recently released Service Pack 2 from SwiftPage seemed to eliminate this requirement when it was installed in each environment by apparently converting the Windows 7 database.Now, everything still works great!

WARNING!!! One of things I use ACT for is to reach out to my customers and prospects with the MAIL MERGE feature. I spent hours with ACT support, Dell, Microsoft Support and McAfee antivirus to find out why my new computer, new Windows 10 new Microsoft Office 2016 did not work properly only to discover the problem is ACT V18.ACT V18 will not do an email merge when the template has an image embedded. It will NOT mail merge. The recipient receives an email with blank square boxes with a red X in the corner (Windows) or just a blank box (MAC) where the image is suppose to be.I finally found a qualified ACT Swiftpage professional support rep that spent an hour working with me on the issue. He discovered that this is a KNOWN ISSUE and Swiftpage is supposedly working on it, but no date is available when it will be fixed.1. ACT V18 should have never been released with kind of major BUG. 2 ACT support is difficult to come by and they want to charge you a monthly fee to fix their own problems. 3. There is obviously lack of communication within ACT, because it took me 3 calls to finally what the problem is and that it is an ACT known internal problem.

Great program I only wish the would continue to offer this in a CD version for a single user

cannot use it

Had a minor glitch during install but the seller provided prompt and accurate assistance.

Installed fairly easily and performs well on Windows 10 OS.

Started using ACT! back in 1989 when they had a version for Mac. They did away with that in 1994 (I think), and it has been a pain in the neck ever since (have to agree with Ultra's review).It has gone from Pat Sullivan at Contact Software International (the creator of the program), to Symantec, to another company (maybe two?? - lost track), Sage and now SwiftPage. It seems that every time another company acquires the program, they find more ways to stick their hand in your wallet, and at the same time produce a new version that is more cumbersome and less reliable than the last.My version of ACT! (v.16) I bought just after they released it in 2014; it just crashed on me, and I can't recover the data. Yes, I have backups (do twice a week). Want to get away from them, and don't want to have to buy their latest version, if I can avoid it. On top of that, I received an email on 10-24-16 that my version of ACT! was being retired. They said it had something to do with the version of SQL server my version was running on was no longer being maintained by MicroSoft. . .SO!!!! Fork over some more money, buy Windows 10 (I was running on XP in a virtual environment on my iMac -- that puppy was stable, but was forced to Windows 7 because of an upgrade).Tried to export the backup file to an Excel worksheet today; got a message saying there wasn't enough memory (my iMac has 8 gigs and I was only running Excel!!!!). Afraid of how many hundreds of dollars Sage will want to get it back up.Don't make the mistake of going with ACT! Too many other alternatives out there.A formally very happy, now VERY DISGRUNTLED ACT! user.

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