Singing the Customer Service Blues
Once upon a time life was much simpler – at least if you believe everything you see in “Leave It To Beaver” re-runs. Dad marched off to the office every day while Mom stayed home and dusted. Not once did you hear Dad cursing because he couldn’t find his software activation code and the gentleman at tech support couldn’t speak English, or watch Mom navigate through a maze of “Press 1...
My Love/Hate Relationship with Amazon
Hi. My name is Karen, and I am addicted to online shopping. There, I’ve said it so I’m now on my road to recovery. I love the fact that I can go online and, in a matter of minutes, send a last minute gift to my cousin in Des Moines complete with card and gift wrap. As an added bonus I can spend a moment or two to do a bit of comparison shopping and then fill in my credit card information...
ACT 2010 Will Soon be Here!
I know, I know. Another year, another upgrade. Upgrades can be expensive both in terms of money and time, but unfortunately they are a necessary evil of the computer world.
Some companies force you to upgrade every year or so. For example, Intuit’s tax tables will stop working when QuickBooks reaches a certain age, or you’ll no longer be able to access your accounts online in Quicken...
Why Can’t I Just Use Outlook?
I’ve been using ACT for over 20 years and, like most of you, my database needed a bit of Spring Cleaning. Although I routinely rely on Swift Page to help me update contact information, I wanted to get a better understanding of the needs of my contacts. I sent out a simple email to roughly 1600 ACT users that I had added to my database during the years 1999 through 2004 asking them to let me know...
This Isn’t Your Granddaddy’s ACT!
ACT! has been around for over 20 years. That may not seem like a big deal to you but in the fast-paced volatile world of computing that’s an incredible accomplishment. It’s not uncommon for an ACT! user to tell me that he or she has been using ACT! for 10, 15 or even 20 years.
Things change – and in the computer world change is extremely rapid. Think of what computing looked like in 1988:
* You...
Should I upgrade to ACT 2009/11?
It’s here – ACT! 2009 – right on schedule. So, do you need to race out and upgrade? Here are my thoughts:
ACT! Classic Users: By “classic” I mean versions 6 (2004), 5 (2000), 4 or even 3. Your version of ACT! won’t work with a new computer that has Vista, or even with most versions of Microsoft Outlook. You can’t use ACT! for your e-mail – at least not easily. Most importantly...
Don’t Believe What You Read in Amazon
As the author of four “For Dummies” books on ACT I am often asked to comment on the negative reviews that a potential user might find on the Internet. Please realize two things about these comments:
People tend to voice opinions when things go wrong, not when things are working well.
You have no idea as to the level of expertise of the writers of Internet reviews.
I love Amazon –...
