I had an active blog on my website years ago but had my website rebuilt just a year or so ago, losing all the old blog entries.  Most of the posts on that blog were inspired by client questions or situations, so I’ll just say now that this will too (along with those from my archive which I will update and post again, eventually)…

Today I recived this question via e-mail, and I will follow with my answer:

The Question:  “I know ACT historically has had issues with excel, but I was curious if there had been any improvement on that. I would like to be able to pre-populate the attached excel form using the Templates feature if possible. This is a form we create on every transaction and it has to be manually typed which sometimes leaves too much room for error.”

My Answer:  “Act! exports to Excel and Imports from Excel.  Flat spreadsheets, Contacts, Companies, Groups, and Opportunities.  No merge capabilities ever.

Assuming you use the MS Word word processor in Act!, you would have to recreate the form from Act! by selecting Write>Edit Template (always easier than New Template), then select a (MS Word for Act!) Template and add the desired text and Fields from the list of fields in your database, then make it look like you want.  Save when done.  While you save, make sure the file ends with .adt instead of .doc or docx.  If not, you won’t see it when you go back to Merge, but can go back in your database’s Templates file and change the extension there.

Then you can look up the desired Contact, select Write>Mail Merge, etc.

As always, if you need any assistance…”