Customer Reviews

ACT! 2006 Upgrade

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I started using ACT! back with ACT! 2000 (version 5) for our 5 member workgroup. That version was fraught with problems. Just getting it to run required monumental effort, with various Windows tweaks and Registry settings having to be modified. Once all that was accomplished the software ran, not well, but sufficiently well to serve our needs. It doesn't integrate well with Outlook or Word, which causes it to crash now and then, but mostly it works.

When version 6 came out, the marketing stated that it was more stable, faster, and better integrated with Office. I immediately purchased it, installed it, and ran it. Within seconds my system locked up and displayed the Blue Screen of Death. I rebooted, uninstalled, and called for a refund. I had visions of more weekends spent trying to get ACT! to play nice.

I skipped version 7. Then I received the Sage marketing pack for ACT! 2006, and read the very glowing claims that it put forth: Streamlined Productivity! Simpler Scheduling! Better Administration and Security! Time Savings! Guaranteed!

Hah! Here's the reality: yes, there are new features in ACT! 2006, like company records, a new group heirarchy, security enhancements, and scrolling mouse support. Unfortunately none of those features can be used because the program is so painfully slow. It hijacks system resources like mad but appears to use none of the memory or processor capabilities; it just hoards them away from other programs.

Open a menu and close it, and a ghost of the menu remains. Move a field in Template Designer, and it leaves ghost images along the entire path. The only way to be rid of these is to minimize/restore, minimize/restore, over and over until you want to scream.

For those who will scoff, I'm not using some ancient box from Tandy. I have a Dell Dimension 8200 with a P4 1.8GHz, 1GB RAM, ATI Radeon 256MB graphics card. I work daily with Paint Shop Pro and SolidEdge, and the PC never hiccups. I typically have Word, Excel, Outlook, ACT! 2000, Navision, and SolidEdge open at all times, plus the numerous background programs everybody needs like ZoneAlarm, AdAware, Norton AV, yada yada.

Sage support tells me the computer is at fault. That's what they told me with version 6. That's what they'll tell you when you call them. Trust me - Big Blue couldn't make this program run faster.

The sad part is that there is really no other product for individuals or small businesses that can compete with ACT!. So I'm staying with ACT! 2000 and returning my copy of ACT! 2006. Maybe they'll get it right in version 9...

Act 2006 upgrade is an abomination. I believe ACT 2006 will do for SAGE what Dbase IV did for Dbase. I wrote extensively in the ACT 2006 product review before seeing there was a section for the upgrade. I'm just placing this review here to direct you to the reviews for Act 2006.