Getting your Outlook data into ACT!

Douglas Wolf ACT! Certified Consultant

Many people have been working with Outlook and find that it does not have the rich contact manager features and ease of use that ACT! offers.  However, they have had their life in Outlook – contacts, calendar, and maybe journal entries, and cannot afford to abandon all this data.  The latest version of ACT! (6.0) now comes with an Import Wizard that will walk you through importing your Outlook data into ACT!

You will need to make sure that the data is in your default Outlook profile folders.  For instance, if you have moved, and/or copied data to archive folders, these folders will not be seen by the import process.

Tip: If you do need to move data around, create a temporary folder to copy it to, and then move it back afterwards.  For instance, you have a contact sub-folder for vendors.  The data in this folder will have to be moved in order to be imported.

1.    Create a sub-folder of Contacts named Contacts Temp.

2.    Move the contents of the Contacts folder to Contacts Temp.

3.    Now select (Ctrl + A) and copy the contents of the Vendors folder to the Contacts folder.

4.    Now do your import (see below) and then select and delete the contents of the Contacts folder.

5.    Repeat this process for any additional sub-folders you need to import.

6.    When you are done, select and copy the contents of the Contacts Temp folder back into the Contacts folder, and       now import these records.

7.    The Contacts Temp folder can now be deleted.

Prepare the ACT! Database

You may have to create new fields in ACT!, and/or make sure that they have the appropriate characteristics, before starting the import.  For instance, you cannot import character data into a date field.

If you have more than one email address for some contacts in Outlook, you should create additional fields (labeled appropriately) for the extra email addresses.  Same suggestion for phone numbers since Outlook offers you so many different label options for phone numbers.

The Import Process

1.    Click File | Data Exchange | Import

The Import Wizard opens and you should click on the dropdown arrow and choose Outlook as the File type.  Click Next.

Tip:  If you are importing Outlook data for other users, make sure that they are set up as users of the ACT! database, and log in to the ACT! database as that user when importing his data.

2.    The next screen has only one option Contact records only.  Click the Options button.

3.    The Import Options dialog box opens.Choose Outlook contacts if you know that your data is stored on your local hard drive, or Choose Exchange contacts if your data is stored on the network (server).

4.    Select the Appointments and Tasks if you have been using the Outlook calendar and would like to have this data in ACT!

Select Notes and Journal Entries if you would like to import this data too.  Notice that both Notes and Journal Entries get mapped to Notes in ACT!  Click OK.

5.    The next screen is the CONTACT MAP page customized for Outlook fields.

The Outlook fields are on the left, and the ACT! database fields (for the current database) are on the right.

You will need to check whether the Outlook data is being mapped to the correct fields.  If there is a blank field on the right then click in that field and choose from the dropdown the appropriate ACT! field.

If you click on the right pointing arrow above Record 0, you can actually see the data that will be imported, one record at a time, which will help you verify that you have mapped the fields correctly.  Click Finish.

Tip: If you will be importing several sets of Outlook data, once you have selected the fields to map the data to (and you may not need to map them all if you do not have data in every Outlook field), click Save Map so that it is available (Load Map) for  the next import.

5.    When the contacts have been imported, the Map Outlook Data Wizard gives you options for mapping appointments and tasks which will appear in the table.

•    You can map them to My Record (if you are logged in as the correct user), which may be the best way to go.

•    You can map them all to another user of the ACT! database.

•    Or if there are specific items listed in the table that you would like mapped (connected) to other contacts in the database, click in the Contact column and choose the appropriate contact from the dropdown list.  Yes, you will have to do this for each appointment and task if you do not want them connected to a user of the database.  Unfortunately there is no shortcut!

6.    Click Finish.

Summary

The import wizard is a big help, especially if you need to import notes and journal entries from Outlook.  And of course it facilitates the import of appointments and tasks.  Even though the easiest option seems to be to associate them with the My Record (rather than painfully associating each one with an individual contact), at least they are on the ACT! calendar and can be seen by other users of your database.

TIP: If you want to associate a calendar item with a particular contact, double-click on the item in one of the calendar views, and change the contact in the With: field.