Act 11, Synchronize Address Book with Outlook

[Kari]

I'm new to Act!  Haven't even used it much and now I'm trying to set up and manage it!

I want to use Act! as a central database to store contact info.  I would like each user's Outlook to use the data in Act for it's Address Book.  Ideally I would like to be able to edit contacts in either Act or Outlook and have it propigate to the other, but I could live with having to do all edits in Act.

I have figured out how to add my Act! contact list as an Outlook address book, but nothing updates in either direction.  Do I really have to manually re-add the list from Act each time I open Outlook??  If this is the case, is there a way to program either Act or Outlook to automatically perform an update when opening or something?  (Although I'm new to Act I'm a pretty good programmer and could go this route with a little help.)  Any other suggestions about how to synchronize address books?

I'm using Act! 2009 (v 11.0) and Outlook 2007 on Windows XP.

Thank you for all your help.

Kari

[dlunceford · Accepted solution]

Adding the ACT! addressbook in Outlook isn't adding the contacts to Outlook.  Outlook contacts and ACT! contacts are not linked.  If you want to sync contacts between the two programs, you will have to use an addon like DoubleLook.

Sage offers the ACT! SDK for free if you would like to make your own addons for ACT!.  You can request the ACT! SDK here.  If you have any questions regarding the SDK or need help, you can post your questions in the ACT! Developer Network.

[dlunceford · Accepted solution]

Adding the ACT! addressbook in Outlook isn't adding the contacts to Outlook.  Outlook contacts and ACT! contacts are not linked.  If you want to sync contacts between the two programs, you will have to use an addon like DoubleLook.

Sage offers the ACT! SDK for free if you would like to make your own addons for ACT!.  You can request the ACT! SDK here.  If you have any questions regarding the SDK or need help, you can post your questions in the ACT! Developer Network.

[Kari]

David,

Thank you for your reply.  I'm still figuring out the structure of Act!, so your comments really help me to look in the right directions.  I always forget that Contacts and Address Book are two different things in Outlook; thanks for the reminder.

Thanks also for the info about addon's available and how to get started making my own.  I will check those out.  I knew there had to be a way to do this.  :-)

Kari

[dlunceford]

You're welcome, glad to help.

[Doug johnson]

I have act pro. Not sure of the version.

I just need the contact from outlook to syn with my act. When i do a manual synchronization the out look box gets unchecked.

i tryed to do auto but that has never worked. it looks like outlook is updated but not Act.