Section 7.3. ACT

7.3. ACT

No Mac version of this address book/calendar program is available, but don't let that stop you. Export and Import commands are the bread and butter of address and calendar programs. Your ACT life can find a happy home in any of several Mac address books:

• Mac OS X's free, built-in Address Book.

• Palm Desktop for Mac OS X (a free address book/calendar/to-do program from www.palm.com, which works withbut doesn't requirean actual Palm organizer).

• Microsoft Entourage (part of Microsoft Office for Mac).

• Now Contact (www.nowsoftware.com), which is networkable. That is, if you have more than one computer in the house, you can check your Rolodex from any machine on the network (Mac or Windows).

In any case, here are the instructions for transferring your addresses from ACT (version 5 or later) to the Mac:

1. In ACT for Windows, start by choosing File Data Exchange Export .

   The Export Wizard dialog box appears.

2. From the "File type" drop-down list, choose Text-Delimited. Specify a folder location and name for your exported file (call it Exported Contacts, for example). Click Next, and click Next on the next screen, too .

   Now you're asked "Which contact or group records do you want to export?"

3. Click "All records," and then click Next .

   Now you see a list of the fields (information tidbits like City, State, and Zip) that ACT is prepared to export. You can save yourself time later if you take a moment now to remove the ones you don't need (click its name and then click Remove Field).

4. Click Finish .

   If you plan to import your addresses into a commercial program like Now Contact, transfer the Exported Contacts file to the Mac (see Chapter 5), and then import them into Now Contact. The tricky part is making sure that the order of the fields appears in the order Now Contact expects, which may entail some trial, error, and returning to the ACT Export Wizard screen described in step 3 (where you can rearrange the field order).

   If your aim is to import the addresses into Microsoft Entourage on the Mac, or Mac OS X's own Address Book program, though, read on.

5. Open Outlook Express .

   Yes, Outlook Express for Windows, the free program that comes on every PC. (It's also a free download from Microsoft's Web site.) You'll use it as a glorified converter program.

6. Follow the instructions on Section 6.3.1 for exporting the contacts into a format suitable for your Mac .

   That page outlines two ways (one free, one fast) to get your contacts from Outlook Express into Mac OS X's Address Bookyour ACT info 's final resting place.