Most ACT! users want to send email. Chapter 12 explains how to send bulk emailings through ACT!. In this chapter you'll learn how to send ACT! email by linking your ACT! database to Microsoft Outlook.

If you choose to link ACT! to Outlook, you can choose to use either Outlook or ACT! E-Mail as your email editor. If you use the ACT! E-mail editor you manage, view, and send email messages using the ACT! E-mail system; however, Outlook will still be responsible for the actual email transmission. If you use Outlook as your email client you manage, view, and send email messages directly from within Outlook. However, both scenarios will result in a record of the email being created on ACT!'s History tab.

Because Outlook is a much more robust email client than ACT! E-Mail, I recommend that you use Outlook as your email client.

ACT! 2012 can integrate with Outlook versions 2003, 2007, and 2010. However, in order for ACT! and Outlook to properly integrate, you must install Outlook prior to installing ACT! and make sure that you have installed all the available Microsoft Office service packs. If you install or upgrade Outlook after you install ACT!, you will need to uninstall and reinstall ACT! in order to integrate it with Outlook.