Command Tool lets you create a "command file" of commands that let you:
- Export a Lookup or Query to CSV (text) format
- Create a multi-column report in HTML
- Do automated Lookup / Edit-Replace operations
- Create one-click lookups relative to today's Date
- Add Notes to Lookup
A command creation wizards leads you through the steps of creating the command file.
Build up your own library of useful automation commands
One click Export of your contact data
Command Tool is a simple tool for exporting ACT! Contact data. It is useful for a lookup or query based export that needs to be performed on a regular basis or with a particular well defined format.
It can output either text or HTML format. The text format is compatible with Excel and the HTML format can be used for simple contact list reports.
Intro Video
Take five minutes to see Command Tool in action... right on your PC without installing anything (except a recent Windows Media player).
ACT! does not need to be running to run Command Tool, and it easy to set it up to run unattended using the Windows Task Scheduler.
The command lines are saved in a text file, and Command Tool reads and executes the lines in that file when it runs. Here is a simple example of a command file.
| command file: Export CEOs.txt |
! Here is a sample of the Command Tool command file...
Database C:\My Documents\ACT\Database\ACT5demo.dbf
Lookup Title,ceo,replace
Columns Company,Contact,City,Title,Email
Output c:\temp\CEOs.csv |
Translated into English, this command file, when executed by Command Tool will:
- Open ACT5Demo
- Do a Lookup on Title = CEO
- Sets the fields to export to Company,Contact,City,Title,Email
- Write the Lookup into the Output file CEOs.csv
which will result in the following output:
| output file: CEOs.csv |
Company,Contact,City,Title,Email
CH Gourmet Imports,Chris Huffman,New York,CEO,ch@ch.com
Elliott's Department Stores,Homer Elliott,Raleigh,CEO,
Kwik-e-mart,Danese Bouvier,San Francisco,CEO,
Trader Depot,Sanjiv Skinner,Los Angeles,CEO,
Cordoba Coffee Shops,John Lew,Irving,CEO,Lew@cordobacs.com,
Pacific Cafe Company,Shirley Brightwell,San Francisco,CEO, |
or, if you choose HTML output:
| Company |
Contact |
City |
| CH Gourmet Imports |
Chris Huffman |
New York |
| Elliott's Department Stores |
Homer Elliott |
Raleigh |
| Kwik-e-mart |
Danese Bouvier |
San Francisco |
| Trader Depot |
Sanjiv Skinner |
Los Angeles |
| Cordoba Coffee Shops |
Mr. John Lew |
Irving |
| Pacific Cafe Company |
Shirley Brightwell |
San Francisco | |
Query using Today's date!
Command Tool can also do lookups and queries relative to today's date. If you want to create a report that outputs today's leads in a nice HTML format, use the commands:
| command file: TodaysLeads.txt |
Database=C:\My Documents\ACT\Database\ACT5demo.dbf
Query=("Create Date" = "Today()") Columns=Company,Contact,Title,Phone,EmailHTML
Output=c:\temp\todaysleads.htm |
Command Tool also supports the use of ThisMonth() and LastMonth() in Queries and Lookups. And, with Today(), you can add and subtract so you can do queries that cover date ranges like Today()-7 to Today().
Extensions to Command Language
Newly added features now make Command Tool more than an Export utility. We've recently added these new comands:
- Set Fields - a batch version of Edit/Replace
- Copy Fields
- Swap Fields
- AppLookup - Create a Lookup in ACT!
- Launch - run external program with contact fields as parameters
We had a customer that was using our Sales Automation Mania. He wanted a way to add new leads to campaigns based on what they had indicated as interests. (You add a contact to a campaign in SAM by setting a contact field to "Start".)
So, we added a "Set" command that could set a field value for a Lookup.
| command file: SetCampaign.txt |
|
! Add new leads to Widgets Campaign...
Database=C:\My Documents\ACT\Database\ACT5demo.dbf
Query=("ID/Status"="New Lead") AND ("Wants Widgets"="YES") AND ("Widget_Stage" BLANK)
Set=ID/Status=In Widget Campaign;Widget_Stage=Start |
Then it dawned on us that if we could actually have it create a Lookup in ACT! itself, you could use the date substitution as a "Super Saved Query" tool. So, we added that too.
| command file: LookupMyNewLeads.txt |
Database=C:\My Documents\Contacts.dbf;username/password
Query=("Create Date" = "Today()")
AND ("Record Creator" = "me()")
AppLookup= |
This command file will do something you can't do in ACT! without use of Lookup By Example. It will lookup all the contacts created today by you.
Full Documentation
