Duplicate Contacts can occur in a number of ways. While it can sometimes be a user error, it can also be a scanning or importing error. For example, if you scan a stack of business cards to import to Act!, you may input duplicate contacts, either because there are duplicates in the pile or they already exist in your database. Either way, there are Act! tools to manage or merge these duplicates.

To start, head to the tools tab at the top left. In the drop down, you’ll see two options: scan for duplicates, and copy/move contact data. If you scan, a pop-up window will appear, allowing you to lookup duplicates based on up to 3 categories of your choice, from company, contact, e-mail, etc. Click OK, and you will be given the option to start combining the duplicates. From this pop-up you have two choices: click No, and you will be given a list view with your duplicates. Click Yes, and you will be sent to the Copy/Move Contact Data Wizard.

From the pop-up Wizard, click Next, and you’ll be able to choose where you are getting your contact data from, i.e. the current lookup, a group, company, etc. Then, select any two contacts you’d like to merge data with. Click Next, and you can choose to copy Contact 1 onto Contact 2, or vice versa. Next again, and here you get to choose which fields to copy over. Select any row you’d like to merge and click Copy to copy the info over to the other Contact.

After that, you can choose which additional items you’d like to copy over, from Notes, Histories, Activities, etc. Finally, you can choose whether or not to delete the contact record you just copied from. Click Next, then Finish, and you’ve successfully merged Duplicate Contact data.