Filtering Contact reports

We've created a lookup of contacts to include in the reports, so now we move to running a contact report. The lookup we created will be used to filter the contacts included in the report, and can be used with any of the contact based reports as well as the labels and envelopes. Here we will use the Contact Directory report.

How to do it…

  1. From any screen in the ACT! program, click on Reports in the navigation bar on the left-hand side of the screen.
  2. In the Report List, double-click on the Contact Directory report.
  3. In the Define Filters dialog there are several filter and output options to select.
    How to do it…
  4. Click on the radio button for Current Lookup to use the lookup we created as a filter.
  5. Make sure Exclude 'My Record' is checked.

    Note

    In most cases, you will want to exclude the My Record because your report will be focused on contact data. In some cases, you may have pertinent data recorded on your My Record and in that case you would want to include the My Record.

  6. Select all users in Use data managed by to include all the contacts in the lookup.
  7. Select Preview for the output desired.
  8. Click OK to run the report with these filter options.

How it works…

This is the main Define filters dialog that is used to run reports, labels, and envelopes. There will be changes to some of the options and additional tabs depending on the capabilities of the report you select. The Create report for section provides a selection of the records included in the report. Most reports give these three options or ones similar when you run the report. In some cases, if you haven't created an applicable lookup, the Current lookup option will not be available. In most cases you don't want to include information from the My Record, but the filter option is included for those cases when you do want to include the My Record. The Use data managed by filter allows you to select all users, a single user, or a combination of users.

There's More…

The Create report for filter has an additional capability, specifically for the Current lookup and the All contacts options. The All contacts option uses a default sort of company for a contact report. The Current lookup option uses the sort order of the lookup you have created. However, if the report template has a built in sort, that will override any pre-sort.

See also

Refer to Chapter 4, Working with the Report Editor, for more information on built in sorts.