Need new contact program for Mac

February 9, 2012 8:28 AM

I need recommendations for a new database contact program for my Macbook Pro.

When i was using a PC, i used ACT. This was the best program of it's kind i've ever used. I could enter contacts, notes, set alarms... but moreso, i could look up contacts either by city, state, phone number, whatever....

When i switched to Mac... the best (perhaps only) one i could find was Daylite... which is what i use now. It is & always has been... 'clunky'... i can't sort by city, state, etc...


I also have a program that syncs my Daylite with my mail... so all my mail outbound gets copied into my database ... and i have another app. that allows me to sync up notes with my iPhone...

Is there any better software i can use to replace Daylite???

posted by foodybat to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

What's wrong with the built-in Address Book program?

You can search by city, state, phone number, name, etc, and there's all kinds of syncing options with Google Contacts or your iPhone or what have you.

You mention a variety of other tasks you want it to do: alarms, notes, full text copies of email. Admittedly, Address Book doesn't do that, but are you positive you want that all in one application? It doesn't necessarily seem intuitive to me that those all belong together.

Maybe there's a program that fits your exact needs. But if not, consider splitting up your tasks into a couple programs that work well together. For example, Address Book for contacts, iCal for alarms and schedule-oriented data, Evernote for documents, etc.
posted by losvedir at 8:38 AM on February 9, 2012

Have you thought about using a Windows virtual machine to run ACT itself?
posted by Admiral Haddock at 8:38 AM on February 9, 2012

I'm only kind of familiar with it, but maybe a lighter database app like Bento could work? I don't know if alarms are supported in there or how syncing could work, but you'd have much finer control over the contents of each contact and viewing/managing them.
posted by jroybal at 8:53 AM on February 9, 2012

This is needed for my business.... I need a program that keeps NOTES (when i quote people, other conversations, etc.)... The great thing about ACT was that it was sooo easy to look up by so many different things (city, state, first name, last night, etc.)....


I don't want to run a virtual windows machine just to run Act.... (I didn't buy my mac just to emulate windows)... When i made the jump to the dark side (windows to mac), Daylite seemed to be one of the only 'contact' programs out there....


Act was not only great, but also was able to sync with my smart phone (allowing me to go on the road & look up recent conversations/notes)... Daylite recently (about 1 1/2 years ago) came out with Daylite Touch... which syncs with my phone...

So from 20,000 feet they both (Act & Daylite) generally do the same thing... but Act is smooth, easy to use, and has better features than Daylite....

THERE MUST BE SOMETHING BETTER THAN DAYLITE FOR THE MAC..... right?
posted by foodybat at 6:49 AM on February 10, 2012

I haven't looked at any of these, beyond finding them; it'll be worth a morning to look at them individually; you should contact each and see about import of daylite files and iPhone connectivity.

Elements
Relationship

Salesforce and Zoho are both web2.0 mostly web based apps (either might have an iphone component.)

A list of a bunch more
posted by filmgeek at 1:45 PM on February 11, 2012

thanks film geek!
posted by foodybat at 4:36 AM on February 13, 2012