When a database is created, default Contact, Company, Group, and Opportunity layouts are created and are available for customising. These layouts are considered as supplemental files, and are independent to the database. However, these layouts can be reused in different or multiple databases without needing to re-create them.
File extensions for various layouts are as follows:
- Contact Layout — .cly
- Company Layout — .aly
- Group Layout — .gly
- Opportunity Layout — .oly
How to identify the file system location of these layouts
In order to copy the layout files, you'll need to locate them.
- Launch Sage ACT!.
- Open the database for which you wish to know the location of supplemental files.
- Click the Help menu.
- Click About ACT!.
- Click the Database Information button — the Database Information dialog box will open (see image below).
- In the Database Information dialog box, scroll down the list of values in the Database Settings Information list view, until you see a Database Setting called Supplemental File Location. This is the file system location you are looking for.
The default location…
- in Windows XP is: C:\Documents & Settings\<User_Name>\MyDocuments\ACT\ActData\Databases\<Database_Name>\Layouts
- in Windows Vista/7 is: C:\Users\<User_Name>\Documents\ACT\Act Data\Databases\<Database_Name>\Layouts
where <User_Name> is your Windows account user name and <Database_Name> is the name of your database in Sage ACT!.
How to copy the layouts from one database to another
Once the file system location for the supplemental files is identified from the above steps…
- Close your Sage ACT!.
- Launch Windows Explorer or My Computer.
- Navigate to the Supplemental files location recorded from the previous section.
- Open the Layouts subfolder.
- Select the layout that you wish to re-use in a different database.
- Copy the file — click the Edit menu then click Copy.
- Navigate to, and open, the layouts subfolder for the other database.
- Paste the file — click the Edit menu then click Paste.
NOTE 1: You will need to find the location for supplemental files for the destination database first before adding new files into it.
NOTE 2: If you have defined fields in the database where the layout was customised and added these fields to the custom layout, but have not added these custom field definitions to the other database, only the field labels will appear when this layout is opened in the other database. i.e. You will need to define the customised fields in the destination database before they become active.