Address Grabber is a program that does exactly what is says. It allows you to "grab" your contacts in any format in a text document, from your e-mail, or off the internet, and transfer these addresses into your contact database.  

For those of you who collect business cards on the road, this makes it easy to enter these contacts away from home. It will also give you something to do on the flight home or in your room at night. You simply type the names, addresses, telephone numbers etc. into your word processor as fast as you can in any old format. Once you have access to your database, using Address Grabber it will only take an additional few minutes to transfer them. 

The way this program works is very simple. First, make sure your transfer destination is open i.e., ACT or Outlook is open and running.. Type the addresses and/or other contact information into a Word or similar document. Highlight the address you want to transfer and then click on the program you want to transfer to in the Address Grabber toolbar. A screen will pop up for verification that the fields are in the correct position. Once verified, simply hit transfer. Address Grabber will then transfer all contact information into your database in the correct fields. 

You can also grab addresses from websites and e-mails. It really is that simple and fast. This really works great when you have collected numerous business cards on the road and they need to be entered quickly. I keep it running all day so I can grab an address from a signature file in an email or whenever I see an address I want to "grab" for the database.

The only drawback I have found with Address Grabber, is you can only transfer one contact at a time. However, if you have more than a few addresses to enter, this is the most efficient way to go about entering your contact information. It is less time consuming and you don't need to worry yourself with the details of tabbing over the fields of missing information.

In all, this is a wonderful program to have on your desktop. It will save you an enormous amount of time. And saved time is saved money. This product can be found at http://www.crmsoftwares.com/addressgrabber.html  for $69.95. They also offer a 15 day free trial. 

More automation techniques:

• Automatically check to see your website is up as soon as you open your browser window by making your site the home page. In Internet Explorer Click on "Tools" then click on "Internet Options." Make sure you are in the "General Tab." The first area will have a place to put home page that you want to come up when your browser opens. In Netscape click on "Edit" then click on "preferences." On the left hand side highlight "navigator" then on the right side put in your home page.

• If you visit a website regularly and want to get to it really fast surf to the site in Internet Explorer. Click on "File" then click on "Send." Pick send shortcut to desktop and you'll have a shortcut right from your desktop to that page.

Upcoming topics for this section

• Pop in strings of repetitive text anywhere (not just in email)

• Organize your email

• Reduce the impact of SPAM email

• The greatest keyboard shortcuts

• Respond to emails while you sleep with autoresponders

• Using templates so you never have to reinvent the wheel

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