Act! and Outlook 2016

I have witnessed Act! crashing when performing a mail-merge for a custom form letter in Act! to be sent via Outlook.  In this case, the merge works a couple times, then it chokes with Act! crashing.  Here is one possible cure.

  1. Close Act!
  2. Close Outlook
  3. Close Word
    1. Go to Task Manager (Start -> Run -> Taskmgr)
    2. End all instances for Microsoft Word (screen shot)
    3. Close Task Manager
  4. Find “normal.dotm” using Windows Explorer
    1. Press Windows Start -> Run -> %appdata%
    2. Find the directory C:\USERNAME\appdata\roaming\microsoft\templates
    3. delete normal.dotm
  5. Restart Act!
  6. Restart Outlook
  7. Test the Mail-Merge

Please note if you are on Act! subscription, this common tech support is covered by their phone support if this article is unclear.  Or,  you can contact us for fee-based support for this issue.  This is just one possible cure for the mail-merge issue not working among the three programs (Act! + Word + Outlook).