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A little background on me. I'm an ACT user for several years (4-5). I love ACT! (However, I'm going to call it just "ACT" and not "ACT!") I love the way it works, I love the way it organizes me. I used ACT for several hours a day, keeping phone appointments, meetings, and to-dos. ACT kept me going.

Unfortunately, ACT was the only good thing about using Windows. The constant barrage of spyware and viruses and a general feeling of not knowing what was going on with my computer made me want to switch to Mac OS X.

No doubt in my mind that it was a good move. There's only one drawback: no ACT. ACT for Mac was discontinued in 2000. Sure, you could get an old version (ACT 2.8 for Mac was the last version, released on 1997-08-18, but it isn't meant for OS X) and you would most likely have to re-enter all your ACT data (no importing your ACT for Windows data).

You have a few options. The best one will be a personal decision, but I'll let you know some of the pluses and minuses of each from my perspective.

There are generally two decisions to be made:

1. Keep using ACT, or
2. Start using a Mac OS X app.

If you want to keep using ACT, you have a few possibilities:

1) VirtualPC. This is probably the first thought that comes to your mind. VirtualPC will let you run Windows inside your Mac OS X computer. Drawbacks: It's slow. It's expensive. It has to be running all the time (meaning that your computer will run slower). I was unable to get ACT to sync with ACT for Palm when running inside VirtualPC (which made it a whole lot less convenient).

2) ACT on WINE. WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) will let you run Windows apps without VirtualPC. There is something called Darwine which "intends to port and develop WINE as well as other supporting tool." Unfortunately it is not ready yet, at least as far as I could tell. Actually I could find no information on running ACT under WINE (see final note below)

3) ACT! for Web is available, but there's no price listed on the website (scary). WebAct is not yet released, and appears to be a commercial product. Each require that you have a web server at your disposal. ACT for Web requires IIS. I have no idea how well these work, but a web solution would be handy.

4) Keep your old PC around. Drawbacks: have to have two computers. That takes up room and space, and you have to maintain a separate computer. It's not particularly convenient. But it's free, you don't have to learn anything new, you don't have to buy anything new.

If you want to start using a Mac OS X app, you have two basic choices.

1) Now Up-to-Date & Contact is a nice solution, in that you can use it in Windows and Mac. If I had not used any calendar/contact software before, I probably would have chosen that just for that reason alone. However, I really didn't like the design/user interface. It looked a bit like a toy or something. I don't have a good, empirical reason here, I just didn't care for the way it looked. That's a completely subjective response that should not stop anyone else from trying it. You should try it on principle, because they were the first ones to support ACT customers when Mac was dropped and I think that ought to count for something.

2) DayLite from Marketcircle also has a very nice product. Again I'm not thrilled with the user interface (most likely because I'm so used to ACT!), but it does seem a bit more professional looking. It lacks good intergration with the menu bar (something Now Up to Date offers). It also silently quits (on purpose) when you HotSync.

(By the way, both Daylte and Now-Up-to-Date are priced about the same. DayLite is Mac only.)

So I know you're dying to know, which solution did I pick?

Well, first I tried VirtualPC. It seemed like the most obvious solution. But keeping VPC running all the time was a major drag, and once I couldn't get the HotSync to work, it was useless. What happened most of the time is that I only launched VPC when I really needed it, which made it far too slow. It also meant that if VPC wasn't running, I couldn't use ACT to organize my day.

Next I tried keeping my old PC around. I just left it plugged in on my desk all the time. That was fine, except that it took too much desk space, and I couldn't bring it with me (I'm not about to start carrying TWO laptops around!) wherever I went. I relied heavily on ACT for Palm when I was away from my computer, but the alarm feature stinks. If you don't hear it the first time, it doesn't repeat. It doesn't integrate into the Palm alert manager either, which was a pain. And it meant that I always had to have my phone with me whenever I wasn't with my old PC. I don't use my cell phone at home, so I'd often miss reminders.

Finally I decided that I really needed something that ran on the Mac, that would give me reminders on the Mac and on my Palm. Since I didn't like Now-Up-To-Date's user interfact, I bought DayLite. I'm starting to really like it and get used to the way it works. Their support is very responsive, even before I bought the program.

But there are some major drawbacks.

First, while integrating into the Palm Desktop (which both Mac apps do) is nice, it is not nearly as good as having a real Palm version like ACT has. If either Mac program came with a real Palm version, I'd recommend that in a heartbeat. One of the biggest drawbacks is that tasks and meetings and phone calls are no longer scheduled together. You have to use the calendar for meetings and the To Do list for tasks. ACT for Palm integrated these the way that ACT for Windows does.

Secondly, both apps make it far too difficult to link a task to a contact. Those who have worked in ACT know that it basically won't allow you to schedule a Call/Meeting/To-Do without first asking you to connect the task with a person (even if you cheat and connect it with yourself). This is especially important for meetings and calls. ACT easily let me see who I had a meeting/call with, and what the phone number was. In Daylite I had to hunt around for it. Worse, contact information is not available when synced to Palm's calendar, so I ended up with a whole lot of calendar items that say "Meeting" or "Birthday" on the Palm without telling me who it was for. So now I have to schedule an event and put the person's name and phone number in the field. This is a waste of time and highly error prone.

Finally, it is not customizable. ACT allowed me to easily change the way that the information in the database was displayed. Neither Mac apps do that (to my knowledge). Even the way completed tasks are handed: in DayLite you either delete them or mark them 'Completed' but they still appear. In ACT I had set completed tasks to be hidden, so I could see in an instant how many remaining tasks were left. ACT would also let me see all my To-Do/Calls/Meetings in the calendar or just some of them (either by category or by priority, low, med, high). That was another feature of ACT that I liked - it made it difficult to assign a task without scheduling time to do it.

After a few weeks of working solely with DayLite, I can say that I like having an app on my Mac that keeps my calendar and contacts right there so I don't have to boot into VirtualPC. I like that it integrates better into the Palm alert manager. However, the user interface is still lacking, and the absense of a real Palm client makes me reconsider going back to ACT.

I recently learned of a new option: Remote Desktop Connection. This is a variation on #4 above (keep your old PC around) except that you can display and control it on your Mac. (NOTE: this feature is only available on PCs with Windows XP Pro.) Basically this free app will let you connect to your PC and control it just as if you were sitting in front of it. What that means is that the processing is done on the remote computer (PC) but displayed on the Mac. This is a highly attractive solution which offers me the ability to work in ACT without having VirtualPC bogging down my machine. And it is free.

Performance over a LAN is great. You almost wouldn't realize it wasn't a Mac OS X application. I even used it over a 28.8 modem connection (with settings tweaked) and it was do-able (note: doing this was only possible because I was able to port forward my office LAN so I can connect from the Internet to the computer in question. That may not be possible for everyone.) If I had broadband at home, this would definitely be my solution to the problem (note: the app also has support for multiple monitors).

Conclusion: I wish I had never met ACT because I could probably be happy with DayLite or Now-Up-To-Date otherwise. But trying to live without ACT is the hardest part of leaving Windows. It has been months and I still have no good solution to the problem. Until there is a program which offers a real Palm client, I think ACT is going to continue to be the best option for me in terms of functionality, with some additional problems regarding ease of use when not at the office.

A final note to software makers: for the love of pete, give your software a unique name. Have you ever tried Googling for "ACT"? It's largely useless, far too many meaningless hits. "Now Up to Date" isn't much better. Very hard to be specific (especially when some people abbreviate it) and get good results. DayLite was a good choice.

(March 7 Update: If you use ACT for Palm and have a wireless internet connection, you might also be interested in ACT Wireless HotSync.