In previous versions of ACT! (version 6.0 and older), you could only add secondary contacts to a database by adding additional contact fields for a main contact. In most layouts, these fields were housed in the Alt Contacts tab. In ACT! 2005 and 20066, secondary contacts are their own database entity.
 

You can add an unlimited number of secondary contacts for each main contact, and each secondary contact can have its own field values.  You can view, add, and edit secondary contacts in the Secondary Contacts tab in the Contacts view.

It's important to note that you can customize the columns that are displayed for each of your secondary contacts by clicking the Options button in the upper right corner of the Secondary Contacts tab. From the dropdown, select the Customize Columns option. In the resulting Customize Columns dialog box, you can add, remove, and reorder the fields displayed in the Secondary Contacts tab.

To add a secondary contact:

1. In the Contacts view, go to the Secondary Contacts tab.
2. In the upper-left corner of the Secondary Contacts tab, click the New Secondary Contact button. The New Contact dialog box will appear.
3. Add any relevant data for your contact.
4. Click OK to add the secondary contact.

In ACT!, you can lookup contacts by their first and last names. But there's no editable first or last name field in an ACT! database -- only a single contact field. When entering a contact's name into an ACT! database, the program looks at the first word in the contact field. If the first word is one of ACT!'s recognized prefixes (such as Mr. or Mrs.), ACT! won't count the word as the first name. The next word -- assuming it's not a recognized prefix -- will be flagged as the contact's first name. The same logic is used to recognize the last names in the Contact field.

If you were to enter Mr. John Smith, Jr. into your database, ACT! would:

• Look at the first word, Mr. Mr. is one of ACT!'s recognized prefixes. Because of this, ACT! will go to the next word, John. John isn't a recognized prefix, so ACT! would designate John as the first name.
• Then, ACT! would look at the last word in the contact field. In this example, it's Jr. Jr. is one of ACT!'s recognized suffixes, so the program would skip to the previous word, Smith. Smith isn't a recognized suffix, so ACT! would designate the last name for this contact as Smith.

To specify a contact's first, middle, and last name:

1. Add a new contact to your database.
2. Type the contact's name into the Contact field.
3. Click the button to the right of the Contact field. The Contact Name dialog box appears.
4. Specify your contact's correct first name, middle name, and last name.
5. Click OK. ACT! has now correctly recorded the contact's name.
6. When your cursor leaves the Contact field, ACT! will automatically populate the Salutation field with either the contact's first or last name, depending on the preference you've set.