You would like to learn how to manage Activity Priorities in your ACT! database.
Activity priorities can be managed to allow you to view your most urgent, least urgent or all of your activities at a glance through the color coding that is associated with each activity priority. When you schedule a Call, Meeting, To-do or other activity type in ACT! the Schedule Activity dialog box will appear.
The default setting for each activity priority is Low.
To Change the Default Priority for all Activity Types:
When you are scheduling an activity, both ACT! for Windows or ACT! Premium for Workgroups come with five predefined activity priorities: High, Medium High, Medium, Medium Low and Low.
These predefined activity priorities are coded with the following colors as illustrated below
High Red
Medium-High Violet
Medium Dark Blue
Medium-Low Light Blue
Low Black
Each activity that you schedule with a particular Priority will appear in color coded text on the Activities tab, the Task List and all ACT! Calendars. These activity priority names and colors can be modified to suit your tastes. Follow the directions below.
To Change the Color of an Activity Priority
To Rename or Deactivate Activity Priorities
Activity priorities can be managed to allow you to view your most urgent, least urgent or all of your activities at a glance through the color coding that is associated with each activity priority. When you schedule a Call, Meeting, To-do or other activity type in ACT! the Schedule Activity dialog box will appear.

The default setting for each activity priority is Low.
To Change the Default Priority for all Activity Types:
- Click the Tools menu, and then click Preferences. The Preferences dialog box appears.
- Click the Scheduling Preferences button. The Scheduling Preferences dialog box appears.
- In the example above, the default Priority for a scheduled Meeting has been changed to High. With this setting in place, any meetings scheduled will automatically default to High Priority.
When you are scheduling an activity, both ACT! for Windows or ACT! Premium for Workgroups come with five predefined activity priorities: High, Medium High, Medium, Medium Low and Low.
These predefined activity priorities are coded with the following colors as illustrated below
High Red
Medium-High Violet
Medium Dark Blue
Medium-Low Light Blue
Low Black

Each activity that you schedule with a particular Priority will appear in color coded text on the Activities tab, the Task List and all ACT! Calendars. These activity priority names and colors can be modified to suit your tastes. Follow the directions below.
To Change the Color of an Activity Priority
- Click the Schedule menu, and then click Call, Meeting, To-Do or Other depending on the type of activity being scheduled. The Schedule Activity dialog box appears.
- Click the drop-down arrow at the Priority field (if necessary) and then click the activity priority that you would like to code with a different color.
- Click the browse
button at the Color field. The following Color palette appears.
- Click the color that you wish to associate with this activity priority or click the Define Custom Colors >> button if you would like to further customize your color, and then click OK. All activities scheduled now with this priority will display your custom color on the Task List, Activities tab and all ACT! Calendars.
Note: Activities scheduled with the original color will not change to the new priority color.
To Rename or Deactivate Activity Priorities
You are limited to a maximum of five activity priorities which can be renamed and/or deactivated. Follow the steps below to rename or deactivate:
Note: If you change a Priority name, all past, present, and future Activities will be changed to the new name.
Note: If you change a Priority name, all past, present, and future Activities will be changed to the new name.
- Click the Schedule menu, point to Manage, and then click Priorities. The Manage Priorities dialog box appears.
- All Activity Priorities are Active by default. To deactivate an activity priority, clear the check box to disable the Active option.
- To deactivate the Medium High and Medium Low priorities or return the priority names to default values, click the Restore Defaults button.
- To edit priority names, click the priority Name, and then click the Edit button. The Edit Priority Name dialog box appears.
- Type in the new name for this priority, and then click OK. The Manage Priorities dialog will reappear with your new priority name.