2. Organizing and Formatting Advanced Find Results
As you can see, Microsoft Dynamics CRM gives you the power to
create a report that contains a set of records based on specific,
user-defined criteria and yet that is simple to put together. In
addition to building your own search query, you can also format
Advanced Find results to include additional data columns, and you can sort, order, and size the results
columns to meet your reporting needs. You can do the following
tasks:
-
Add any column you want to the results.
-
Adjust the order of the columns.
-
Modify the size of each column.
-
Define the sort order of the output.
For example, you might want to create a list of contacts that
includes the contact name and primary address fields in a specific
order. This can be accomplished with ease in Microsoft Dynamics
CRM.
In this exercise, you will use the search query you created in
the previous exercise, modifying the columns that appear in the output
to include the Probability field for each opportunity as well as the
Industry field for the customer account. In addition, you will sort
and format your results.
Note
SET UP Use your own Microsoft
Dynamics CRM installation in place of the site shown in this
exercise. Use the Internet Explorer web browser to navigate to your
Microsoft Dynamics CRM website, if necessary, before beginning this
exercise.
-
On the ribbon, click the Advanced
Find button.
The Advanced Find screen appears.
-
In the Look
for list, select Opportunities, and then click the Edit Columns
button in the View
group on the ribbon.
The Edit Columns dialog box appears. Here you can modify
the column order, set the column width, add or remove columns, and
configure sorting.
-
In the Common Tasks area,
click Add Columns
.
The Add Columns dialog box appears.
-
Locate the Probability field
and select the check box next to it to add the field to your
results.
-
In the Record Type list at
the top of the form, change the record type to Potential Customer (Account).
Notice that you can add columns from related record types in
addition to those from the primary record type.
-
Select the Industry check
box, and click OK.
The newly added columns appear to the right of the original
columns.
Important
For each record type in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, system
administrators can configure the default columns that appear in each Advanced Find results set. It’s possible that your results will include different columns. If there
is a column you frequently add to your searches, ask your system
administrator about adding it to the default Advanced Find
view.
-
In the Edit Columns dialog
box, select (don’t double-click) the Industry column heading.
The border color changes to green.
-
In the Common Tasks area,
click the left arrow until the Industry column is the first column in the
results grid.
-
Double-click the Industry
column.
The Change Column Properties dialog box appears.
-
Change the column width to 200 pixels by selecting 200px, and click OK.
This setting doubles the column width from the 100-pixel
default.
-
In the Edit Columns
dialog box, in the Common
Tasks pane, click Configure
Sorting.
The Configure Sort Order dialog box appears.
-
In the Sort By field, select
Probability, and then select
Descending Order.
-
Click OK. This sorts the
results so that the opportunities with the highest
closing probability appear at the top of the report.
Tip
Notice that you can also sort by a secondary
column.
-
In the Edit Columns dialog
box, click OK to close the dialog
box.
-
On the Advanced
Find tab of the ribbon, in the Show group, click the Results button. The search results are
displayed with the new columns you added.
