Looking for PowerObjects? Don’t worry, you’re in the right place! We’ve been part of HCL for several years, and we’ve now taken the final step in our acquisition journey: moving our website to the HCL domain. Nothing else is changing – we are still fanatically focused on Microsoft Business Applications!

PowerObjects Blog 

for Microsoft Business Applications


Labeling CRM 2011 Forms Meaningfully

Post Author: Joe D365 |

One of the great features of  Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 is the role based form or the ability to create multiple forms for the same entity and exposing them based on a user's security role. Today, we'll discuss a neat best practice that may often be ignored during CRM implementations -- labeling CRM 2011 forms.

If you open any out of box CRM entity, you will find two forms available by default as shown below:

labeling crm 2011 forms meaningfully - img 1

Now when you add a new form and do not name it, it will get added as a New Form, if you do not rename it and just save it in CRM (as shown below):

MSCRM Implementation

The above form may not be very meaningful for an end user using the application.

Instead you can do the following for labeling CRM 2011 forms:

  1. Configure all the fields needed on the Role Based Form and then when ready hit "Save As" on the top ribbon:

  1. Enter the appropriate form name and click OK

  2. Now if you check the forms area, you will find the new form with the appropriate name available:

It's easy, it's simple and can add  good flavor to your CRM implementation.

Happy CRM'ing!

Joe CRM
By Joe D365
Joe D365 is a Microsoft Dynamics 365 superhero who runs on pure Dynamics adrenaline. As the face of PowerObjects, Joe D365’s mission is to reveal innovative ways to use Dynamics 365 and bring the application to more businesses and organizations around the world.

One comment on “Labeling CRM 2011 Forms Meaningfully”

  1. You are right that your new form needs a sensible name to allow users to choose between them. I tend to do this slightly differently though, and for new forms and views I tend to follow these steps:
    open the form / view which is closest to what I want to get, to save time (a brand new form will always be a clone of the current default which may not be the best starting point unless you only have one so far)
    save as - give it a name
    it is now saved and has the new name
    make changes (make sure you wait for the save to complete and the page to reload otherwise you are changing the original one still!)
    don't forget to publish!

    Alternatively build, then save:
    hit "new"
    edit your new form
    go to Form (or View) Properties > display
    put in the name you want there
    save (and it is automatically published as all components are published on first save)

    Mentally, I think of Save As to mean "keep this one and make another copy" so it would not occur to me to do "save as" on a new form as that would seem like I am getting a second new one, although I am not since it is not yet saved. It just feels wrong somehow.

PowerObjects Recommends