CRM 2011 allows you to customize your environment. We cover many of the ways to personalize Dynamics CRM in our How-To Portal. In this post, we’ll focus on how to change an icon in Dynamics CRM within a custom entity.
When creating a custom entity in CRM 2011, an icon is automatically attached to the new entity. The default Microsoft Dynamics CRM icon is a gear.
If you’re not crazy about the gear, have no fear—a new Dynamics CRM icon can be copied or created! If you are feeling creative, you can design your own. You can also get an image from the internet, as long as there are no licensing issues on the image or icon. If there are multiple versions of the graphic you’re looking for, grab the best looking one at the highest resolution, which should be above 256 x 256 pixels. A smaller resolution icon could give you a low resolution icon once it has been resized!
You will need to make three sizes of the icon to use within Microsoft Dynamics CRM. One of the easiest programs to resize icons is ‘Paint’, which is typically installed on every PC. You can locate Paint under ‘All Programs’ then choose ‘Accessories’ and ‘Paint’.
Open the high resolution icon, click on “Resize” and select the size needed.
You will need to uncheck the ‘Maintain aspect ratio’ and select ‘Pixels’ as the ‘Resize By’ option.
Perform a “Save As” for each of the required sizes. In Microsoft Dynamics CRM, icons require three format sizes: 16×16, 32×32, and 66×48.
The best naming convention to use is the ‘icon name’ and ‘size’. For example, name the sized icon grain16x16, grain32x32, grain66x48. That way, the icon name identifies the size of the icon.
Save each of the icons in a convenient location on your computer for use in the next step.
Within the custom entity, choose ‘Update Icons’ from the ribbon.
Click on ‘Find’ for the Web application icon.
Click on “New”
Provide a Web Resource Name and a Web Resource Display Name for your CRM 2011 icon. Import the file type into the web resource.
You will need to complete this process for all three icon sizes. The example below uses an .ico file type for the 32×32 icon file.
Note: The icon size cannot exceed 10 kb.
Now, all three of the new icons are located in the web resource view.
After all three icons are selected within the Web Resource, click “Ok.”
Publish the Entity.
The new icon is displayed in the left navigation area within Microsoft Dynamics CRM and in the Outlook client, if the Outlook client is being used.
Congratulations! You’ve just updated your first icon in Microsoft Dynamics CRM .
Want to know what else you can do to personalize your experience? Try customizing your dashboard to make it more “social” by adding an activity feed, or explore conditional formatting options in the Outlook client.
Happy CRM’ing!
JoeCRM
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