Form personalisation in Dynamics 365 for Operations.

This post is a follow-on from last week’s. After a brief introduction to Dynamics 365 for Operations I spent a few months wandering around AX 2009 and AX 2012 which meant that I struggled a bit when I found myself back in D365O. So last week I covered most of the shortcuts that I typically use, but I left off one topic, and that is form personalisation.

But before I do that, let me just mention one more useful short-cut. Ctrl-Plus(+) and Ctrl-Minus(-). Alright, I know that that’s two short-cuts, and these aren’t Dynamics 365 for Operations short-cuts at all, they are your browser’s short-cuts, but they are incredibly useful for zooming in and out of your D365O forms. If you’re new to D365O and haven’t used Dynamics AX 2009 and 2012 you’re probably wondering what I’m banging on about, but believe me, to us AX ‘old-timers’ that’s, like wow (as a young person would say – I think).

Form personalisation is very powerful, more information is here. But typically I only use it for a few simple tasks: hiding columns in list grids; re-ordering / re-sizing list grid columns; and occasionally adding fields to forms. So let’s do those tasks in Dynamics 360 for Operations.

First hiding a column. On the purchase order line there’s a Discount amount and a Discount percentage. Let’s hide the Discount amount. There are a couple of ways to do this. First, we can right-click on the column heading and we have a ‘Personalisation’ option:

It gives a pop-up with options to rename, hide, lock or skip the field:

You’ll see the other way to do this in a few paragraphs, and it’s last ‘Personalize this form’ option, which is a short-cut to all the other Personalization options.

Re-sizing list grid columns is as simple in Dynamics 365 for Operations as it was in AX 2009 or AX 2012. Just hover over the boundary between two column headings and drag to the required size. I’ve now got:

Re-ordering columns is a bit more complex in D365O than it was in AX 2009 or 2012.

First we have to open the Form personalisation tool-bar. There’s a shortcut on each form’s Personalize pop-up (shown above) or you can use the Personalize this form option, which is found on each form’s Options tab.

Can’t see ‘Options’? Well here’s a tip. If the form isn’t wide enough to display all the tab headings, you’ll see three dots in the header:

Click on the three dots (ellipsis) and you’ll see all of the missing tab headings:

(You can also search for form actions – that’s my next post).

Click on ‘Personalize this form’ and you’ll see this tool-bar pop-up:

Unfortunately, there aren’t any clues as to what the various tools are, and some of the tools are two-stage.

Firstly, let’s locate the ‘Move’ tool and select it:

Now, it’s a two-step process, firstly we have to select the form area that we are customising. Each field is related to a form area, for instance the list grid, and can only be moved within that area, so this this case I first select the move tool (as above) and click on the list grid:

Notice how the area I’m working in has been high-lighted.

Now I can select a field, and drag it to its new position. If you select the field’s name and start to drag it, you should see it high-lighted as a yellow box, just drag that box between two other columns:

Click Close on the Personalization tab when you’re done.

Adding fields is similar to moving fields, it’s another two-step process from the personalisation tool bar.

I’m going to personalise the Purchase order fast tab on the Purchase order lines form. First I open the form, and select ‘Personalise this form’. As before, click on the Add (+) button and then select the form area I want to customise: