Find information faster by customizing the Quick Find view
Published: January 1, 2008
Finding information quickly and easily is critical to get work done. Every second counts because delays in finding information accumulate throughout the day and result in lower productivity.
The Quick Find feature is the fastest way to find information in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Customizing Quick Find to match common needs can help increase the speed in which everyone can locate information.
On This Page
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How to use Quick Find |
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Customizing the Contact entity Quick Find View |
How to use Quick Find
People frequently need to find a specific record quickly using a single data point, such as when a customer calls about a specific case, quote, or telephone number. The easiest way to find this record in Microsoft Dynamics CRM is to use Quick Find.
Quick Find provides a single Search for records box above the list in each area.
Generally, only the Primary Attribute of an entity is searched when you
click Start search
. Customer records, such as accounts and contacts, may have
more fields that are defined. For example, in the Account entity, the
Account Name, Account Number, and E-mail fields are searched.
Note
Quick Find finds only active records. Inactive records, such as resolved cases, are not included in result sets when you use Quick Find to search.
You can customize the fields searched in the Search for records box by adding fields as a find column to the Quick Find view for the entity. To do this, you need the System Administrator or System Customizer security role or equivalent permissions. For Quick Find views, the changes apply to everyone who uses the Search for records box for the entity.
Tip
You can use an asterisk as a wildcard character within the Search for records box. There is an automatic wild card included at the end of the search criteria, so the wild card is most useful at the beginning or middle of your search criteria. For example, if you are searching for a phone number, but only have a partial number you could use "*3210” or "555*" to locate "555-3210".
Customizing the Contact entity Quick Find View
By default, the Contact entity doesn't search phone number fields. This could be a valuable field to search, for example when a customer service representative takes an incoming call. Caller ID provides the telephone number of the person calling but the representative doesn't recognize the number. Even before they answer the call, the representative can search on the telephone number to find the contact. In the time it takes to answer the call, the representative can have the caller's contact record open and be ready to review their information.
Include phone numbers in the searchable fields for Contacts
By default, the Contact entity Quick Find view searches e-mail address, first name, middle name, last name, and full name.
Follow these steps to add contact phone numbers to the fields searched by Quick Find.
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Navigate to the Contact entity.
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In the Navigation Pane, click Settings, click Customization, and then click Customize Entities.
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In the Customize Entities list, open the Contact entity.
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Under Details, click Forms and Views.
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In the Name column, double-click Quick Find Active Contacts.
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Under Common Tasks, click Add Find Columns.
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In the Add Find Columns dialog box, select the following items:
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Assistant Phone
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Business Phone
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Home Phone
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Mobile Phone
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Click OK.
Tip
While you are adding find columns, you can also modify the columns displayed in the search results. You can choose which columns to display, how wide the columns should be, and how to sort the records.
Note
Searchable fields are included as search criteria whether or not they are included in the search results. In this example, only Business Phone is included in the search results view by default. But all of the phone numbers will be searched.
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To save the changes to the Quick Find view and close the form, click Save and Close.
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To save the changes to the Contact entity, click Save and Close.
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In the Customize Entities list, select the Contact entity record and click Publish on the Actions toolbar.
Test your results
After you modify the Contact entity Quick Find view, test your
customizations to confirm you get the results you expect.
Enter a known telephone number in the Search for records box and click Start search .
The corresponding record will be displayed in the Search Results
list.
