People new to Dynamics CRM are sometimes a little confused, and sometimes baffled, by the user interface. The most important thing to remember is that Dynamics CRM is a web application, even though there are times when it doesn’t look or act like a web application.

Since it is a web application, we get all of the goodness that is a hyper-linked system built-in.  Let’s take a quick tour of some of the clickiy-ness that is Dynamics CRM 2011.

Grids and Views

Let’s take a look at a system view showing a list of system users:

At a basic level, anything with an underline is a hyperlink to another record.

Note: Sometimes you need to hover your mouse over the field to get the hyperlink underline to appear.

Actions

• If you would like to open Mark Harrington’s user record you can either click once on Mark Harrison’s name or double-click on the entire row.
• If you would like to review the East Territory, simply click on the word East and that record will open.
• Likewise, to review Mark’s manager, Lori Penor, just click once on her name.

Selecting Multiple Records

Occasionally you need to perform an action on multiple records within a CRM view.  This can be done in one of two ways:

1. Checking the box on the left side of the record.
2. Holding the Ctrl key down and single-clicking with the mouse to select the desired records.

You may also select or deselect all of the records on the page by checking the box on the title bar of the View:

Note: Keep in mind that not all CRM operations allow you to select multiple records before performing the operation.

Forms

When you have a CRM record open, you get more of a feel for what is a hyperlink and what is not. In this sample below, any data entry field that is blue and underscored, is a hyperlink. Clicking the link will open that record in a new window.

Lookups

Lookups are the data entry fields that have the magnifying glass on the right side of the edit box.:

Clicking that icon will cause a dialog to be displayed that will allow you to select one or more values, depending on the field in question. Here is a single selection dialog:

Actions

In the single-selection dialog, you may select an item in one of the following ways:

• Double-clicking the item’s record.
• Checking the checkbox beside the record, then clicking OK.
• Clicking the primary field’s hyperlink once.
• In this case, the Name field contains the hyperlink.
• To select Retail, just click Retail.

Here is a multiple-selection lookup:

Actions

For a multiple-selection lookup, the following actions are available:

• Clicking the hyperlink ( Full Name in this case ) will add that record to the selected records list at the bottom of the lookup dialog.
• Checking the checkboxes beside an item then clicking the Add button will add the record to the selected records list.
• In the selected records list, clicking an item and clicking the remove button will remove it.
• Using a combination of the mouse and the Shift or Ctrl keys will select multiple items, checking their selection checkbox in the process.
• Using the checkboxes to select multiple items then clicking the OK button will automatically add the selected items to the lookup field, like this:

Summary

Well, that’s a quick tour of some of the ways that the hyperlinked system that is Dynamics CRM 2011.  Let me know if I’ve missed anything.