Choose and configure columns in a view

Article
02/16/2022

This topic applies to Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises). For the Power Apps version of this topic, see: Choose and configure columns in model-driven app views

Along with the filter criteria, the columns visible in a Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises) view are very important to the value provided by the view. When you create or edit views, you can do any of the following:

Add columns

You can include columns from the current entity or any of the related entities that have a 1:N entity relationship with the current entity.

For example, perhaps you want to display the owner of a user-owned entity in a column. You can choose the Owner field of the current entity to display the name of the owner. This will appear as a link to open the User record for the person who is the owner. In this case, you also have the option to Enable or disable presence for a column.

If you want to display the phone number for the owner of the record, you must select Owning User (User) from the Record type drop-down and then select the Main Phone field.

Add columns to views

While creating and editing views, select Add Columns and the Add Columns dialog box appears.
Select the Record type if you want to include fields from related entities.
You can select multiple fields, even from related entities.
When you have selected the fields you want, select OK to close the Add Columns dialog box.

As you add columns, you will increase the width of the view. If the width of the view exceeds the space available to show it in the page, horizontal scrollbars will allow people to scroll and see the hidden columns.

Tip

If your view filters on data for a certain field so that only records with a certain value are shown, don’t include that column in the view. For example, if you are only showing active records, don’t include the status column in the view. Instead, name the view to indicate that all the records shown in the view are active.

Note

When you add columns to Lookup views for updated entities, only the first three columns will be displayed.

Remove columns

While creating and editing views, choose the column you want to remove.
In the Common Tasks area, select Remove.
In the confirmation message, select OK.

Change column width

While creating and editing views, choose the column you want to change.
In the Common Tasks area, select Change Properties.
In the Change Column Properties dialog box, choose an option to set the column width, and then select OK.

Move a column

While creating and editing views, choose the column you want to move.
In the Common Tasks area, use the arrows to move the column left or right.

Enable or disable presence for a column

When the following conditions are true, people can see a Skype for Business online presence control in lists that shows if the person is available and allows people to interact with them by instant messaging:

People use Internet Explorer.
People have Skype for Business installed.
People have Microsoft ActiveX enabled in Internet Explorer.
Your organization has enabled presence for the system in the system settings.

The presence control and the setting to enable it are available only for columns that display primary fields for email-enabled entities (users, contacts, opportunities, leads, or custom entities).

Enable or disable Skype for Business presence for a column

While creating and editing views, choose the column you want to change.
In the Common Tasks area, select Change Properties.
In the Change Column Properties dialog box, select or deselect Enable presence for this column, and then select OK.

Add find columns

Find columns are the columns searched by the application when people use the search for records text box displayed for lists or whenever there is the ability to search for records for an entity in the application, such as when people are searching for a record for a lookup field.

Open a Quick Find view. For information on quick find views, see Types of views.
Select Add Find Columns to open the dialog box.
Select the fields that contain the data that you want to search for.
Select OK to close the Add Find Columns dialog box.

Community tools

View Layout Replicator and View Designer are tools provided by the XrmToolbox community developed for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises). See the Developer tools topic for community developed tools.