Navigating the D365 F&O interface (Part 3)

This is a continuation of our “back to basics” series, following on from Part 1 about the Default dashboard, and Part 2 about User options.

Today we’ll take a look at the Grid view. This is the standard presentation of record lists in the system, whether we’re talking Customers, Opportunities, Quotes, Suppliers, Journals, Transactions, Invoices, Workers… or in the case of the sample screenshot we’ll be using, Purchase orders.

As before, I’m confident there will be a gems in here that even the most seasoned D365 F&O professionals might have forgotten (or not yet know), so look out for points made in bold. And a special mention to the fact that version 10.0.39 has been released since my first two posts, meaning we now have CopilotMicrosoft Copilot is an AI companion that assists with tasks like coding, writing, generating images, and answering questions. More available on the navigation bar, denoted in the screenshot below by the letter “C”.

Here we go!

1. Shortcut to Home page, which can be changed to one of six other workspaces under User options > Preferences.
2. Navigation path – shows you the module > menu section(s) > and current page for the current form – for information only.
3. Back button. Replacing the much-less-logical Close button in previous versions of the platform, clicking back takes you back to the previous form you were viewing, if applicable. It’s better to use this than the browser back button, since clicking the browser back button does not always preserve your data inputs.
4. Edit/New/Delete buttons. Depending on the permissions that your user security role has assigned, you will see some combination of these buttons. Be sure to select the correct record(s) if you intend to use the Delete button in the grid view (see point 18 below)!
5. Action pane. Similar in functionality to the ribbon in Microsoft Office applications, the Action pane contains tabs (in this example, Purchase order, Purchase, Manage, etc), which each contain different options for a selected record. The currently selected Action pane tab will be highlighted with your chosen theme colour in User options.
6. Action pane tab. Contains all the actions enabled for the current user, for the selected record(s).
7. Action pane search. Allows you to search all tabs in the Action pane for an action. Particularly useful if you’ve forgotten which tab houses a certain action.
8. Power Apps button. Allows you to add an app or access a previously-linked Power App pertaining to this form. Not really a subject for a back-to-basics post, so we’ll cover this in future!
9. Open in Microsoft Office button. Depending on the form you are viewing, this button provides options to ‘Open in Excel’ or ‘Export to Excel’. The latter outputs a dumb Excel file, containing the records applicable to your current filter, which is fine. The ‘Open in Excel’ function opens Excel with the Microsoft Dynamics Office Add-in, which is an incredible tool that we’ll give more airtime in due course.
10. Attachments button. Allows you to attach notes, files, images, and URLs to the current record. The icon updates to show the number of attachments.
11. Refresh button. Allows you to refresh the data in your current view, without refreshing the entire page using the browser refresh button. Save yourself a couple of seconds!
12. Open in new window button. Perhaps you need to compare some data, side-by-side? This button opens your current view in a new window, so you look at multiple views simultaneously.
13. Filter pane button and Related information button. The Filter pane button opens the filter pane (surprise!), and the Related information gives quick access to information about the selected record.
14. View selector. Allows you to select different views, or save your current filter settings as a view.
15. QuickFilter box. Provides the ability to quickly filter on a single column. More information in Paul’s post about filtering.
16. Column header, which requires a deeper dive:
    • when left-clicked provides basic options for filtering and sorting.
    • can be resized, by hovering between them, looking for the double-ended arrow cursor, then clicking and dragging,
    • can be repositioned, by hovering over the column name, moving to the four dots icon, whereupon a four-pointed arrow cursor will appear, then clicking and dragging,
    • when right-clicked, provides some powerful options such as:
      • inserting other fields as columns, or hiding a column,
      • grouping by this column, which gathers all records which share a value in that column into groups (see screenshot at the end of this post) – up to five levels of grouping can be applied, and
      • freezing a column, which behaves like freezing a column in Excel, meaning the selected column remains visible when scrolling horizontally.
17. Rows. A list of records based on your current view or filter settings. Any coloured text can be clicked as a hyperlink, to enter the Details view for the corresponding item.
18. Selected records. A record can be considered selected if the whole row is highlighted. Multiple records can be selected by clicking the blank circle at the start of the row, which will fill with a tick.
19. Grid options menu. This tiny “kebab menu” conceals the off-by-default options to ‘Show footer’ (see point 20). Other options you may see in this menu include:
    • Edit selected rows, if you have the new ‘Bulk editing in grids’ feature enabled, and
    • if you have applied any grouping:
      • Hide column names in groups,
      • Expand all groups,
      • Collapse all groups, and
      • Ungroup all.
20. Grid footer. Disabled by default, but when enabled, shows the number of rows in the current view and the number of selected records.