crm.atechnisch.nl

On the Dutch Microsoft homepage (http://www.microsoft.nl/) I found a big add to get a free Microsoft Dynamics CRM trial subscription. I was under the impression that the online version was only available in the United States, so this is very good news.

I immediately subscribed myself.

When I got the welcome mail I noticed saasplaza.com in the url. SaaSplaza is a global Microsoft Partner that hosts Dynamics CRM solutions with a big office in the Netherlands. So when I connected to my free 30 day trial environment, I was not surprised to see it was the hosted version of Dynamics CRM 4.0. I think it is a good thing that Microsoft is actively pushing the online capabilities of Dynamics CRM in the Netherlands.

You can see it for yourself after subscribing at: http://www.microsoft.com/netherlands/dynamics/product/crm_online_formulier.aspx

If you want to subscribe to a trial of the real Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online offering you can use this link: https://signin.crm.dynamics.com/portal/signup/

Hopefully the Online version will soon be available in the Netherlands, so we can offer our customers Freedom of Choice in the Microsoft Software + Services world with the on premise, hosted AND the Online version of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

There are multiple ways in MS Dynamics CRM (MS CRM) to help users using the system. Next to training and external guides, the system can also provide information. In the system the help files (on the top right of every screen) can be improved. As you will know this has advantages and disadvantages.

Another option is to improve the tooltips.

The modifying and maintaining of the tooltips will be discussed in this post.

A tooltip is a small box, which contains a brief text message explaining the field. It appears below the label of a field on the MS CRM forms when the pointer of a mouse passes over or rests on that label and which contains a brief text message identifying or explaining the object. When the pointer moves away from the label the tooltip disappears.

Tooltips are available on every field on a MS CRM form. The current tooltips show the text of the label, which, in my opinion, does  not have any benefits. If you can read to label, you can read to tooltip. But the good thing is, we can change the contents of the current tooltips.

At the moment the only restrictions to the tooltips are that only unformatted text can be used and that the total amount of characters is no more than 512.

The onLoad code:

crmForm.all.new_attribute_c.title = “contents of the tooltip”

Example:

With the addition of the 3 parts of the implementation guide on Microsoft TechNet, the Dynamics CRM team is a step closer to provide all Technical Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0 Documentation online:

Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0

• Introduction
• Planning Guide
• Installing Guide
• Operating and Maintaining Guide
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM SDK
• Report Writers Guide
• Appendix A: Security Roles and Privileges
• Glossary
• Technical Articles