Help users find information faster by customizing Quick Find
Finding information quickly and easily is critical for users to get their work done. Every second counts because delays in finding the information they need can accumulate through the day and result in lower productivity.
The Quick Find feature is the fastest way to find information in Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Customizing it to match the needs of your users can help increase the speed in which they can locate information.
On This Page
How users use Quick Find
Users 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 text field above the list in each area. The caption for the Quick Find feature is Look for, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Quick Find in the Contacts List
Generally, only the primary attribute of an entity is searched when the user clicks Find. 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 Look For field by adding the field as a search 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 Look for box for the entity.
Tip
You can use an asterisk as a wildcard character within the Look For field. 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*3210" to locate "555-3210".
Customizing the Contact entity Quick Find View
By default, the Contact entity doesn't search the phone number field. 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.
Including phone number 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.
1. | Navigate to the Contact entity. a. | In the Navigation Pane, click Settings. | b. | Click Customization. | c. | In the Customization area, click Customize Entities. | d. | In the Customize Entities list, open the Contact entity. |
|
2. | Under Details, click Forms and Views. |
3. | In the Type column, double-click Quick Find Active Contacts. |
4. | Under Common Tasks, click Add Find Columns, as shown in Figure 2.  Figure 2: Add Find Columns in Common Tasks. |
5. | In the Add Find Columns dialog box, select the following columns: | • | Assistant Phone | | • | Business Phone | | • | Home Phone | | • | Mobile Phone |
|
6. | 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. |
7. | To save the changes to the Quick Find view and close the form, click Save and Close. |
8. | To save the changes to the Contact entity, click Save and Close. |
9. | In the Customize Entities area, 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 users will get the results you expect. Enter a known telephone number and click Find. The corresponding record will be displayed in the Search Results list, as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Search results
The capability to search for contacts by using their phone numbers is now available for everyone to use.
