Using Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Work while you wait: Create a printable report of phone calls

Published: March 9, 2007

Everyone has to wait sometimes. Wouldn’t it be great to make some of those customer phone calls while you’re waiting? Print a report of today’s phone call activities to make while you’re sitting in your car waiting to pick up your kids, in the doctor’s office, or waiting for your next appointment to show up.

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On This Page
Create a query of today’s phone callsCreate a query of today’s phone calls
Print the phone call list Print the phone call list

Create a query of today’s phone calls

1.

In the Activities list, in the Type list, select Phone Call.

2.

In the View list, select My Phone Calls.
Note: Select the fields in this order, or you might not see all the available options.

3.

On the Standard toolbar, click Advanced Find.
Advanced Find will display the default query for the view.

4.

To further refine the query, click Show Details and then create a search that looks like this: 

printphonelist_1

This query includes overdue phone call activities.

5.

If you include information about the call in the Description box, you can include it in your report. To do this, click Edit columns.

1.

In the Edit Columns dialog box, under Common Tasks, click Add Columns.

2.

In the Add Columns dialog box, select the Description check box, and then click OK.

6.

Make any other changes to the columns, such as their order or how they are sorted, and remove any unwanted columns. Then click OK to save your changes.

7.

Click Find and verify you are getting the results you expected, including that each record has a complete phone number.

8.

Click Back to Query, and then click Save As to save the updated query as a view you can use repeatedly, such as “Printable list of calls for today.”

You can find your new view on the Saved View tab in Advanced Find and as a view in the Activities list. Select Phone Call in the Type box, and then your view is displayed in the View list.

Print the phone call list

1.

In the Activities list, in the View list, select the view you just created, such as “Printable list of calls for today”.

2.

Resize any columns that are difficult to read by dragging the dividers in the column headings.

3.

Click Print, select whether to print records on the current page or all pages, and then click OK.

4.

On the Preview page, click Print, and then click Print again.

Tip: If you have too many columns, you may have to change the paper orientation to Landscape. To do this, in the Print dialog box, click Preferences, and then under Orientation, click Landscape. You can also resize columns in the Print Preview view by dragging the dividers between columns. These changes are not saved between printings.

Due to the limitations of the print function, you may need to customize your query to remove some columns so that all the data you do want will fit on one page.

After you’ve completed the phone calls, don’t forget to update the phone call activities as completed.

Now that you’ve created and saved your printable phone list view, you can reuse it every day and stay on top of those important phone calls.


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