Global Search is a feature of Microsoft Dynamics 365 that should not be overlooked. It allows you to query multiple entities simultaneously with the magnifying glass icon in the upper right corner of the screen.
While out-of-the-box, Global Search is set up with default settings, customizing the entities and fields it searches to meet your business needs is simple. Let’s detail both parts: selecting entities and selecting fields.
Selecting the Entities for Global Search
Within Dynamics 365, click the down arrow to the right of the current app name, choose the Settings tile, then click Administration within the System column.
On the Administration page, click System Settings. In the window that appears, within the General tab, scroll down to the Set up Search section. Click Select to select the entities for categorized search.
The Selected Entities column shows the entities that Global Search currently pulls results from. As you can see, currently it’s only querying 8 different entities. This is how it will be set up out-of-the-box, but you can actually include up to 10 entities. Be careful, as you can select more than 10 entities in this window, but when you save, you’ll receive an error if there are more than 10 selected. You can do a couple different things in this window.
Here’s a quick rundown:
- Select an entity by clicking it in the Available Entities section, then clicking Add.
- Remove a selected entity by clicking it in the Selected Entities section, then clicking Remove.
- Change the order results are displayed in by clicking a selected entity, then clicking Move Up or Move Down.
Click OK when all desired entities are selected.
Click OK again to close the System Settings window.
Selecting the Fields for Global Search
After setting up the entities to search, you need to update the Quick Find view for the entities you included in Global Search so that the desired fields are being searched within each of the entities.
Click the down arrow to the right of the current app name again, choose the Settings tile, then click Customizations within the Customization column.
Click Customize the System. In the window that appears, click to expand the Entities section, then click the name of one of the entities you selected for Global Search to expand. Within the desired entity, click Views. In the list that appears, find the Quick Find view, click the check mark to the left of the view name, then choose Edit from the More Actions dropdown menu.
In the window that appears, you’ll see a table that shows the columns of information that will display in the Quick Find view for that entity. To the right of the table, you’ll see Add View Columns and Add Find Columns.
Click Add Find columns and check the boxes to select the fields to search on for Global Search. For example, if I add Address 1: City, and Address 1: State, then I can type a city or state into Global Search and return a list of the accounts located there. Click OK when finished.
You’ll notice that the columns shown in the table will not change. This is you’re simply adding fields to search on, not fields to show in the view. If you want to change the Quick Find view, use Add View Columns, then use the arrows to rearrange them.
When you’re finished, click Save & Close.
Now, in order to activate these changes, you must click Publish All Customizations.
That’s it! You’ve selected custom entities and fields to use for Global Search.
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