Free Download of CRM 2016 Documents Templates (Word Templates)

CRM 2016 comes with a limited number of Documents Templates (Word templates).

Clients using Dynamics PDF-Docs, a one-click solution to PDF, and attach documents to Note or Email, or send PDF documents as Email attachment with CRM Workflow, were looking for a Word Templates like: Invoice, Quote, Order, Opportunity and Case to be used with Dynamics PDF-Docs. You can now download these templates free of charge:

Click here for free download of CRM 2016 Document templates

Designing Documents Templates for CRM 2016 is frustrating. In this post we describe some of the issues you may face when modifying the templates we offer for free download or if you wish to design your own Word Templates.

We encourage readers to post their views (as reply to this article) of their experience (positive, negative or just “how to” question) when designing Word Templates for CRM 2016. Additional Tips & Tricks are welcomed.

First step, you can only use Word 2013 and Word 2016 to create new template or edit existing ones. We also recommend reading this article, by Microsoft, before editing or creating a new document template:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm-customer-center/using-word-templates-in-crm.aspx

Here are some of the issues to be aware of when editing or creating a new document template:

There is no function for Today’s date. If you wish to display a date on a quote or invoice you can select the Created On date. The Created On field is of the type: Date & Time. You can change the attribute from Date/Time to Date only, for better presentation of dates in document.
Some fields, like the quantity of Write-In Products and Existing Products, have more than 2 decimal places (actually they have 5 decimal places). You need to customize these fields (in CRM customization) to the correct number of decimal places you wish to display on the document.
Word merged fields are XML content control fields. You need to be very delicate with content control and not to modify them. If you placed content control in the wrong location, you can drag it to another location, which is a bit tricky, especially if you drag between cells of a table. Dragging content control in the bottom raw of a table can drag more content than expected.
There is no preview option in Windows to verify how the document design comes up when populated with CRM records. Therefore, you need to import the document again and again, to CRM, to test it. There is no overwrite option when importing documents and the duplication of Document Template records can be confusing.
If you wish to delete content control use the Del button rather than backspace. You need to use the arrows key to exit content control and not to use the mouse.
There is no way to filter records. Example: displaying cases of an account will display all cases. There is no filter by view, like unresolved cases last week or a way to determine sorting order. Unlike Word Template, the Excel Template does have an option to select view, but its only at the Entity level not the child records (related entity records).
If you wish to display list of records in a table you need to use the Repeating option when you right click on the Entity or Related entity name (in XML Mapping). If the records are in a table row you need to manually, using the curser, select the entire row from one end to the other. Incorrect selection will display empty area.
We were not able to find a way to create reports on list view, in a similar way you can “Run Report” on selected records from list view. We failed even when we create template to an entity only (no relationships), and we select the Repeating function.
When creating a new document template, you firstly generate the Word template in CRM by selecting the entity and the related entities to the entity (1:N, N:1, N:N Relationship), if one of these relationships is not included in the template, and you find it at a later stage in your template design, there is no way to add this relationship. All you can do is start again.
We could not find way to export a tested template, if you wish to take it from sandbox to production. You need to keep track of the most updated Word template imported to CRM and then import that version to Production CRM.
The below example is formatting issue when unexpectedly a field is null, like in the image below. The document includes 2 fields one in each column (billto_name and primarycontactidname). If billto_name is null the primarycontactidname is not displayed although its content is not null. The last image properly displays the 2 fields when they are populated in CRM.