Dynamics defaults don’t search every entity

When you search for information, Dynamics brings back results within different entities. Now out-of-the-box, CRM doesn’t search all entities. However, you can modify the search capability by adding an entity to the global search.

So today, we’re going to add an entity to the global search functionality inside of Dynamics 365 for Sales. See below for video and instructions:

Add an entity to global search

To start our example, let’s say I want to search for orders with the order number on them. I know I have an order in the system called “ORD123456,” but when I search for the order number, the global search actually won’t find any results.

The reason behind that is the orders entity has not been added to the global search capabilities.

To do so, we need to go into the back end of the system:

1.) Go to Settings > Administration > System Settings.

2.) From the General tab, scroll down to Select entities for Categorized Search and click Select.

The available entities are on the left. This includes custom entities, so if you add any custom entities to the system, you can add them to the global search by following these instructions.

3.) Select the entity you wish to add and click Add, then click OK.

So for my example, I’ll select Order, click add, make sure Order moves over to selected entities, and then click OK.

4.) Confirm your new System Settings by clicking OK.

Add a field to global search

Now that we’ve added an entity to the global search, the next step is to specify the fields in the entity that will be included in global search.

1.) Go to Settings > Customizations > Customize the System.

2.) Go to Entities, select the entity you added, and then click View.

3.) Select the Quick Find View.

The columns shown here are actually the fields that global search looks at inside of that entity. So let’s add some additional fields here:

4.) Click Add Find Columns.

5.) Mark the check box next to any fields you want to search by.

In my example, I’m trying to find our order by name. So I can mark the check boxes next to name, order number, order ID, and any other fields that I might need to search by.

6.) Click Save and Close, and then Publish All Customizations.

Now that our new customization is published, we can do another search for the order number from before, and voila!

Now that we’ve added the orders entity and name field, global search is looking in the field we want it to. Global search is now returning orders we search by name, which it wasn’t doing before.

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