A few months ago I wrote a series of posts on things I wish somebody had told me as an X++ developer right at the beginning of my explorations into the world of Dynamics AX. Today I want to start on a new list, one prompted by years of looking over the shoulders of users and realizing that many of the very basic navigation tools that I know and take for granted are often not taught to or effectively utilized by users.

For example I’ve seen way too many users copying field data on one form E.G. Employee Id on Purchase requisition and then navigating to the Employee form to go and search for it instead of simply right clicking and then clicking view details.

The target audience of this series is not seasoned users of AX (although you may benefit too) but rather new users wanting a quick centralized list of tips and tricks that can be used to make your usage of Dynamics AX that much more efficient. Where possible I have will try to link the tips to pre-existing blog posts from other experts rather than than create yet more of the same AX posts for the web.

Navigation (Using the interface).

1. Drilling down to parent/source records.
2. Viewing all available fields for a record.
3. Running multiple workspaces.
4. Quick navigation through records from edit form.
5. Reporting
   1. Saving reports to PDF
   2. Saving reports to Excel
   3. Emailing reports via Outlook.
   4. Auto-Reports

Working With Data.

1. Filtering
   1. View Filter Grid – Ctrl+G
   2. Quick Filter by value.
   3. Advanced filter operators
   4. Save Queries/Filters
   5. Quick filters on lookups
2. Interacting with Excel
   1. Export to Excel – Ctrl+T
   2. Copy & Paste to Excel
   3. Export subset of data
3. Alerts
   1. Change based alerts
   2. Due date alerts.

Customizing your experience.

1. Adding/Hiding fields on your form.
2. Saving form customisations
3. Retrieving form customisations from alternate users.
4. Favorites Menu.
5. Creating custom favourites with filters.
6. Useful default user options
   1. Change default company
   2. Always open forms in Edit mode.
   3. Default filter by grid

References / Additional Reading:

• http://atinkerersnotebook.com/2015/01/24/creating-one-master-menu-to-get-just-what-you-need/
• http://blog.ignify.com/2015/07/07/personalization-with-microsoft-dynamics-ax-five-ways-to-streamline-your-user-interface/