I’ve already posted that I am a bit of a fan about the new way to play with forms via PowerApps https://make.powerapps.com so lets have a little more of a look at what you can do.
I have created a solution and added in Accounts. Navigate to the Account Entity and then click on the Forms Tab and then finally add form on the top left of the screen
You can choose what type of form to create. If you click on Card form you will possibly be disappointed as that is still in the classic mode (as of today but you never know what will happen tomorrow). The others are all in the new style.
Lets look at the main form as this is where you will gain (in my opinion) the most benefits. As soon as you click in you will see that the format is very different to what we have been used to.
Add Field / Add Control and the side navigation bar
At the top of the screen you will see the Add Field and Add control buttons.
If you expand the Navigation bar on the left you will also be able to see the fields and layouts which are the same functionality.
Below that you have the Tree View. Now the Tree view may initially seem pointless but, when you hide a section on this new interface you also hide it from your form view so, this becomes a way to see exactly what you have.
Add Field
If you read my article on views you will have seen that you can search for fields and drag them onto a view. Kindly Microsoft are allowing us to do the same here as well.
I very quickly became a fan of the new search feature in this interface and with fields its no different. There is no need for a * wild card just type and it does the rest for you.
Once you have found the field that you want simply drag it across onto your form.
Once you have a field on your form selected you can single click on one of the fields on the left and hey presto its placed underneath that field. I do think it is possibly important at this point to say that I am doing all of this in crome. If you find other browsers are different please let me know 🙂
Change a Section
Now you have got all your fields in you may decide you want to move them around.
Whats that I hear you say? You want a new column in one of the sections?
No problem – highlight the column and then on the right of the screen expand formatting and then select the number of columns for the section.
Now for the clever bit
The section I have above is 2 columns (although it doesn’t look it). If i switch into Classic mode I can clearly see its 2 columns so why doesn’t this new format (that I have been raving about) show the same?
Is the new format broken? Well no, its actually one of the ‘cool’ new bits. If you look at the bottom of the form you will see there is a control that allows you to set the desktop size / screen format.
Because of the size of the screen you will not be able to display that Tab, with the sections you have AND two columns so you are being shown EXACTLY what you would see rather than what you would build. Good isn’t it?
I just created a new tab, single column and Cut & Paste (2 new features on the top navigation bar) the section into there. Now we can clearly see that there are 2 columns (as we asked). The new design is just WYSIWYG
Save and Publish
Although I have mentioned the save and publish icons before, they are fab! If you have a duel screen build on one, save, publish (don’t blink or you will miss how fast it is), have CRM open on the other screen and refresh and its there.
This may not seem like a big deal but I am convinced this is saving me almost an hour a day (possibly more like half but it always feels longer waiting for a publish). I love it!
I’d sure there is much more I can tell you but, hopefully I have shown you a couple of the new features on form design. The tags on the right to hide and lock are hopefully self explanatory. But, if you are new to configuration this may show you how easy it is to design a form now (and if you make a mistake you also have undo at the top of the screen).
I seem to have my blog hat well and firmly back on again so there will be more to come. Feel free to follow me on Linked in to see my updates or, if you prefer they will be linked to ISC Software Solutions on Facebook as well as the ISC Software Website.
Enjoy and tell me your best find on the new form design 🙂
