2015 Update 1: Export to Excel Redesigned
Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2015 Update 1 (code-named Carina) brings a lot of great new functionalities, in this post the full redesign of the export functionality is presented.
This redesign is mostly due to issues the previous implementation had. Overall some of these issues have been in Microsoft Connect feedback site (more on this site on a later post, ;)) for around 3 years now and in the top #10 of the requested features/fixes of all time.
What was wrong and how was it fixed?
So many things were fixed, but I believe the best is to explain in a table, as per below:
# |
Issue |
Fix/Redesign Applied |
1 | If exported as a static worksheet, the excel file could not be used for re-import to bulk update records. This was because the export did not contain the records GUIDs, and also the format extracted was .xls which was not a supported format for import. | Now the export always brings the GUIDs, and the user can bulk edit and re-import if required. |
2 | The export for re-import file format was XML (spreadsheet 2003). This was not only pretty locked down (e.g.: no access to sheets area) as it was also buggy (e.g. ever tried to select a column to resize it? Excel crashed always). | Now the format is .xlsx, and pretty much a regular excel file, the data comes pre-formatted as an excel table. |
3 | Formatting…Formatting…Formatting, so many issues here, e.g.:
|
Field format is now respected:
Full details on how the mapping fully works can be found in section “Field Types Mapping”. |
4 | The alerts below would always be presented:
and |
Not anymore. |
5 | Composite Fields previously had some limitations, e.g.: contact’s “Full Name” would always export as 3 different columns “First Name”… | Now: “Full Name” exports the name in one single column, users can optionally select individual fields (e.g. “Last Name”) to get one of the 3 fields that compose the “Full Name”.
More examples can be found in the table below: |
6 | Previously the user had 2 download/export types:
|
One-click Download: Clicking on the export to excel exports the excel immediately now (no export wizard is presented), with the following configuration:
Example: |
7 | Download Limits
Source: DynamicsCRMPros |
|
8 | Upload Limits
Source: CRM Help & Training |
|
9 | Everything goes:
|
Updates are now on a field by field basis. As with Outlook sync, now the bulk update feature only changes the fields that where actually changed in the excel:
Example: |
Field Types Mapping
The table below presents in more detail the mapping that occurs between a CRM field type and an Excel field type:
One-Click Download
The image below summarises the actions that occur in the new “One-Click Download” feature:
Microsoft has a nice video on this here What-If Analysis using Excel with CRM Online 2015 Update 1.
Stay tooned, more posts to come on 2015’s Update 1 and its new functionalities.

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