Unflatten Charts In CRM 2013

For those who don't care for the new "flat" style of charts in CRM 2013 you can pretty easily change them back to look like their CRM 2011 counterparts.

Under Settings -> Customizations -> Customize the System expand the base entity for the charts and then expand the charts node. Select the chart and from More Actions, pick Export Chart. Save the chart and then open in your favorite editor.

For Funnel charts look for the section:

<ChartArea>
     <Area3DStyle Enable3D="false" />
</ChartArea>

Change the value to "true"

<ChartArea>
    <Area3DStyle Enable3D="true" />
</ChartArea>

Save the file and then back in CRM and under the More Actions menu, pick Import Chart. Browse the to file you just edited and then choose to overwrite the existing file or upload a copy. If you chose the later, provide a new name.

Before



After



The downside is that this change doesn't translate over the the tablet client.



For bar charts look for the section:

<Series ChartType="Bar" IsValueShownAsLabel="False" Color="91, 151, 213" BackSecondaryColor="112, 142, 50" Font="{0}, 9.5px" LabelForeColor="59, 59, 59" CustomProperties="PointWidth=0.75, MaxPixelPointWidth=40">
    <SmartLabelStyle Enabled="True" />
</Series>

Change it to something like this:

<Series ChartType="Bar" IsValueShownAsLabel="False" Color="149, 189, 66" BackGradientStyle="TopBottom" BackSecondaryColor="112, 142, 50" Font="{0}, 9.5px" LabelForeColor="59, 59, 59" CustomProperties="PointWidth=0.75, MaxPixelPointWidth=40">
    <SmartLabelStyle Enabled="True" />
</Series>

Before



After



If you still have access to a CRM 2011 environment you can export the charts and use them as a basis for what needs to change.