How do we edit a CRM 2016 Word/Excel Template?

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Posted on by Craig B

I've just started playing with the new Document Templates feature of CRM 2016, and it appears that once the file (.docx or .xlsx) is uploaded to CRM, that you cannot then extract it again in order to make changes (as you can with Mail Merge Templates). Have I missed something?

Thanks,

Craig

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Hi Craig,

Do you mean that you want to edit the template in word? If so, you have to Go to File > Options > Customize Ribbon, and make sure the Developer item is checked in the Main Tabs area on the right.

Regards,

Tony

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Craig B on at

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Thanks Tony, but no, that is not what I'm asking.

I am asking how I get hold of the word or excel file which has already been added to CRM so that I can make changes. Subsequently I have found a blog post that seems to indicate that we have to write code to do this [tag:Shocking] (joegilldotcom.blogspot.com.au/.../crm-document-templates-some-observations.html)

Thanks,

Craig

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Sean K 1,537 on at

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Hi Craig,

Unfortunately we currently don't have the capability to edit/download uploaded templates from within CRM. Hopefully that functionality will be added in a future release.

At the moment I keep a copy of the original document that was uploaded, if I need to change it I modify a copy of the original and upload that.

Regards,

Sean

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Craig B on at

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Thanks for the reply Sean.

This is a perfect example of Microsoft not operating in the real world. They have neglected two real world issues completely.

1. The organisation I work for has hundreds of users, several (10-20) of them will be updating some templates. So we are now asking end users to be responsible for source control??? I can 100% guarantee that some "master" templates are going to go missing.

2. Not being able to include these in the solutions is a huge problem. If we have 50+ templates created during the DEV and UAT cycles, how do we get these into production (in a way that is acceptable in 2016)?

I am getting a bit tired of new features needing 3 releases before they are implemented properly and integrated with the rest of the product.

Regards,

Craig

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Hi, Craig!

Maybe it's late, but you can easily extract template file via code using SDK. It's something like

var template = (DocumentTemplate)service.Retrieve(DocumentTemplate.EntityLogicalName, {templateId}, new ColumnSet(true));

var ms = new MemoryStream(Convert.FromBase64String(template.Content));

var fs = new FileStream("template.docx", FileMode.CreateNew);

ms.CopyTo(fs);

fs.Flush();

fs.Close();

Hope it'll help someone

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sathis kumar on at

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That Works... Thanks for that... you need to be Developer to do this :D.. Hope Microsoft will add the feature to download the template button in future.

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edB on at

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There is a workaround here:

crmtipoftheday.com/.../extract-an-existing-word-template-from-crm-2016

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Craig B on at

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Thanks all for the workarounds. These are an option right now.

Am I the only one who thinks that this is downright unprofessional of Microsoft??? This feature is half baked. How can you provide functionality aimed at end-users, and not allow them to edit their templates without a developer getting involved. It's ridiculous.

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Krismal on at

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It is actually getting worse and worse now with Dynamics 365 - we are all beta testers at this moment, but we have to pay for it as it was production ready!

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[quote user="edB"]

There is a workaround here:

crmtipoftheday.com/.../extract-an-existing-word-template-from-crm-2016

[/quote]This worked for me. Thanks!

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