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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived) / Question about creatin...
Microsoft Dynamics CRM (Archived)

Question about creating user manual/documentation

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Posted on by Community Member

Hi Everyone!

I'm new here and know very little about Dynamics CRM -- other than that my agency is using it as the platform for our state's new voter registration database, which is launching in early 2016.  The technical folks are in the middle of development and testing, and I've been asked to help coordinate the creation and publication of the user manual/online documentation.

In the past we have created user manuals in Word and then published them in PDF.  My understanding, however, is that Dynamics CRM has functionality to integrate custom user manuals into the application.  We have another training website where we will be presenting videos and the manual, but I would rather not duplicate efforts.

My questions are:

  • Where do I find information about how this functionality works?
  • Are there best practices for creating user/technical manuals for deployment in Dynamics CRM?
  • How much development/programming work is necessary to deploy manuals in Dynamics CRM?

Any help you experts could provide would be much appreciated!

Cheers,

Reid

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I have the same question (0)
  • Wayne Walton Profile Picture
    Wayne Walton 13,728 on at
    RE: Question about creating user manual/documentation

    Sure thing!

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member on at
    RE: Question about creating user manual/documentation

    Wayne, that blog post looks like it's exactly what I was looking for.  Thanks a million!

  • Verified answer
    Wayne Walton Profile Picture
    Wayne Walton 13,728 on at
    RE: Question about creating user manual/documentation

    An entity is a record type in CRM.  Equivalent to a table in SQL, if that helps.  So an Account is an entity, as is a Contact.

    CRM pops open another page, just like it does with its built-in help.

    Custom help isn't searchable form CRM directly, but if you build search into your help site, you can search there.  Essentially, once you build your own custom Help, you're outside of CRM technically, and have to roll your own functionality.  

    This blog post should help with the details: community.dynamics.com/.../microsoft-dynamics-crm-2015-custom-help

  • Community Member Profile Picture
    Community Member on at
    RE: Question about creating user manual/documentation

    Hi Wayne,

    Thanks for responding to my question, which prompts more questions (remember, I know almost nothing about CRM):

    • What's an entity?
    • When you say we can just link to the help website, does that mean the users would be leaving CRM for another website, or does CRM pull in that information somehow?  Ideally we'd prefer to have everything in one place so users don't have to leave the CRM environment.
    • Where can I find documentation on how to structure help for CRM?
    • Is the help searchable like typical Windows help?

    Cheers!

  • Wayne Walton Profile Picture
    Wayne Walton 13,728 on at
    RE: Question about creating user manual/documentation

    So CRM supports a per-entity custom help in the form of web sites.  So if you're already making sites for help, you can just link to them from the Entity in the customization side of CRM.  

    From that perspective, it's essentially no extra development if you're already making those sites.  However, you might want to change the structure of the help for CRM.

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