Edit in Excel Online from Advanced Find

Editing in Excel Online, is a CRMOnline only feature (surprise surprise) that was rolled out with CRMOnline 2015 Update 1. Currently there is one limitation that I find quite annoying: You cannot open an Advanced Find result in ExcelOnline. This ribbon button pops up only with saved views. In this post, I will detail on how you can get around this.

1. Create a new solution with just the entity/entities you need this capability for. This is so that the solution will load quickly with Ribbon Workbench. If your organisation has already been updated to CRM2016, just click OK after clicking the “Add Existing” button under the Entity node. In this screenshot below, I am going to edit the contact ribbon. Notice that only “Include entity metadata” is selected
   Image may be NSFW.
   Clik here to view.
2. Install Ribbon Workbench (here after referred as RWB)
3. Open the CRM solution you created from RWB
4. The command you have to modify is Mscrm.ExportToExcel.Online. I found this part a little fiddly. You have to left click a couple of times across all the Excel menu options and then right click and choose “Customise command” once you have visually confirmed that you have chosen the correct command. It is the first one on the Export menu.
   Image may be NSFW.
   Clik here to view.Image may be NSFW.
   Clik here to view.

   Image may be NSFW.
   Clik here to view.

5. Right click on the command, choose visibility rules and move the Mscrm.NotAdvancedFind rule to the left hand side i.e. deselect this rule for the Mscrm.ExportToExcel.Online command
   Image may be NSFW.
   Clik here to view.Image may be NSFW.
   Clik here to view.
6. For these Display Rules set IsCore to true: Mscrm.IsExportToExcelOnlineEnabled, Mscrm.HideIfExportToExcelNotEnabled, Mscrm.HideOnPhone
   Image may be NSFW.
   Clik here to view.
7. Save/Publish the changes from RWB

After you do this the “Export in Excel Online” menu will be available in the Advanced Find.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

These are the limitations/issues:

1. You have to save your Advanced Find query as a Personal view. You cannot use adhoc Advanced Find query, and edit the results in Excel Online. This may or may not be a deal-breaker depending on your situation. I find this OK at the moment.
2. After you work with your data in Excel Online and click “Return to CRM List” the Advanced Find ribbon is gone. Fix for this is to just refresh the Advanced Find window.
   Image may be NSFW.
   Clik here to view.

I am not sure if Microsoft has hidden this capability from Advanced Find on purpose while they work on the issues, or whether this is going to be a saved view only feature. But till Microsoft exposes this properly from Advanced Find, you can use this approach as a stop-gap measure.

Thank you @scottdurow for suggesting the IsCore=true fix.

Further reading:

1. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/crm-customer-center/analyze-your-crm-data-in-excel-online.aspx
2. https://ribbonworkbench.uservoice.com/

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.