Tips for Wizards in Dynamics NAV and 365 Business Central

During my classes I always get at least one Ahaaaa from a delegate or maybe even a "(#¤%&/(%¤ I have wasted half my life not knowing that" so I have been urged to share some of my little tricks here on my blog, and if you get just one new thing, it's all worth it.

So here they are:

Expand Lines on documents

How to expand the lines sub-page on documents from NAV 2016 and forward. Everybody tries to expand the Lines here:

But there is actually a secret line underneath the totals, and this is where the lines sub-page is expanded:

 In Dynamics 365 Business Central Spring Edition there is a similar function:

Click the icon in the corner and the page changes:

Copy Error messages

Clicking Ctrl+C on message boxes. Isn't it annoying to get an error and then to have to type the whole error message into a Google search manually? It's much easier to just press Ctrl+C on the message box and the paste it directly into a Google search or in a Notepad. Here is an error:

Press Ctrl+C, open a browser or a notepad and paste it in with Ctrl+V:

Run As

Testing permissions is always a hassle. Change the permissions then log out and in as the new user to test the permissions. Here we can use a secret windows trick instead:

Hold the Shift key down and Right-Click on your icon:

Select Run as a different user and login:

And now you are logged in as John

A word of warning though: Now all documents saved to the desktop or documents will be saved to Johns desktop or documents.

Copy as Path

Copy as Path. Another Windows function is this. If you want to find the full path of a file. Don't type it in manually, just point to the file, hold the shift-key down, right-click and select Copy as Path.

Now you get this in the clipboard:

"C:\Users\admin\Desktop\trehjulet-cykel-puky-fitsch-roed-gul_00002503.jpg"

Split Screen

Sometimes you want to compare stuff on the screen - then what do you do? Open a program take it out of maximized mode and adjust it then repeat it on another program.

Instead go to the first page, press the key sequence Windows+Arrow-Right then the following happens:

 The active windows is automatically resized to half-size and you can select the other half:

The key sequence Windows+Arrow-Left does the same just opposite.

About this page

About this page in the Windows and new Web-client will open a new page showing information about the active page and record. The key sequence Ctrl+Alt+F1 is necessary because otherwise it is not possible to get information from sub-pages.

However, some display drivers have occupied the Ctrl+Alt+F1 for other uses.

If the key sequence Ctrl+Alt+F1 is taken, it is enough to add the Windows key, so now the key sequence Ctrl+Win+Alt+F1.

Same thing on some laptops where the F1 are not activated, then it is enough to add the Fn key, so now the key sequence Ctrl+Fn+Alt+F1.

…. And then there is worst case 

Ctrl+Win+Fn+Alt+F1 – If you run out of fingers, then use the nose 

Warm up the system before demos

Then add a test codeunit:

Select a test codeunit called System Warmup:

Then run it:

Limitations: It must run on a developer license and the language must be set to English.

Update License without rebooting the service tier

It is possible to install a license file without restarting the service tier:

Go to PowerShell and import it then it does not need restarting:

Waldo would be so proud of me now  

Thank you to all those, who taught me the above along the way.