Tip – Composite Name field in Dynamics 365

By | August 25, 2017

Introduction:

Recently we had a requirement to show the middle name in the Composite Name field in Dynamics 365.

Currently, the composite name field on the fly out only shows the First Name and the Last Name as shown in the screenshot below;

Tip – Composite Name field in Dynamics 365_1

However, the requirement was to show the middle Name too. There are two ways to achieve this.

1. The first option to achieve this is to remove the composite Name field and add all the fields; First Name, Middle Name and Last Name on the form.

Tip – Composite Name field in Dynamics 365_2

2. There is another option to achieve this, and it can be found in System Settings. Navigate to Settings -> System Administration.

In System Administration, under the General tab, there is ‘Set the full-name format’ where you can select the Name format to be ‘First Name Middle Name Last Name’.

Tip – Composite Name field in Dynamics 365_3

A pop-up alert that these changes will not be seen on the existing records as shown in the screenshot below;

Tip – Composite Name field in Dynamics 365_4

After the settings are applied, we can see the changes in the composite field on the Lead form as shown in the screenshot below;

Tip – Composite Name field in Dynamics 365_5

Also, this setting is used for formatting the Name field. For example, if you want to display the Name in ‘Last Name, First Name’ format then you can simply select the format from the drop-down as seen in the screenshot below;

Tip – Composite Name field in Dynamics 365_6

Hope this helps!

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2 thoughts on “Tip – Composite Name field in Dynamics 365

  1. Brian

    Can the suffix also be included? (i.e. Smith Sr, Steve M)

    1. Inogic

      No, we cannot have a record display with suffix even if we add a custom field for suffix.

      Since every entity displays the record name as per it’s primary attribute, on Lead form the record name is based on the ‘fullname’ field which is the primary attribute of the Lead entity. This field is a composite field which by default combines First name, Middle name (if it is there) and Last name while saving the record. Dynamics 365 CRM neither allows us to modify the current composite field nor allows us to create our own field. Since ‘fullname’ automatically combines the above mentioned 3 fields, we can’t change the ‘fullname’ value using script. Even if we did, it changes back to First name + Middle name + Last name (or the format defined in the System Settings -> Fullname format).

      Thanks!

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