Microsoft CRM V3 was released in East Asia, namely in Japan and People’s Republic of China (PRC) in May this year. However, the product availability date in these markets may vary. In this blog, I would talk about the East Asia release and the features and functionalities that were added to this release in order to address the market specific requirements for these countries.
This is second blog in the forthcoming series of blogs designated to highlight the features that were added to Microsoft CRM V3 East Asia release. This blog will namely cater to the features that were added to Customization to cater to the requirements of Japanese and PRC market.
East Asian Specific Features
There were a host of features that were added to the East Asian release mainly to cater to the different globalization requirements for these markets. In this section, I’ll talk in details about some of these features and specificially to customization.
Coloring of Business Required and Business Recommended Fields
In Microsoft CRM V3, the labels associated with the Business Required Fields and the Business Recommended Fields were bolded and color coded. (See Fig. 1). However, in Japan and PRC, coloring of labels makes the label difficult to read. In Microsoft CRM V3 East Asia Release, we’ve discontinued coloring code the labels, instead color coded the fields associated with the Business Required and Business Recommended attributes to denote the same (See Fig. 2)
(Fig 1)
(Fig 2)
IME Mode Property
The System Customizers can customize the default IME behavior of a field via this feature. Controlling the default IME mode for fields enables easier data entry using IME (a widely used way to enter data in East Asia). The different options for IME Mode (See Fig. 3) are
- Auto – The IME Mode of the field is not controlled. All attributes are set to Auto IME Mode as default.
- Active – IME Mode for a particular field is active by default.
- Inactive – IME Mode for a particular field is inactive by default.
- Disabled – IME Mode is disabled and cannot be changed by the System Customizer.
(Fig 3)
Section Layout Enhancements
In Microsoft CRM V3, a section layout can have 3 columns at max. However, in Microsoft CRM V3 East Asia Release, the option to have four columns has also been added. This will enable our customers in East Asia to pack more fields in a single page than otherwise possible.
(Fig 4)
Font Property Customization
The font property, i.e., the font family and the font size was customized to cater to the need of East Asian characters. In Microsoft CRM V3, customers world-wide view the UI in Tahoma, 8 pt. However, in East Asia if the characters were represented in Tahoma, 8 pt, it would have appeared garbled and corrupted. So, the font property was changed from Tahoma, 8 pt to MS Gothic, 9 pts. The font property is now exposed to localization and can be modified based on the language needs.