Add A Personal Touch To Your Microsoft Dynamics CRM System

By Mike Smith, The Resource Group

Please note: this customization is not supported by Microsoft, make sure to take any and all precautionary measures when performing the customizations detailed below.

Microsoft Dynamics CRM is a very customizable program, allowing the creation of custom entities and attributes that your organization may require.  In addition to these customizations, the Dynamics CRM interface itself can also be customized for your organization.  Wouldn’t it be nice to present your staff a CRM system with a user interface customized to your organization and not just a CRM system with an “out-of-the-box” feel?  Want to increase adoption rates by presenting “your” system and not a “standard” looking system?  Well here’s how you can!

One of the neat customization tricks for Microsoft Dynamics CRM is to change the masthead.jpg image in CRM so that it reflects your company’s name and/or logo.  This way, when a user opens the application, their own company’s name or logo is displayed at the top, rather than the Microsoft Dynamics CRM logo. Our customers like how this fun customization brands the solution as their own.  See an example below and instructions for how to add this simple customization to your own Dynamics CRM solution.

Before customization (click to enlarge):

After customization (click to enlarge):

How to add this customization to your Microsoft Dynamics CRM solution:

The user interface uses two images in the banner that can be altered, “masthead.jpg” (735 X 58 pixel image containing the “Dynamics” sail and the “Microsoft Dynamics CRM” logo) and mast_back.gif (1 X 58 pixel image used to fill space when resizing the browser window)

Depending on the customization route selected below, you will need to edit the masthead.jpg file and possibly the mast_back.gif file.  The images can usually be found in: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\_imgs.

*Before performing any work, take a back-up of the masthead.jpg and  mast_back.gif files.

Option 1: Retaining the blue CRM banner as a background (require editing of the masthead.jpg file only):

1. Rename the masthead.jpg file.
2. Open the renamed masthead.jpg  file in the image editor of your choice (I’m using Paint)and perform a Save As and rename it back to masthead.jpg.
3. Resize or crop the image to remove the Dynamics logo and sail; the easiest way to  do this is to use the horizontal resizing handle in Paint so that all that remains is a sliver of image left of the Dynamics logo and sail.
4. From this sliver of remaining image, resize back out to the 735 X 58 pixels.  You now have a blank slate to add text or a company logo to.
5. Once done, save your image and open CRM to see the results!  It may be necessary to delete your browser history and recache the CRM page.

Option 2: Using your own background color, not the CRM gradient (requires editing of both the masthead.jpg and mast_back.gif files).  This is shown in the screen shot above:

1. Rename both the masthead.jpg and mast_back.gif images.
2. Take the image you choose to use and resize it to 735 X 58 pixels and save this file as “masthead.jpg”.
3. Create an image 1 X 58 pixels the same color as the new “masthead.jpg” file.  Save this file as “mast_back.gif”.
4. Open CRM to see the results!  It may be necessary to delete your browser history and recache the CRM page.

* Do not use an actual image for this unless a horizontal gradient to a solid color on the right is used due to the the repetitive use of the masthead.jpg file, the results will likely be unsatisfactory

This is an easy way to add a personal touch to your organization’s Microsoft Dynamics CRM implementation.

Learn more about Microsoft Dynamics CRM at a free Microsoft Dynamics CRM Lunch & Learn Event or contact The Resource Group at 425-277-4760.

By Mike Smith, The Resource Group – Seattle, Washington Microsoft Dynamics CRM Partner