Modifying Chart Colour Schemes in Dynamics CRM 2011

Roshan Mehta, 11 November 2012

When you create new personal or system chart in Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011, the system automatically applies a colour scheme which you are unable to change at design time through the user interface. This can impact the readability of the chart – for example the series and font colours may clash. In this post I will show you a simple way to apply predefined colour schemes to your charts. I will be working with the Average Monthly Probability vs Monthly Estimated Revenue chart as shown below.

 

Notice that the series label $25,000.00 is displayed in a black font over a blue series. It’s not so bad when you’re working with a small amount of data as I am, but this can cause headaches for sales managers who are monitoring hundreds of Opportunities across multiple sales teams.

To solve this issue, export the chart XML by clicking on Export Chart on the ribbon.

 

Next, open up the chart XML and look for the <Chart> tag. By default, the tag definition looks like this:

<Chart Palette="None" PaletteCustomColors="55,118,193; 197,56,52; 149,189,66; 117,82,160; 49,171,204; 255,136,35; 97,142,206; 209,98,96; 168,203,104; 142,116,178; 93,186,215; 255,155,83">

Modify the opening tag so it looks like this:

<Chart Palette="SemiTransparent">

Save the XML and import the chart back into CRM. If we’re working with a system chart, you will only have the Keep Both option which means you won’t be able to replace the existing chart and you will have two copies of the same chart. Once the import process is complete, the new chart will be displayed.



Here is a list of some of the predefined colour schemes you can use for your CRM charts. The right one to choose is completely up to you and depends on the appearance of the original chart as well as the chart type.

• Berry
• Bright
• BrightPastel
• Chocolate
• EarthTones
• Excel
• Fire
• Grayscale
• Light
• None
• Pastel
• SeaGreen
• SemiTransparent

In my next post, we will look at other ways in which we can modify the appearance of charts.