How To: Change Theme and Add Logo in Microsoft Dynamics CRM

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Another exciting new features in Microsoft Dynamics CRM is the fact that we can finally change the theme of our environment to make it more personal. Some people don’t notice the little things like this, but for other users that are more visually-oriented, it is a pretty big deal. (See what I did there? Pretty?) Anyway, let’s get started - I'm using Clothing 4 Kids as our non-profit organization example.

1. Click the Entity Option Bars, select Settings, and choose Customizations.

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2. From the Customizations page, click Themes.

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3. Once on the All Themes view, click the New button in the command bar.

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4. The Themes form is where we provide the information needed to change the UI. Populate the Theme Name with your company’s name. For example, HK Design. Click Save.

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5. Next, we’ll upload our logo. Click the Logo field and select New. In the new window, populate the corresponding information and choose the image you want to upload. I’ll upload a logo I designed a while back and click Save.

Upon saving, the fields will be locked and more command bar options will appear. Click Publish to publish your image as a web resource. Select your image for the field.

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6. One of the most noticeable things in Microsoft Dynamics CRM, besides the logo, is the navy navigation bar at the top of every page. For the Navigation Bar Color field, I’ll type in #70A263 since I know that is the hexadecimal number for Light Green.

As you can see, all colors will have to be chosen by their hexadecimal number. Choosing from a color wheel is not an option (yet, but hopefully will be in the future). Don’t worry if you are not familiar with the hexadecimal color codes, not many people are. However, there are plenty of websites available that allow you to choose a color and provide you with the hexadecimal code.

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7. If you noticed earlier when we initially saved the theme, the remainder of the colors in the theme changed to #000000 (Black). 

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One of the downsides of creating your own theme from scratch is that you can’t just edit one color and have the rest remain the same. If you wanted to do that, all you would have to do is clone the current theme, rename it, and adjust the colors you want. As a side note, the reason you would clone the theme instead of just changing it directly from the CRM Default Theme is so you can keep the original theme as a ‘just in case’ sort of thing.

8. But for now, we’ll have to go through and changeeach color to make it look acceptable. Let’s get started and see how this plays out…

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9. After we have chosen our colors, let’s click the Preview button in the command bar and see what we have! Previewing the theme is an easy way to see what it looks like without having to commit to anything and to verify that everything is legible.

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10. As you can see, changing the theme still keeps the same functions and layout with the ability to just change the colors. Personally, I am not a fan of this particular color scheme and like the CRM default theme better, but let’s just keep it for simplicity sake. While viewing the preview of the new theme, I noticed that our logo was cut off.

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This is something you’ll have to think about when uploading your logo. The image I chose was too big and square shaped, whereas I should have chosen either a smaller or rectangular image. Let’s fix that by going back and uploading a new logo. 

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11. After you are satisfied with your new theme, in order for it to stick you have to publish it like any other customization. Click the Publish Theme button in the command bar. As soon as you publish the theme it will become your new default theme for the entire CRM environment.

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12. If you want to upload a new theme or prefer to revert back to the CRM Default Theme, you can do that anytime by going to: Entity Options Bars > Settings> Customizations> Themes, select the desired theme and click Publish Theme. 

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Publishing a theme essentially just applies it to be the default theme that is displayed for your organization.

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