Microsoft Dynamics 365 CE comes with a basic functionality to generate documents via Word templates. This overview provides a comparison of those native capabilities vs. DocumentsCorePack for Dynamics 365 and Power Apps. Starting with key differences you will find a detailed comparison covering:
- Document Generation
- Document Processing & Delivery
- Template Design & Management
The intent of this head-to-head comparision to help you determine which option is best to meet your document generation, processing, and automation requirements.
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| Key Differences | DocumentsCorePack | Native Dynamics 365 |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Word based TemplateDesigner (See Template Design Comparison for details) |  Easy to use Word Add-In | XML-based mapping via developper ribbon |
| Mapping of Dataverse data: – Resolve relationships – Filter results – Sort results Formatting (e.g. date, money values) | Multi-level | limited to 1 level  |
| Connector for Power automate & Power Apps – Full documentautomation via Flows – Document generation & processing in Canvas Apps | | |
| One-Click document processes Generate and process documents according to your business needs with a single click (See Document Generation & Processing Comparison) | All document generation & procesing options | Only in Sales App Limited to PDF files |
| Batch document generation & delivery Load Balancing to ensure high performance | | |
| Template Management – Test templates during the design – Versioning & History – Conditional template selection – Guided provisioning between environments – Customizable sample templates | | |
Document Generation: Whether you need to send sales or service documents, internal reports or contracts for signature, documents are crucial in every business. Generating professional documents in a simple, streamlined and effective manner is a top priority.
In this section we compare the document generation options provided by the two solutions within the suite of Microsoft Business Applications:
| Document Generation | DocumentsCorePack | Native Dynamics 365 |
|---|---|---|
| Available in: – Dynamics 365 CE – Model Driven Power Apps – Power Automate (Microsoft Flow) – Canvas Apps | | |
| Command bar dialog | All Dynamics 365 CE & Model Driven Apps | Only in Sales App, limited to PDF files |
| One-Click Actions – Generate documents – Process documents – Review & edit documents – Access restrictions via security roles | | Only in Sales App, limited to PDF files |
| Conditional template selection | | |
| Supported file types | .docx, .pdf, .html, .txt, … | .docx, .pdf |
| Batch operations – Batch document generation – Batch document processing | | |
| Generate documents consisting of multiple elements from different sources | Combine templates, SharePoint & Note documents | |
| Dynamic document names | | |
| Use data from an external database | | |
| Incorporate user input during document creation | | |
| Document preview | | Only in Sales App |
| Edit documents upon creation before processed | In MS Word, the defined process continues | In MS Word, manual processing required |
Document Processing, Delivery and Automation: Every document generated has a purpose. Thus, providing options to process & deliver documents will not just speed up your document-related business processes, reduce your user’s workload but also bridge the gap to full document automation.
This section outlines the comparison of options to process, deliver & automate your documents:
| Document Processing & Delivery | DocumentsCorePack | Native Dynamics 365 |
|---|---|---|
| Generate email attachments | | Only in Sales App, limited to PDF files |
| Generate email content | | |
| Generate and attach to activity | All activity types | |
| Attach as a note | | Only in Sales App, limited to PDF files |
| Save to SharePoint – Dynamic save locations – Create SharePoint locations – Write metadata to SharePoint | All file types | Only in Sales App, limited to PDF files |
| Send for e-Signing – AdobeSign – DocuSign – AssureSign | | |
| Protect files (PDF & password protection) | | |
| Run processes upon document generation – Flows – Workflows/Actions | | |
| Printing – Local/Network printing – Cloud printing | | |
| Combine documents | | |
| Document Automation | DocumentsCorePack | Native Dynamics 365 |
|---|---|---|
| Via Dynamics 365 workflows | All document generation & processing options | Only attach as note |
| Via Power Automate | DocumentsCorePack Connector | |
Template Design & Management:„Using the power of MS Word“ is key in enabling every user to design good-looking and professional documents.
This section compares the features & options to map the data you need from Microsoft Dataverse into your documents:
| Template Design | DocumentsCorePack | Native Dynamics 365 |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Word Template Designer | via Word Add-In | Via developer ribbon |
| Relationships – One-to-Many, Many-to-One, Many-to-Many – Multiple levels – Filter & sort related records – Unlimited number of related records | | limited to 100 |
| Data Manipulation – Grouping – Calculations – String manipulation – User Prompts | | |
| Conditions & onditional content (if / else) | Condition Designer | Word Field Function |
| Formatting of Datverse data – Field-type specific formatting (e.g. date, money fields) – Conditional Formatting | | |
| Dynamic Images – Entity images – Images from notes (stored in Dataverse) – Images from URL (stored in Dataverse) | | |
| Dynamic Content – Charts (presenting Dataverse data) – Document name – Hyperlinks – QR Codes – HTML (stored in Dataverse) – Filters | | |
| e-Signature: Predefine tags for – AdobeSign – DocuSign – AssureSign | | |
| Work with Sample Data | | |
| Embed data from Inspection Reports (JSON) | | |
That’s it! We appreciate your feedback! Please share your thoughts by sending an email to support@mscrm-addons.com.