Steve,

I am looking at the same problem and I have tried a few things but with no
success. If MS expect any success with this thing, we need to have the window
"in" GP not outside.

The only other tool I know of is DexToNet, which is an Add-In for VS, but
the version 1.5 did not have the look & fell of a GP window; do not know
about version 2.1.

There isn't anything built into VS Tools that will accomplish this.  But as
Sebastian notes, apparently DexToNet provides this capability which would
imply that it is possible to do assuming you know the trick to what makes
this happen.

I've been looking into this a bit to see how this might work but have no
resolution at this time.

As a side note, this won't be an issue in Dynamics 10.0.  In 10.0, the MDI
shell of Dynamics is gone.  Every window is now in SDI mode and every normal
window now shows on the task bar of Windows.  So this will be a "9.0" only
issue.

patrick
mbs dev support

Patrick,

Are you saying that with 10.0, all the windows that I will open in GP will
show in taskbar ? I think this is not a step forward ! When I use GP, I
always have a zillion windows opened.

I know, I can use the Group in the taskbar but will there be something as in
MS Access where you can opt out of that ?

--

If this post was helpful to you, please vote.

---
Sebastien Picard
ML3 Business Solutions

>
> Are you saying that with 10.0, all the windows that I will open in GP will
> show in taskbar ? I think this is not a step forward ! When I use GP, I
> always have a zillion windows opened.

Yes they will.  The MDI space that's been the home to GP windows since what
1992? will be gone and now you can put the windows wherever you want.

>
> I know, I can use the Group in the taskbar but will there be something as
in
> MS Access where you can opt out of that ?
>

No as there isn't anywhere to put them anymore.

patrick
mbs dev support

What mental giant thought this one up??

Right now I have Outlook, Excel, Word, Crystal Reports, IE (sometimes),
XanaNews (sometimes), and Great Plains all open on my machine. Now in
addition to all of those, each window in GP will be on the Task Bar?
And I suppose that the most efficient way to navigate open windows in
GP will now go away - the Windows item in the Menu Bar?

Let me guess, Microsoft invited a number of users to try this out in
the useability lab and everyone raved about how much better it was!

--
Lyle U

> What mental giant thought this one up??

I guess I don't know where the idea of the pretty radical change to the UI
came from.

> Right now I have Outlook, Excel, Word, Crystal Reports, IE (sometimes),
> XanaNews (sometimes), and Great Plains all open on my machine. Now in
> addition to all of those, each window in GP will be on the Task Bar?

yes.

> And I suppose that the most efficient way to navigate open windows in
> GP will now go away - the Windows item in the Menu Bar?
>

Pretty sure.  I was looking for the "Windows" drop list on the new GP shell
and couldn't find it anymore.  So it probably is gone as well.

> Let me guess, Microsoft invited a number of users to try this out in
> the useability lab and everyone raved about how much better it was!

Not sure about that either.  However I personally have received a number of
requests for people using multiple monitors who want to have different
windows open on different monitors which of course you can't do now because
of the MDI shell.  Similar to how I can have outlook open on one monitor but
open the emails itself on the other.  It's going to take a bit of getting
used to.  I'm still adjusting to the UI spec that moved the browse buttons
from the top of the window to the bottom!

patrick
mbs dev support

Patrick,

I would venture to say that the vast majority of Great Plains users do
not have dual monitors on their desks! Of the hundred or so individual
users that I deal with directly, the number of dual monitor setups is
exactly ZERO. I really hope that this step backwards was not done to
placate a select few "power users" at the expense of the huge majority
of users who use the existing tools all day, every day.

So far, changes to Great Plains, from v7.5 to v9.0, have resulted in
large inefficiencies and poorly though out interfaces that are
essentially resource hogs. Not everyone of the thousands and thousands
of Great Plains owners has the top of the line hardware that seems to
be the answer to every issue with the system nor can they afford to
continually throw more dollars at hardware because they continue to
receive bigger and bigger versions of bloated software.

--
Lyle U

Lyle,

All I can say is that I'm exactly NOT the guy who has any influence or say
into how each version of GP is going to look.  I'm just the support guy and
I would imagine several layers away from whomever decides these things. 
Suffice to say, though, that this wasn't just added to make a couple of
people with high-end systems happy- nothing works that way.

Your best bet is to:

1. At Convergence (assuming you are attending), in the useability lab make
sure to have someone there note your concerns.  I believe there typically
_are_ some of the decision makers there.

2. If you personally aren't going and your customers are, perhaps _they_
would point these things out.

3. If on partnersource there is any kind of "feedback" types of surveys
make sure to note your concerns there.  I haven't seen any lately, but
there was a "what would you like to see in 10.0" PABS survey a while back. 
That was more of features though and not "UI as a feature" that I recall.

4. When the "rapid release" version comes out (soon) there possibly be a
"feedback" button on the menu (like there was with 8.0 and I think 9.0
betas), put your feedback there.  Honestly it won't really matter (for10.0)
because we are waaaay too far into the 10.0 cycle to change fundamenal
things like that now.


regards,
patrick
mbs developer support

Hi Patrick,

I know you're not the decision maker, but you ARE on the pointy end of
the spear when it somes to interfacing with users and partner support
people. ;-)

Perhaps some of those decision makers will read posts here from those
of us in the trenches. As you say, however, by the time that we can
make our feelings known, Microsoft is waaaay to far into the inane
changes for changes sake to do the right thing and give us real
productivity gains instead of fluff.

More Stuff - Less Fluff will be our new mantra.

--
Lyle U