We’re used to dragging and dropping files onto emails in Outlook, or to move files in File Explorer. However, Dynamics never supported this out of the box, until now.
Add an attachment to Dynamics emails
Once you’ve enabled drag drop attachments, it’s easy to do
- Compose a new email in Dynamics. There are many ways to do this
- Click the + icon on any timeline in Dynamics
- Click the E-mail icon on the command bar when you’re in the activities area
- Reply to, or forward an existing email
- This opens the email editor
- Look for the Attachment area on the email editor.
- If you can’t see it, try switching to another email form (red box on left, above)
- If you can’t find it in any forms, then ask your administrator to enable it. Instructions below
- Find the file you’d like to attach
- Drag this file to the attachments section of the email editor
- You’ll see the area turn blue and then you can drop the file!
- You’ll now see an icon of the attachment appear in the Attachments area
- You can remove the attachment by selecting it and pressing the delete icon
- You can also copy the attachment and paste it into a different email. Just select the copy icon.
Attach a previously used file
If you want to attach a file which you’ve used previously, rather than uploading it again, you can find it and attach it
- From the drop down beside the plus icon, choose Attach from previous email
- Search or scroll through the attachments in the system to find the files you need
- Select the file(s) and click Attach
Enabling drag and drop attachments in Dynamics
If you don’t see the drag and drop attachment window on your email form you’ll need to set it up. Check with your Dynamics administrator before you do this.
First of all choose which email form you’d like to add the attachment area to. It’s a good idea not to add it to all forms initially, in case there are any unexpected problems. Make a note of the form name (in the example above the name is simply Email)
Using Power Apps to enable drag drop attachments
- Open Power Apps
- Choose the correct environment from the chooser in the top right of the screen
- Choose Tables from the menu
- Choose E-mail from the list of tables – you may need to select All to see this table
- Choose Forms from the Data Experience area
- Choose the form you’d like to edit
- Select the section where you’d like to add the attachment area
- The most user-friendly place to add the attachments area is beside the email compose window, in a separate column
- Click the Component icon
- Expand the More components menu and locate the Attachments control component
- Don’t confuse this with the Attachment Control component
- Click Attachments control
- Select the Attachments Table
- Choose any view and click Done
- The attachment area is now visible on your form
- You can change the name and settings in the right hand menu when the attachment control is selected
- When you’re finished, click Save and Publish
- Back in Dynamics, begin to compose a new email.
- Choose the form you just edited and look for the new attachment area.
- If you don’t see the attachment area refresh the page and / or switch to a different form and then back to the form you edited
