Setting the Stage
So you may be asking, “Why don’t you just use the Word Templates already in Dynamics 365?” That’s a great question. But, here is the scenario:
I needed a way to generate a dynamic Word document using a template, but I wanted the generated document converted to PDF, stored in SharePoint and accessible within Dynamics 365.
Note: The out-of-the-box Word Templates in Dynamics 365 don’t store the generated document anywhere. When you use the Word Template, it just pulls in the dynamic data from Dynamics 365, generates the Word document, and opens Microsoft Word.
Got all that? Ok. Good.
The Setup
Now that you understand what needs to be accomplished, let’s run through the applications we will use.
- Microsoft Word: We will use this to create the Word template
- SharePoint: We will use this to store the Word template and the final generated documents.
- Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow): We will use this to wonderful, magical application to automate the document creation, conversion to PDF, and creation of Dynamics 365 records.
- Common Data Service: We will use the CDS connector to assist with the Power Automate flow.
- Dynamics 365: We will use this to start the Power Automate flow, and access the generated documents for the specific Account.
