Let It Snow: How To Use Themable Layouts in Business Central (2024)
Themeable layouts in Business Central, added in 2024 release wave 2, shown by building a snowflake-themed Sales Quote Word layout with a custom picture watermark, uploading it on the Report Layouts page and setting it as a seasonal default, without a developer.
- Introduction - Marketing department's themed quote vision
- Report layouts page and themeable layouts feature
- Exploring the standard blue themeable quote layout
- Word layout editing and Office themes responsiveness
- Using Abts font and creating custom watermark with pixel art
- Generating snowflake images and adding watermarks in Word
- Uploading custom layout to Business Central
- Testing themed layout and seasonal layout strategy
Overview
The video follows a marketing department wanting a winter-themed sales quote. It opens the Report Layouts page, looks at the standard blue themeable quote layout, and shows that the layout responds to Office design and themes, including fonts and colors.
The presenter then edits the layout in Word. This includes using the new Abts font, which is available in Business Central Online as of December 2024. A snowflake image is generated and added as a picture watermark. The layout is uploaded to Business Central and tested. The video ends with a strategy of setting different themed layouts as the default for different seasons.
Key points
- Themeable layouts were added in 2024 release wave 2 and let report layouts such as sales quotes, confirmations and invoices follow Office themes.
- In Word, the Design and Themes options change the fonts and colors of a themeable layout.
- The Abts font in Office is available in Business Central Online as of December 2024.
- Custom picture watermarks can be added to a Word layout for themed designs.
- The edited layout is uploaded through the Report Layouts page and used for the Sales Quote report.
- Different themed layouts can be set as default for different periods, for example December or January, and switched later.
- The presenter says a marketing department can do this in a few minutes without a developer.
Features
Every feature below: status not stated, demoed.
| Feature | At |
|---|---|
| Themeable layouts | 0:58 |
| Abts font in Office | 2:39 |
| Word layout watermark support | 3:00 |
| Seasonal layout switching | 4:50 |
AL objects mentioned
As heard in the captions. A name that matches one object page by exact type and name links to it; the others stay as named.
- page 9660 “Report Layouts” at 0:37
- report “Sales Quote” at 0:58
Not found in BC28-30: report “Sales Quote”.
Quotes
- 0:37 “the marketing department can do just this in a few minutes with no need for a developer”
- 0:58 “in version 2024 release Wave 2 we added what we call themeable layouts”
- 1:58 “if you choose design and themes this layout is responsive to the different office themes so the look and feel the fonts the colors”
- 2:39 “the new abts font in office that also came is is available in business Central online as of December 2024”
- 4:50 “we can choose this as a default layout for December or January and then when we get to another season we can simply add”