Creating Shortcuts from Your Interactive Dashboard Gadgets

2 minute read time.

The Default Action is a handy feature on the dashboard for creating shortcuts for functions that you might frequently use. Once your gadget is created, you can easily change the Default Action to another one by clicking on the Edit icon on your gadget, skipping through the gadget wizard steps until you get to the Default Action field and then choose another action.

In my previous blog article, I created and linked two gadgets and explained how it was possible to email contacts directly from the Interactive Dashboard.

To be able to email contacts directly, I selected New Email from the Default Action field when creating my US East gadget.

To select email contacts directly from the dashboard, all I need to do is click the email icon, and CRM's embedded email editor pops up with the customer's data automatically filled in the To field.

Email icon for Account Inc

Embedded email editor with Accounting Inc.'s e-mail address

If I wanted, I could have selected one of a number of other options from the Default Action field.

Edit icon in the gadget header

For example, I could have chosen New Appointment from the Default Action field. Had I done this, the Appointment icon would have appeared beside each company name in my US East gadget. If I then clicked on this icon, I could have scheduled a meeting with my contact in that company directly from the Appointment window in Sage CRM.

Appointment icon

Likewise, I could have chosen LinkedIn from the Default Action field. Choosing this would have made the LinkedIn icon appear beside each company name in my US East gadget. If I were to click on the icon, a window would appear within Sage CRM where I could see my contact's profile on the social networking site. This is a useful tool to quickly familiarize myself with my contact using LinkedIn and to find out more about their company and business interests.

This is a really easy but effective way to customize my gadget. I particularly liked the ease with which I could edit the Default Action field. It gives me the opportunity to easily display my required action, whether it is email, appointment or LinkedIn, for any given circumstance.