Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 & 2016 - How to Disable Save as Word and Excel in Reports.

Hi All,

If I remember it correctly everyone was so happy when Microsoft released a feature with NAV 2009 R2 hotfix, which allow user to Save Report as Word, PDF and Excel from the request page and from the preview window.

But with time we found out that user can misuse these new options for saving reports. And then started the request to have this feature disabled.

Yes you understand it correctly, I am still laughing while writing this. There is an update on same lines from Microsoft, but don't except so much and read it through, it might be used in your scenario or not.


With Last month cumulative update, Microsoft have added an platform hotfix "Add configuration setting for disabling saving reports with an RDLC layout as Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel documents".

Remember this is only available for -  
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2015 with CU 21 (46293) and
Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2016 with CU 09 (46290)

So let's see what is it -

This is what happens when you try to Run a Report From Navision.

After Updating the Cumulative Update for NAV 2015 or NAV 2016, we can control this feature at service tier, but with a limited control, as shown below.

In Service Tier, Microsoft have added a new tab for reports which allow system administrator to control at Service to enable / disable  -

• Save as Excel From Request Page.
• Save as Word From Request Page.
• Save from Report Preview.
• & Export PDF Font Embedding. 

But as its at Service Tier, it can only be controlled for a User Group who are using the same service. If a Service have all these Boolean Disabled here is what user get when he/she try to run a report. No Save as Excel and Save as Word in Request Page and no SaveAs in Report Preview.

Now the question is What Business will it support - 
If a company want to limit certain users to have Save as Excel and Word option enabled, they can use it by creating a seprate service for those. But if a company want to limit these actions for specific Reports then this feature will not support.

If you like the Idea to have this configuration per report, then Vote for the Idea submitted by Robert Wendler using Link Below.

VOTE FOR IDEA  - Microsoft Connect

Want to See how it works before implementing the cumulative Update, watch this -


So what you think about the new feature for disabling Save as Word & Excel in Reports, put it on comments.

Stay tuned for More.

Regards,
Saurav Dhyani
saurav-nav.blogspot.com