An introduction to the Long Description and the merge text functionality

Master Data Information in Business Central can build item descriptions automatically based on the specifications you maintain on your items. Instead of typing and retyping descriptions every time a product detail changes, you set up rules that compose the text for you. When you update a specification, the relevant descriptions update with it.

The functionality works with four different description types: the long description, the item description (and item description 2) driven by a type description, and the report description used on printed documents. You configure how each one is built, and you can do it per language.

You can keep certain details, such as wheel diameter, in the long description on the item card while leaving them out of the documents you send to customers. The report description gives you that separate control.

How automatic descriptions work on the item table

Master Data Information adds a long description and a merge description functionality to several tables that use master data. Most commonly you use it on the item table.

When you hover over an item number, the long description shows the parameters pulled from that item. For example, an item might show its specifications ending with “wheel diameter 29 inches”. The text is composed from the item’s actual data rather than entered by hand.

If you change the specification, the description follows. Change the wheel diameter from 29 inches to 27 inches, refresh the page, and the long description updates to reflect 27 inches. A setup determines how the long description is built, so the system knows which fields to include and in what order.

The role of information codes and information values

The composition of descriptions is driven by information codes. The long description order controls how the long description is built from these codes.

For the long description, the system uses both the information code and the information value when assembling the text. For the standard description, only the value (the information value) is used. This is why changing a specification can update both the long description and the standard description, but the two are built from slightly different parts of the same data.

The four description types you can build automatically

There are four description types you can configure with Master Data Information.

• Long description: built from the information codes and values you set up, and shown on the item card.
• Item description and item description 2: built automatically using the type description field. This requires some setup in the Master Data Information setup, after which the actual item description fields are composed for you.
• Report description: used when you print documents such as purchase orders and sales orders. You can choose to make it equal to the long description on the item card, or merge it differently for printed output.

The report description is where the separate control matters. You might want the wheel diameter to appear in the long description on the item card but leave it out of the documents you send to the customer. By configuring the report description independently, you decide what the customer actually sees on a printed document.

Language-specific descriptions

You can build descriptions per language. In each company you set up a base language that you want to merge the descriptions on.

The report description is also language specific to the customer or vendor you are sending to. So the document a customer receives can be composed in their language, while your internal item card uses the base language.

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