🤖 How to use Microsoft Power Automate Desktop - Full tutorial
🤖 How to use Microsoft Power Automate Desktop - Full tutorial
In this step-by-step tutorial, learn how you can use Microsoft Power Automate Desktop to automate repetitive and mundane tasks. Free your team from mundane, time-consuming, repetitive tasks so they can focus on higher-value work with robotic process automation (RPA) in Power Automate which includes a new, easy-to-use, desktop version—Power Automate Desktop.
👋 Additional resources:
- Sample files: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AmxrofZZlZ-whKs3V…
⌚ Timestamps
0:00 Introduction
1:48 Download \u0026 install Power Automate Desktop
3:08 Home screen
3:58 Designer screen
6:30 Create simple flow to launch \u0026 close app
11:50 Create simple UI elements flow using desktop recorder
18:47 Create advanced flow with loop
37:01 Wrap up
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#powerautomate
Content
0 -> Hi everyone, Kevin here. Today I want to show you
how you can use Power Automate Desktop. With what
6.48 -> I like to call PAD, you can automate repetitive
and mundane tasks. Basically, the type of tasks
13.28 -> that you would hope to never have to do as part
of your daily job. To help you understand what you
18.32 -> can do with it, I want to share just a quick
example. Let's say that my boss comes up to
23.28 -> me and says, Hey Kevin, I'd like you to transfer
data from this one legacy system over here, it's
28.8 -> really old. And I want you to transfer all of the
data over to this other legacy system over here,
33.92 -> which is also very old. Now at first glance, it
seems like it should be straightforward enough,
39.44 -> but when I dig into it, I start to realize
that these truly are legacy systems
44.32 -> and there are no APIs and there's no programmatic
way to transfer the data between these.
49.44 -> So, it starts to dawn on me that probably the
only way that I'm going to be able to do it is
54.4 -> to manually go through and copy the data from one
system and then paste it into the other system.
59.36 -> Now at this point, I’d probably start looking for
new work, but luckily with PAD, I could have the
64.4 -> computer do all of this for me. With PAD, I could
basically go through and tell it step-by-step
70.24 -> what I want it to do. Copy this field over here
and then paste it in this field over there. It's
76.24 -> kind of like using a macro in Microsoft Excel, if
you've ever done that before, but instead of being
82.48 -> limited just to Microsoft Excel, you can write
a macro across any application on your computer.
88.56 -> In a sense, it's somewhat magical and extremely
powerful. We're going to start with how you can
93.76 -> get PAD, then we're going to run through a simple
example and at the very end, we'll finish off with
99.6 -> a more complex example just to help you understand
the capabilities and what you can do with PAD.
105.76 -> All right, well, why don't we jump on the
computer and let's get started. We're going
108.72 -> to start off with how you can get PAD, but before
we do that, I do want to call out two caveats.
113.76 -> To be able to use PAD, you need either Windows
10 Professional or Enterprise, and you also need
118.48 -> a work or school account. If you have those, you
should be able to follow along with no problem.
123.36 -> To get started, let's head to the website,
office.com, and once you land on the website
127.28 -> over on the left-hand side, click on Sign In. Once
you sign in, that'll drop us on the office.com
132.72 -> homepage. Down on the left-hand corner, you'll see
an icon for All Apps, let's click on that. This
138.32 -> opens up the All-Apps page and right over here
on the right-hand side of the page, you'll see
143.36 -> an icon for Power Automate, let's click on that.
This will drop us on the Power Automate homepage.
148.8 -> To get the desktop app over on the left-hand
side, let's click on the icon that says Create.
154.88 -> This will drop us on the Create page, and right
up in the top right-hand corner, you'll see a
159.36 -> dropdown menu for Install. When we click on this,
we can install the Power Automate Desktop app.
164.64 -> Go ahead and click on this and run through the
installation process. Down below, there's also a
169.36 -> second option for an on-premises data gateway.
What this allows us to do is when we set up
174.96 -> automations in the desktop app, if we want it
to connect to any automations that we might have
179.68 -> on the web, we can use a gateway to create that
bridge between the two. For today's tutorial, I'm
185.44 -> going to look exclusively at the desktop app. Once
you finish installing PAD, go ahead and launch the
191.44 -> application and you'll land on the screen that
looks like this. In the top left-hand corner,
196 -> we can kick off a new flow and in a moment, we're
going to do that. Down below, you can also see all
200.8 -> of your recent flows. This is where you could also
run, stop, rename, any of your existing flows.
206.4 -> In the top right-hand corner, especially if you
have a lot of flows, you can search through your
210.16 -> list and here you could choose the environment
where you want to view all of the flows or the
214.8 -> environment for where you want to create a flow.
I'm going to leave it in the default environment.
220.24 -> We're now all ready to kick off our very first
flow, so let's go up to the top left-hand corner
224.88 -> and click on this text that says New Flow. This
opens up a prompt and we need to give our new flow
229.84 -> a name. For this example, it's going to be really
simple. We're just going to launch an app and then
233.84 -> we're going to close an app. I'll type that in as
the flow name. Next, I'll click on Create. This
238.8 -> drops us into the PAD Designer and we're going to
be spending most of our time here. This is where
243.84 -> we build our automations. I want to orient
you to the experience just so you understand
249.28 -> what's where. Over on the left-hand side, we have
a pane with all of our different actions and there
255.2 -> are many different actions you can choose from.
In fact, there are over 300 different actions.
260.16 -> An action is an instruction that you want the
computer to execute on your behalf. And just to
265.68 -> show you some examples of what you can do, here
if I click into File, you can do things like copy
270.8 -> files, move files, delete files. Here if I jump
into, let's say, Web Automation, you can launch a
277.36 -> web browser. You could go to a specific website.
You could also extract data from that website.
282.88 -> Here too, up above, let's say I have a specific
action in mind. Rather than navigating through
287.28 -> this list, I could also just type it in. So, let's
say I want to launch an app. Let me type in app.
292.16 -> And here I see an action for run application. So
I could run any application on my computer. So
297.6 -> once again, you have a massive number of actions
that you could choose from. In fact, if there's
301.84 -> some step that you can take on your computer,
chances are you can turn that into an action.
306.48 -> Once we start going through and we start selecting
different actions that we want the computer to
310.48 -> take, it'll add them to the main canvas over
here. And this will show us a list of all of
316.08 -> the different actions that we want the computer to
take. And once we start adding them to this list,
321.2 -> we can save it. We could run through the list. We
could also stop running through it. And over here,
326.08 -> we have two more different actions. So over here,
you can go through and you could select different
331.36 -> actions you want to add to this list. Or as an
alternative, you could open up the web recorder
335.92 -> or the desktop recorder. What this will do
is when the recorder opens, you can click
340.24 -> on different buttons on your screen. You can
navigate to different places on your computer,
344 -> and it'll record all of those different steps
that you take. So it's an alternative to going
348.4 -> through and selecting actions on this menu. Over
on the right-hand side, there are three additional
353.92 -> panes. We have variables right here. You can
pass in variables into your flow that you create.
358.8 -> You could also get output back from this
flow. You also have something called flow
362.88 -> variables. And as we start building our very
first flow, we'll see exactly how this works.
368.4 -> Down below, you also have different UI elements.
These are basically things that you're clicking
372.32 -> on on the screen. As we go through the example,
we'll pull in some UI elements and you can see how
377.76 -> this works. Down below, you also have images. And
if you capture any images as part of your flow,
383.68 -> you'll see them here. All right, well, now that
we've walked through the basic interface here,
388.8 -> it's time to start pulling together our
first flow. For the very first flow,
392.64 -> we're going to keep it pretty simple. I want
to launch Excel, then we'll show a message box,
396.64 -> and then we'll close Excel, just to show
you just the basics of how PAD works.
401.68 -> Over on the left-hand side, we want to choose an
action that launches Excel. Here, I see a category
407.12 -> for Excel, so I'll expand that. And one of the
first options here is to launch Excel. So here I
412.48 -> could click on that and I could drag it over onto
the canvas. And here you'll see that my first step
416.96 -> is launching Excel. This opens up a prompt where
I could specify exactly how I want it to open.
423.04 -> So I could have it launch with a blank document,
or I could choose an existing document.
427.12 -> I want it to open a blank document, so I'll choose
the first option here. I could also decide whether
431.76 -> I want the instance to be visible or not. So do
I want Excel to open so I could see the window,
436.4 -> or do I want it to stay in the background? For
now, just because this is a simple example,
440.48 -> let's leave it so it's set to visible. Down below,
I also see that it's going to produce a variable
446.24 -> called Excel instance. So if I want to reference
back this open instance of Excel, I can reference
452 -> that variable. So this will add our very first
flow variable over here on the right-hand side.
457.92 -> Everything looks good here, so I'll click on Save.
Back on the canvas now, we see our first step for
463.36 -> launch Excel, and once again, I now have my flow
variable with the Excel instance. So Excel is
468.96 -> going to launch, and why don't we click on Run
just to see how this works? I'll click on Run.
472.96 -> This will now start executing my flow, and
as we can see, that launched Excel. So,
477.76 -> look at that. We have our first flow taking shape.
As the next step in this flow, I want to show
482.8 -> a message prompt. So over here on the left-hand
side, once again, I could navigate through here
487.84 -> and find a display message, or I could go up
here to search, and let me just type in message.
493.76 -> Right down here, I see that I can display a
message. Now I could click on this action,
497.92 -> and I can drag it over to the canvas. You'll see
this line appears, and that denotes the place
504.16 -> where I'm going to put it in this list.
So I could place it after launching Excel,
508.08 -> or I could place it before launching
Excel. I want to place it afterwards,
512.24 -> so I'll release it right there, and now I could
type in the details of my display message.
516.96 -> Let me go ahead and I'll type in a title and a
message to display. I just typed in the message
521.52 -> box title, launched Excel, and for the message
to display, you successfully launched Excel.
527.2 -> Here I could go through, and I could select
different details of this message box, but
530.64 -> all of this looks fine, so I'll leave it as is.
Down below, here I'll also see that it's producing
535.92 -> another variable or another flow variable,
and this is whether the button was pressed.
540.64 -> Now display messages, it's not really that useful
in this scenario. I'm just launching Excel, then
545.36 -> I'm showing a message, but you can use display
messages if let's say you want to see the value of
550.32 -> a flow variable or an input or output variable
as you're running your flow, these displayed
555.44 -> messages can be very useful for that. So I
typed in all the details here, let's now click
559.92 -> Save. Now I have both of my steps, and once again,
I can click on Run to see what it looks like.
566.24 -> Here I see Excel launches, and then I get a
message telling me that it launched Excel,
570.24 -> and great, it looks like it was successful.
Back in the main designer, I now want to add
574.56 -> another step where I close Excel. Back over here
in Actions, I can click on Excel, expand that, and
581.36 -> I see the option to close Excel. I could click on
this action and pull it over into the main canvas.
586.88 -> Now, once again, we see that line there, and I can
choose where I want this action to take place in
591.44 -> the flow. Now, I wouldn't want it to happen before
I launch Excel, it only makes sense at the end,
596 -> so I'll drop it right down here. This opens up
a prompt where I could specify how I want to
601.68 -> close Excel, and at the very top, it says Excel
Instance. Basically, which instance of Excel do
607.6 -> I want to close? Now, remember earlier on when we
originally launched Excel, it generated an Excel
613.84 -> Instance flow variable. Here, we specify that
variable here, so whatever variable is produced
619.92 -> in the first step, here, we're referring back to
that variable right here, so we're going to close
624.72 -> the same instance that we opened at the beginning.
Down below, I could also indicate how I want it to
629.52 -> close, and for now, I'll just say do not save
document, but I could also save the document
633.36 -> if I'd like to. All of this looks good, so let's
click on save. I now have three different steps
638.72 -> showing up in my flow. If I wanted to modify any
of these steps, I could simply click on the item,
643.44 -> and I could drag it to a new position, so maybe
I want to launch Excel, then close it, and then
647.36 -> show the message. Here, I'll move that back to
the second position. I could also click on one of
652.32 -> these steps, and I could press Control C to copy
it, and then I could press Control V to paste it,
657.04 -> so this way, I could copy one of my steps, and
maybe I want to paste the display message to
661.28 -> the end again. Now I have a full flow, so
let's click on run to see how this works.
668.96 -> Here, it launched Excel, and I also see my message
prompt. When I click OK, it'll now close Excel,
674.4 -> and once again, I see the message prompt. Let's
say maybe I don't want one of these steps anymore.
679.44 -> I could click on that step, and then I could press
the delete key, and that'll remove it from my list
684.08 -> of actions that I want the computer to take.
All right, we've now completed our very first,
688.64 -> very simple flow. It's not the most useful flow.
We simply launch an app, show a message, and then
693.6 -> we close the app, but it shows you some of the
basics of how you could use different actions
698.08 -> to start building a flow. Now that we're all
done, let's click on save, and let's go back to
703.2 -> the main interface, and we'll build another flow
that leverages some UI elements. Right up here,
708.16 -> I'll click on X, and here we are back on the
main screen. On the main screen, let's go to the
712.4 -> top left-hand corner and click on new flow. For
this one, I want this to leverage the calculator,
717.76 -> so let's call the flow calculator. We're now
back in the PAD designer, and it should now
723.12 -> look familiar. This is our second flow that
we're going to pull together. This time, I
727.28 -> want to launch an application, and then we'll use
the desktop recorder to capture some UI elements.
733.12 -> Up here, I want to launch the calculator app, so
let's go up to actions in the top, and then let's
737.68 -> type in app. Here, we want to run an application,
so I'll take this action and pull it over into
743.2 -> the canvas. This opens up a prompt where we could
specify the application that we want to run. Now,
748.56 -> I already looked up the application path for the
calculator, and it's located in this location,
754 -> so if you want to follow along, feel free to type
in this location. All of the other settings look
759.36 -> fine, and once again, one thing to call out
is we're producing a variable called the app
763.52 -> process ID, so if we ever need to refer back to
this app or this instance of the app that's open,
768.96 -> we're going to have that in our flow variables.
Once we're good to go, let's click on save.
774.08 -> The first step launches the calculator, and to
make sure that it's working properly, let's click
778 -> on run. Here, we can see that it launches the
calculator app, and we now have the calculator
782.56 -> available to us. Next, I want to capture some
UI elements using the desktop recorder. This
787.76 -> also shows you how you can use the recorder to
capture some of the steps that you're taking.
791.92 -> Here, I'll click on desktop recorder. The main
designer screen disappears, and now we have the
796.72 -> recorder over here. Now, let's just do a very
basic example. Maybe I'll just do two plus two.
802 -> So here, I can click on start recording.
So the recording is now on, and I'll go
806.32 -> over to the calculator, and here you see that it
highlights one of the UI elements on my screen.
811.04 -> So here, if I hover over the number two, you see
this red rectangle around it. Here, I'll click
815.68 -> on number two. Over in the recorder, you see that
it now captures that action. So it says I pressed
821.44 -> the button, and it was the number two. I could
pause the recording if I want to do something
825.68 -> in the meantime, and then resume recording,
but for now, I'll keep recording going. Next,
829.6 -> I'll click on the plus icon, and here too, you
see another step was just added. Here, I'll
834.72 -> click on two again. So we'll click on two plus
two, and next, I'll click on equals. So here,
840.24 -> all of my steps have been recorded. Next, let's
click on finish. Back within the Flow Designer,
845.52 -> here, I can see that we launched the application,
and I see all of the steps that I just recorded.
849.76 -> It goes through two plus two equals, and then
we get the result. So here, if I run it now,
855.76 -> this will launch the calculator, and now it goes
through and adds two plus two, and it gives me
859.6 -> four. So once again, it's copying all of the
different mouse clicks that I made, and here,
864 -> I could see all the steps that it went through. As
I clicked on the different buttons on the screen,
868.48 -> PAD created UI elements for me. Here, I'll go
over to the right-hand side, and remember when we
873.28 -> oriented ourselves to the experience, there was a
category called UI elements. Here now that I could
878.08 -> see that it identifies the window calculator, and
it pulled out the button two. Here, I could click
884.4 -> on it, and I could see exactly what that looks
like, and then I could see plus, and I could see
888.48 -> equals right here. If I want to add additional
UI elements, once again, I could go back to the
893.2 -> desktop recorder, and I can capture UI elements
that way, or I could click on this button that
897.76 -> says add UI element. When I click on this, this
once again opens up my screen, and here I see the
903.12 -> calculator. So let's say I wanted to do three plus
one. Here, I could click on three, and if I press
908.08 -> the control key while clicking on it, here it adds
a new UI element. Next, I'll click on one, and
913.92 -> I've already captured the equal sign, so there's
no reason to click on that again. So now I've
917.92 -> included three and one as additional UI elements.
Next, let's click on done. This drops me back
923.36 -> into the PAD Designer, and within the UI element
screen, I now see that for the calculator window,
929.52 -> I now have three and one as additional buttons,
and I could leverage these UI elements as part of
935.52 -> my flow. So previously, I took two and I added it
to two, but let's change it to one plus three. So
941.84 -> here, I'll select the first button press, and when
I click on that, here it's currently referencing
946.48 -> the number two, but I can now change that to,
let's say the number one, and here you can see
950.72 -> the UI element that corresponds with the number
one. So I'll select that and then click on save.
955.84 -> Here for the number two, I can double click on
that, and here too, I'll change it from two,
959.76 -> and this time, I'll change it to the button three,
click on select and click on save. Now, instead of
965.2 -> adding two plus two, it's going to add a one plus
three. Here, if I run it, let's see how it works.
972.72 -> Here, the calculator adds one plus
three, and that gives me four.
976.32 -> Back on the main screen, to get this flow here, we
use the desktop recorder, but I also want to show
981.36 -> you how you can set up this same exact flow using
the actions over on the left-hand side. For now,
987.52 -> let's select all of these different items and hit
the delete key. So once again, you can very simply
991.84 -> delete any of the steps in your flow. Over on
the left-hand side, there's a category called UI
997.52 -> automation. UI stands for user interface. The
easiest way to think of this is this is any
1002.32 -> clicks on Windows, any clicks on buttons, those
are all referred to as UI. Over here, there's an
1008 -> item called click UI element in window and on
the calculator, we want to click on different
1012.56 -> elements within that window. So here I can select
that item and I'll drag it over into my flow.
1018 -> This opens up a prompt where I can specify which
UI elements to click. Right down here, currently
1023.52 -> it's blank, so let's click on this dropdown. And
here I see that I've already added UI elements for
1028.72 -> the calculator app. We use the desktop recorder to
capture some of these UI elements. You could also
1033.84 -> go over to the pane over here like we did before,
and you could add UI elements this way as well.
1039.04 -> Also, let's say you want another way to add
UI elements. You could also click on this,
1042.48 -> add a new UI element. And this, once again, will
open up the same exact screen where we could add
1047.44 -> additional UI elements. Now I've already captured
all the UI elements I want, so I'll simply click
1052.88 -> on this dropdown list. And once again, we'll do
two plus two. Here I'll select the button two and
1057.28 -> then click on select. Here you could specify the
click type. We just want this to be a left click,
1062.08 -> but you could choose all different types of
clicks. Once you select that, let's click on save.
1066.64 -> And so far, this will open the calculator. It'll
click the number two, but then we want to add,
1070.88 -> and then we want to have another two, and then
we want the equals. Here I'll click on that
1074.72 -> action, and I can copy and paste it. So here now
I have another step. Here I'll click on this next
1080.08 -> step, and here I want it to add. So I'll go down
and let's choose a UI element for plus, then click
1085.36 -> on select, then click on save. Here I'll paste in
two again, and let me just make sure that's after
1090.24 -> the plus. And then I could paste in one more
step, and I want this to be the equal sign.
1094.56 -> So here I'll go in and choose the UI element
for the equals press. Then I'll click on select,
1100.64 -> save, and if I click on run, this will be exactly
the same as the flow that I created with the
1104.96 -> desktop recorder. So just another way to create
the same exact flow. Now you could use either
1109.84 -> the desktop recorder, or you could simply add the
different steps depending on which one you prefer
1114.56 -> and which approach you think is easier. Here let's
run it and just verify that it works the same way.
1123.28 -> You probably never thought adding
two plus two would be so exciting,
1125.92 -> but we just automated our computer again. So far
we've been looking at some of the fundamentals of
1130.96 -> how you can create your very first flow in PAD.
Now I want to switch gears and we're going to
1136.32 -> look at a more advanced example. If you want
to follow along with this one, I've included
1141.36 -> all of the sample files in the description of
this video. Here at the Kevin Cookie Company,
1146.4 -> and yes, I was able to incorporate the
Kevin Cookie Company into this tutorial,
1150.4 -> we have a whole bunch of cookie order forms.
And these order forms are all different Word
1155.04 -> documents. If I open up one of the order
forms, you can see the type of information
1159.2 -> that's contained within. I have the order number,
the customer name, the cookie type, the quantity,
1164 -> and there's some additional information on here.
Now I want to take all of this information from
1168.96 -> each one of these different order forms and I want
to consolidate it or aggregate it into this order
1174.32 -> tracker that I have in Excel. Now previously, I'd
have to go through each individual Word document.
1179.76 -> I'd have to copy out the information and then I'd
have to paste it into Excel. But of course, that
1184.48 -> takes a long time. It's a lot of manual work and I
really wouldn't enjoy doing that. So instead, why
1189.36 -> don't we use PAD to extract information from each
individual Word document and place it into this
1195.12 -> Excel sheet. Now in this example, I only have five
order forms. So there aren't really that many and
1200 -> you could do it manually, but let's just imagine I
had a thousand order forms or 10,000 order forms.
1205.6 -> It would be a lot of manual work. Within PAD,
just like we've been doing all along, let's go
1210.4 -> to the top left-hand corner and click on new flow.
This opens up the prompt and for this, I'll say
1214.96 -> order form in Word to Excel. Once you've finished
typing in the name, let's create our flow. We're
1220 -> back in the PAD designer and as a very first step,
I first want to get all of the files that are in
1226.16 -> the folder. So here, if I go back to my desktop, I
have all the cookie order forms within this folder
1231.04 -> called cookie order forms. So, the first step is
going to be to retrieve all of these files. To
1235.6 -> retrieve all of the files, over on the left-hand
side, we have an action category for folders.
1242.08 -> When I expand this, I see all these different
actions that I can take on a folder.
1246.32 -> Now, I want to get all of those files from within
the folder and the very first action here is get
1251.28 -> files in folder. That sounds exactly like what
I want to do. I'll click on this action and then
1256.16 -> drag it over onto the canvas. This opens up a
prompt and I can select all of the different
1261.2 -> parameters. Here at the top, I can specify
the folder that I want to get files for.
1266.08 -> Over here, I could click on this and I could hard
code the folder that I want to get files for.
1271.36 -> Here, I have the folder on my desktop, so
I'll select desktop and right down here,
1275.04 -> I see my cookie order forms. I'll click on
that and then click on okay. Down below,
1280.48 -> I can also apply a file filter. Let's say I had
different file types in there or maybe file types
1285.6 -> that were unrelated to the order forms, I could
filter them out. Down below, I could also specify
1291.12 -> whether I want to include subfolders. I don't have
any subfolders, so I'll leave that checked off.
1296.16 -> Down below, here you'll see that it produces
a variable and this variable is a list of all
1301.12 -> of the different files that are contained within
that folder. Just like we've seen earlier in the
1305.44 -> other examples, it'll add a flow variable over
here and we'll be able to leverage that later.
1310.16 -> All of this looks good, so let's click on save.
It's now added the first step to the flow and it's
1314.96 -> going to get the files in the folder. Here too, we
can see some of the specifics of what it's doing.
1319.04 -> So it's getting files in this specific folder.
Here, we can see the filter that's applied. So
1323.2 -> it's just going to fetch all of the different
files within that folder and then it's storing
1326.8 -> them in this variable. And here again, we can see
the variable over on the right-hand side. Next,
1331.52 -> I want to launch Microsoft Excel. So just like we
did in the earliest example today, let's go down
1336.96 -> to Excel and then let's click on launch Excel.
Here, I'll drag it over and that'll be the second
1341.92 -> step of our flow. Here, it says launch Excel, but
we don't want to launch with a blank document.
1346.96 -> We want to launch with our order tracker. So
here, I'll click on the dropdown and I'll select
1351.6 -> open the following document. When I select that,
I can choose a document path and I'm going to hard
1356.56 -> code this as well. I'll click on select file and
I have the file sitting on my desktop. So I'll
1361.12 -> navigate there, select the order tracker and then
click on open. Back on the main screen, I could
1365.76 -> also select whether I want to make the instance
visible. I'd like it to show up as it's running
1369.44 -> through this. So, I'll leave that toggled on.
Here, I'll see that it produces a variable called
1374.4 -> Excel instance and that'll add it over into flow
variables. This all looks good, so let's click on
1378.8 -> save. Now that I have Excel open, I want to go
through each individual order form in my folder
1384.88 -> and I want it to scrape out all of the details
and I need it to go through document by document.
1390.72 -> To do that, I need to use something called a loop
and over on the actions menu, there's a category
1396 -> for loops. If I expand that, I see a few different
types of loops that I can use. Now, I want it to
1402.08 -> go through my folder and for each file within
the folder, I want it to pull out the details.
1407.28 -> So I want to set up a for each loop. I can click
on this action and I'll drag it over onto my
1412.48 -> canvas and I'll put it after launching Excel. This
opens up a prompt where I can specify the value I
1418.48 -> want the for each loop to iterate over. Now, once
again, in the first step, we got all of the files
1423.92 -> in a folder and then we created a variable with
a list of all of the files and that variable is
1428.56 -> called files. So I want it to go through that list
of all of the files. Over here, I can click on the
1434.8 -> select a variable icon and here I could select
the list of files. So, I'll select this variable.
1440.56 -> You'll see here, there's a percentage sign, files
and a percentage sign. This is how PAD denotes a
1447.12 -> variable. Down here as well, I see that not only
is it going through this list of variables, but
1452.72 -> it's also creating its very own variable called
current item. So when the loop runs for the first
1457.76 -> time, it'll pull out that one document and it'll
store it in current item. When it goes through the
1462.8 -> loop again, the current item will be the second
document that it goes through. So each time the
1467.52 -> loop goes through, this current item will update.
All of this looks good, so let's click on save. We
1472.88 -> now have the loop showing up in the canvas and we
can add steps within the loop. So whatever steps I
1478.24 -> have within the loop are going to be repeated for
each document within the folder. As the first step
1483.44 -> in our for each loop, I want to take the current
item and I want to rename it extract. We're going
1488.32 -> to use this one file to extract all of the order
details. The reason for this is we're going to
1493.44 -> identify UI elements and we want to make sure that
they're the same across all files. To rename the
1499.2 -> file, let's go over to the left-hand side and
click on file. And here we see an action for
1503.76 -> rename file. Let's click on this and then let's
drag this within our for each loop. This opens
1508.88 -> up a rename file prompt. And first I could select
the file that I want to rename. Now I want it to
1513.84 -> rename every single file that's within the
list. And so right now it has the current item.
1518.56 -> I'll click on select variable and I'll select the
current item. So each time the loop goes through,
1523.12 -> it'll rename the current item. I'll select that.
And for the new file name, I'll type in extract.
1529.28 -> Down below, I could also decide whether I want to
keep the extension. That's .docx and I do want to
1534.56 -> keep that. Down below, it also says if the file
exists. Now, every time it runs through this loop,
1540 -> it's going to rename the file to extract. So it's
going to exist the second time it runs through
1544.88 -> all the way up through the last time it runs. So
here I'll click on this dropdown and I want it
1549.28 -> to overwrite the existing file. So, I'll select
overwrite. And down below, let's click on save.
1554.88 -> Now that I have a renamed file, I want to open
Microsoft Word so we can extract all of the
1559.92 -> details from the Word document. Now I need to
launch the application. So let's go over to the
1564.48 -> left-hand side under actions and here I'll type in
app. Here, the action is run application and let's
1570.48 -> pull that over and we'll do that after renaming
the file. This opens up a prompt where we need to
1575.68 -> specify the application path of the app that we
want to launch. And I'll show you a quick trick
1581.36 -> how you can get the application path for pretty
much any app on your computer. To find where an
1586.08 -> app is stored on your computer, simply go down to
your task bar and within the search field type in
1590.72 -> Word. This is the application that we want to
open. Here I see Word up here. I can right click
1595.68 -> on this and then we can open the file location.
This opens up File Explorer with the location of
1601.04 -> the shortcut. Now the shortcut is not going
to launch the application. So once again,
1604.8 -> we can right click on the shortcut and then open
the file location of that. When we click on this,
1609.84 -> this will navigate us to where the EXE is and this
is exactly what we want. To copy this path now,
1616.4 -> press the shift key on your keyboard together with
the right mouse button. This opens up a context
1621.44 -> menu and right down here we can copy this as a
path. Let's click on this. Back now within PAD, we
1628 -> can paste in the application path. I'll paste in
what I just copied. The one thing you want to make
1632.72 -> sure you do is remove these quotes from the path.
Here I'll delete those. Down below, we also need
1638.96 -> to enter in a command line argument to open up
the file that we just renamed. Down below, let's
1644.48 -> enter a forward slash, a T and then type in the
document location. For the document location, we
1650.64 -> also need to enter quotes at the beginning and at
the end. Once we're all done, let's click on save.
1656.88 -> As a next step, we want to create some UI elements
within our Word document. So let's minimize Power
1662.72 -> Automate and let's go back to the cookie order
forms. For now, let's take one of our order forms,
1667.92 -> let's copy it and paste it and then let's rename
the copy file extract. Next, let's open up the new
1674.24 -> file called extract. Back within PAD, we need to
indicate some UI elements that we want to scrape
1680.08 -> from the Word document. Over on the right-hand
side, just like we did in the earlier examples,
1684.56 -> let's click on UI elements and then down below,
let's click on add UI elements. This opens up
1689.76 -> the add UI elements prompt and I also have my
Word document here that we just created called
1694.96 -> extract. Here, we want to pick out all of the
data that we want to extract from this document.
1700.08 -> Here, as I hover over the different elements, I
can select which elements I want to copy. So here,
1705.28 -> I want to take the order number all the way down
through the desired delivery date. Now, once
1709.04 -> again, to add a UI element, I press the control
key and then I click on an area of the screen.
1713.76 -> So here, I'll get the order number, I want to get
the name, the cookie type, the quantity, how they
1720.32 -> heard about us, the preferred delivery method and
also the desired delivery date. So here, I have
1725.52 -> all of my UI elements. Let's click on done. Back
within PAD, within UI elements, I can see all of
1732.16 -> my UI elements now. Right now, they have mostly
unfriendly names that are hard to understand.
1738.4 -> Over here, I know this is the order number so if
I go over to the ellipsis on the right hand side,
1743.04 -> I can click on that and I can rename the elements.
I'll go through and rename all of them. I've now
1747.6 -> added UI elements and I've renamed them for all of
the different elements that I want to scrape from
1752.4 -> my Word document. Next, I want to extract data
from the window. So over on the left hand side,
1758.4 -> under UI automation, if I click on this, there's
a category for data extraction. When I expand
1764.32 -> this, right here, I see an option for extract
data from window. This is what I want to do,
1769.12 -> extract data from a Word window. Here, I'll click
on this option and I'll pull it in underneath run
1774.72 -> application. This opens up a prompt to extract the
data from a window and essentially what I'm doing,
1780.32 -> I'm taking one of my UI elements, I want to take
the value of that UI element and I want to save it
1786.4 -> as a variable. So here first, I need to select the
window. So here I see my window with all the UI
1791.84 -> elements. First, I want to select the order
number. I'll pick that as one of the UI elements,
1797.12 -> click on select. Down below, I can decide where I
want to store the extracted data and I don't want
1802.32 -> to just put it in an Excel sheet yet. Instead,
I want to save it as a variable. So I'll select
1807.52 -> a variable and down below, it'll show me what
variable will be produced and currently it's
1812.24 -> called data from window. Now that's not really
that descriptive. I can click on that and I can
1817.2 -> give the variable a new name. Now I have to leave
the percentage sign in front and in back because
1822.72 -> that's what makes it a variable but here I can
modify the middle of it. So here I'll call my
1827.68 -> variable order number. So, it aligns with my UI
element. That looks good and next let's click on
1834.16 -> save. I've now created my variable and here you'll
see it'll extract the record from that UI element
1840.32 -> and it'll save it as order number. If I go back
over here on the right-hand side, I can click
1845.12 -> on variables and here now I see that I have a new
variable that I created called order number. Every
1850.4 -> time it runs through all of these files, when
it runs through the first file, the order number
1854 -> will match the first file. When it goes through
the second file, it'll match the second file.
1858.8 -> Now I want to go through and do the exact same
thing for all of the different UI elements. I
1863.36 -> want each one of these UI elements to be stored
as a variable. So I'll go through and do the exact
1867.92 -> same thing, extract the data as I did with order
number and I'll do it for each one of these. I now
1873.28 -> have variables for all of my UI elements. I now
want to pass the value of the variable into Excel.
1879.6 -> But before I can do that, I need to find the first
available row in Excel and luckily PAD can help me
1885.12 -> with that. Over on the left-hand side, I have a
category for Excel. I'll expand this and here at
1890.96 -> the very bottom of the list, there's an action for
get first free column slash row. Let's click on
1896.48 -> that one and pull it into the canvas. This opens
up a prompt and first I need to select the Excel
1902.08 -> instance. And here the Excel instance, when I
launched Excel earlier, it created a variable
1906.96 -> called Excel instance and here it refers back to
that. This will produce its very own variables.
1912.56 -> Here I'll get one variable with the first free
column and another variable with the first free
1917.2 -> row. That's perfect. Let's now click on save. I
now have all of my variables. I also know what the
1922.8 -> first free row is in the Excel sheet. The pretty
much the last thing I need to do now is write to
1927.92 -> the Excel worksheet. And I still have the Excel
category open here and one of the actions is write
1933.36 -> to Excel worksheet. Here I'll select this item
and drag it over as the next step on the canvas.
1938.96 -> This opens up a prompt where I could define how
I want to write the data to the Excel worksheet.
1944.16 -> First, I need to choose the Excel instance.
And once again, when we launched Excel earlier,
1948.32 -> we got a variable for Excel instance and here
I'm going to refer to that variable right here.
1953.68 -> Next, I need to specify the value I want to
write. First, I want to write the order number.
1958.72 -> So here I'll select a variable and here I can see
all of the different variables available to me.
1964.24 -> If I scroll down a little bit, I see a variable
for the order number, so I'll select this item.
1969.2 -> For the write mode, I want to write it into a
specific cell. For the column, let's jump back
1974.08 -> into the Excel sheet to see which column we
want to write it to. Within the Excel sheet,
1978.4 -> I can see that the order number is the first
column, so we want to write to column one.
1983.04 -> Back within PAD, for the column, I'll enter one.
Down below, I could also specify the row and I
1988.88 -> want to make sure I enter this into the first
available row. So here I'll click on the select
1993.68 -> variable and here I can go down and I'll find
a variable for the first free row. Here it is,
1999.44 -> I'll select this variable. All of this now looks
good, so I'll click on save. I've now added my
2005.44 -> step to write to the Excel workbook and it's going
to write the value of order number and here you
2009.44 -> can see all of the details. Now, I'm going to
go through all of the other variables and set
2013.92 -> up something similar to this and I'll specify the
specific column that these other variables should
2018.24 -> go into. I've now gone through and I've added an
action for each one of these variables. So for
2023.44 -> the order number, the customer name, the referral,
I'll go through and I'll write each one of these
2027.84 -> to a specific column and an open row within the
Excel spreadsheet. As the last step of the loop,
2033.52 -> now that I've copied all of the data into the
Excel sheet, I want to close the Word document.
2037.92 -> This way I could open up the next document
in Word. Over on the left-hand side, under
2042.64 -> the system category, here you see the option to
terminate a process. I'll click on this action and
2047.68 -> then I'll drag it over to the very bottom of my
loop. This opens up a prompt where I can specify
2053.28 -> what process I want to terminate. First, I have an
option to choose a process name or a process ID.
2059.6 -> Earlier when we launched Word, that generated a
process ID, so I'll select process ID and here
2065.04 -> if I click on select variable, I can select the
app process ID that we got earlier. I'll click on
2070.16 -> that item and then click on save. Here, back in
the main view, if I scroll up just a little bit,
2075.04 -> here again, we see when I launched Word. If I
double click on that, here again, we can confirm
2079.92 -> that it produced a variable called app process
ID. We've now finished entering in all of the
2085.28 -> different steps of our flow and our automation.
Before we click on run up above, let's take a
2090.64 -> quick moment to review all of the different steps.
If I go up to the very top, first, we're going
2095.76 -> to get all of the files. So these are all of the
order forms that are contained within this folder.
2100.8 -> It's then going to take all of those files and
store it as a list within this variable called
2105.28 -> files. Next, we'll launch Excel and we're
going to open this order tracker sheet.
2110.8 -> That's when we kick off the loop and we're
going to go through every single order form
2114.56 -> that we stored in files. Here, first, we're going
to take the current item and we're going to rename
2119.68 -> it extract. Then we're going to launch that file
in Word. Then we're going to go through and we're
2124.48 -> going to extract all of the data from the Word
document. We'll find the first available free
2129.6 -> row in the Excel worksheet and then we'll write
all of the data into Excel. Then at the very end,
2134.88 -> we'll terminate the Word document and then the
loop will just continue again where once again,
2139.12 -> we create the next document, we open
Word again with the next document,
2142.56 -> and then it'll keep going through until it goes
through all of the different documents. Now, one
2146.88 -> more thing to clean up before we click on run, we
created an extract file so we could get all of the
2151.68 -> different UI elements. Let's delete this file
before we click on run. Back now in PAD, we are
2157.76 -> ready to kick off this flow. In the top left-hand
corner, let's click on run and let's see it work.
2167.84 -> Here now you can see it open up the Excel
document. It'll go through and open up each
2171.6 -> of the Word documents. And here you can
see it start populating the Excel file.
2179.6 -> And there it is. All of those separate Word
documents are now consolidated into one Excel
2184.24 -> spreadsheet. This was just a basic example showing
you how we can bring data from Word to Excel, but
2189.76 -> with PAD, you can really connect any application
together. We didn't get into it today, but you can
2195.28 -> also take these desktop flows that we created and
you can also connect them to web flows. So all in
2200.88 -> all, PAD is extremely powerful and also versatile.
Before we wrap up, one thing I want to call out,
2206.96 -> especially if you're using multiple monitors,
you really have to be cautious. When I pulled
2211.28 -> together this flow using multiple monitors, my
UI elements just weren't working properly. When
2216.16 -> I switched back down to one monitor, identified
all the different UI elements, then it seemed
2220.8 -> to work as I expected. So just a word of caution.
All right, well, that's how you could get started
2225.92 -> using Power Automate Desktop. If you found
this video helpful, please give it a thumbs up.
2230.96 -> To see more videos like this in the future,
make sure to hit that subscribe button. Also,
2235.68 -> if you want to see me cover any other topics,
leave a comment down below. All right, well,
2240.08 -> that's all I had for you today. I hope you enjoyed
and as always, I hope to see you next time. Bye.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ_KpBC8fwo