Book Image

Democratizing RPA with Power Automate Desktop

By : Peter Krause
Book Image

Democratizing RPA with Power Automate Desktop

By: Peter Krause

Overview of this book

Whether you want to organize simple files or perform more complex consolidations between different Office programs and remote-control applications that don't allow outside access, Power Automate Desktop helps meet these challenges. This book shows you how to leverage this workflow automation platform by explaining the underlying RPA concepts in a step-by-step way. You’ll start with simple flows that can be easily recorded and further processed using the built-in recorder. Later, you’ll learn how to use the more advanced actions to automate folder and file management and enable Office programs to interact with each other. You’ll also get to grips with integrating desktop flows into other cloud environments and further enhance their value using AI. As you progress, you’ll understand how flows can run unattended and how they are managed in the Power Platform, as well as key concepts such as creating, modifying, debugging, and error-handling UI flows. Finally, the book will guide you to use Process Automation Designer (PAD) in conjunction with your frequently used desktop systems to automate routine tasks. By the end of this book, you’ll have become a Power Automate Desktop expert, automating both professional and personal tasks.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)

Getting Started with Power Automate Desktop

Power Automate Desktop (PAD) is based on principle known as robotic process automation (RPA). In this chapter, we will look at the essential concepts of PAD and explore the fundamentals that Microsoft leveraged to create the product. In addition, we will look at how the product fits into the ecosystem of Power Platform and what possibilities exist with it.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • What is PAD and what can it do?
  • How it all started – robotic process automation
  • Microsoft Power Platform at a glance
  • UI flows demystified and their role in Power Platform
  • A first example of the incredible potential of PAD and Power Platform

By the end of this chapter, you will have a thorough understanding of the concept of RPA and how PAD fits into the Microsoft automation strategy. The first example will show you the potential of PAD and provide a taste of what you will learn in this book.

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