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)

Variables, UI Elements, and Images

Normally, a flow works with input from outside, be it values that are passed or applications that need to be controlled remotely. In this chapter, we will look at these input elements. These are located on the right-hand side of the designer window, which is also where we can find the areas for variables, UI elements, and images (see Figure 5.1). We will cover the following topics in detail:

  • What exactly are variables and what kind of variables are available?
  • What are UI elements and how will these be used in a UI flow?
  • What role do images play in the context of PAD and how can they be used?

What these three topics have in common is that they can all be used as inputs for automation.