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 and how to use them

A variable is an object (or design element) in which a value can be stored. You could also think about it as a reusable component that can store any value. There is no meaningful flow without at least one variable. Variables are available and can be created on the right-hand side of the designer window, as shown in the following figure:

Figure 5.1 – Variables in the designer workspace

Figure 5.1 – Variables in the designer workspace

On the far right-hand side, there are also symbols for UI elements and images, which we will also cover in this chapter. With this pane, we can search for variables, create new input/output variables (see the next section), and also inspect variable values. The following figure shows the same area, which is called the Variable value viewer area, with some populated values and additional features:

Figure 5.2 – The Variable value viewer

Figure 5.2 – The Variable value viewer

This pane not only shows the current values of the variables directly...