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Courseware

Introduction to Power Automate Desktop course manual

Here are the chapters included in this course manual (we use exactly the same manuals for our classroom and online Power Automate and Power Automate Desktop courses).

Click here to download a sample of the first two chapters of this Introduction to Power Automate Desktop manual, or review how to license our courseware.

Chapter 1 - GETTING STARTED▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
1.1	What is Power Automate Desktop (PAD)?		6
1.2	Requirements for Using PAD		7

Chapter 2 - FLOWS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
2.1	Creating Flows		8
2.2	Working with Flows	Running Flows Stopping a Flow	9
2.3	Editing, Copying, Renaming or Deleting Flows		10

Chapter 3 - BASIC ACTIONS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
3.1	Our Example		11
3.2	Comments		12
3.3	Input Dialog Boxes		13
3.4	Variables	Viewing the Variables Produced by an Action Turning Variable Capture Off Renaming Variables A Possible Variable Naming Convention Viewing your Variables Pinning Variables Filtering Variables Listing the Uses of a Variable	14
3.5	Launching Excel	Opening an Excel Workbook Going to the Correct Worksheet Reviewing Progress to Date	18
3.6	Copying the Final Row	Getting the Final Row Number Copying and Pasting	20
3.7	Clearing Copying (Sending Keys)		22
3.8	Writing in the New Data	Converting the Date to Text Writing to Excel Cells	23
3.9	Closing the Workbook and Final Reporting	Capturing the Final Information Saving and Closing the Workbook Displaying the Final Verdict	25
3.10	The Final Flow		27

Chapter 4 - TESTING CONDITIONS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
4.1	Our Example		28
4.2	Conditional Actions	Testing Simple Conditions Testing between Two Alternatives Testing between Multiple Alternatives (Nesting) Testing between Multiple Conditions (Else if)	29
4.3	Using Switch and Case		31

Chapter 5 - SUBFLOWS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
5.1	The Need for Subflows		32
5.2	Creating Subflows	Adding a New Subflow Moving Actions to Subflows	33
5.3	Calling Subflows		34

Chapter 6 - DEBUGGING▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
6.1	Basic Debugging		35
6.2	Using a Debug Variable	Setting Debug (or Other) Variables Adding the Condition Setting the Default Date to Today	36
6.3	Pausing Programs	Setting Breakpoints Pausing a Program	38
6.4	Other Debugging Techniques	Inspecting Variable Values Starting Execution in Mid-Flow Disabling Actions	39

Chapter 7 - CALLING FLOWS (INPUT/OUTPUT VARIABLES)▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
7.1	Our Example		41
7.2	The Output Variable Flow	Creating an Output Variable Filling the Output Variable The Output Variable Flow	42
7.3	The Input Variable Flow	Creating the Input Variable The Limitation of String Variables Splitting the String back into a List The Input Variable Flow	44
7.4	The Master Flow		46

Chapter 8 - ERRORS (AVOIDING)▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
8.1	Reacting to Message Boxes	The Problem The Solution Testing Buttons Cancelling Flows	47
8.2	Checking Files or Folders Exist		49

Chapter 9 - ERRORS (TRAPPING)▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
9.1	Error Handling for Individual Actions	Our Error-Handling Flow Starting to Configure the Error-Handler Setting the Error Flag Setting the Next Action	50
9.2	Error Blocks	Step 1: Adding an Error Block Step 2: Configuring the Error Block Step 3: Writing an Error-Handling Subflow	53

Chapter 10 - LOOPS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
10.1	Introducing Loops	The Three Types of Loop Breaking Out of a Loop	55
10.2	Looping N Times	Our Example The Loop Action Exiting a Loop Prematurely	56
10.3	Looping While a Condition is True		58
10.4	Looping over Items	Our Example Getting a Collection of Things Adding the Loop Action within the Loop	59

Chapter 11 - LISTS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
11.1	Lists	The Possible List Actions A Typical List Flow Viewing Lists Referring to List Items Looping over Lists Removing Duplicate Items	61
11.2	Working with Multiple Lists		64

Chapter 12 - LINKING TO SQL SERVER▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
12.1	Connecting to SQL Server	Our Table Example The SQL Server Actions Available Creating a Connection Executing a SQL Statement Closing your Connection	66
12.2	Calling a Stored Procedure		69

Chapter 13 - DATATABLES AND DATAROWS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
13.1	Data Tables	Data Rows	70
13.2	Working with Data Rows	Viewing Data Rows Referring to Individual Rows Looping Over Data Rows Referring to Individual Fields	71
13.3	Collapsing a Data Table Column to a List		73

Chapter 14 - CSV FILES▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
14.1	Reading CSV Files	Our Example The Read from CSV File Action Configuring Reading from CSV Files Looping Over the Rows Returned	74

Chapter 15 - WORKING WITH EXCEL▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
15.1	Reading Simple Excel Tables	Summary of Flow The Individual Actions	76
15.2	Reading Selected Excel Data	Advanced Excel Actions The Flow Explained	78
15.3	Running VBA Macros		80
15.4	Moving Around a Worksheet		81

Chapter 16 - FILES AND FOLDERS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
16.1	Looping Over Files	Getting a List of Files or Folders Looping Over a List of Files Obtained	82
16.2	File Properties	Viewing Files Listing File Properties	83
16.3	Renaming Files	Renaming a Set of Files Renaming Files Individually within a Loop	85

Chapter 17 - UTILITIES▼

Section	Title	Page
17.1	The Clipboard	87
17.2	Capturing Screens	88
17.3	Logging Off and Shutting Down	89

Chapter 18 - EMAIL▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
18.1	PAD		90
18.2	Sending/Receiving using SMTP		91
18.3	Using Outlook	Finding your Outlook Account Launching and Closing Outlook Downloading All Attachments Reading All Emails Email Properties	92

Chapter 19 - READING PDFS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
19.1	Managing your Expectations		96
19.2	Reading from PDFs	Reading in Text Reading in Images Reading Tables of Data	97

Chapter 20 - BASIC WEB BROWSING▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
20.1	About Web Browsing	Some Warnings	99
20.2	Installing Browser Extensions	Using Edge Using Chrome or Firefox	100
20.3	Opening and Closing Browsers		101
20.4	Filling in a Form	Going to a Text Field Populating the Text Field Pressing the Button	102
20.5	Extracting Single Items of Data	Step 1 – Adding the Action Step 2 – Doing the Easy Bits Step 3 – Choosing the UI Element Step 4 – Solving Problems	105
20.6	Extracting Tables of Data	Adding the Data Extraction Action Configuring Data Extraction	107
20.7	Page Properties	The Available Properties Parsing a Web Page’s Readable Text	109

Chapter 21 - UI ELEMENTS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
21.1	Understanding HTML	The Document Object Model (DOM) HTML Tags Tag Attributes Classes and Ids	111
21.2	Working with UI Elements	Viewing the UI Elements Pane Removing Unused Elements Adding an Element Renaming Elements Keeping an Eye on Pages Viewing and Editing Elements	113
21.3	Selector Builders	Viewing Individual Selectors JQuery Removing Selectors	117
21.4	The Practical Implications	Viewing Source HTML to Check	120

Chapter 22 - IMAGES▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
22.1	Example of Use	Reasons Not to Use Images	121
22.2	Working with Images	Adding Images Adding Folders Removing Unused Images	122
22.3	Using Images	Step 1 – Start your Browser Step 2 - Add a Move Mouse to Image Action Step 3 – Choose an Image Step 4 – Customising Image Matching	124
22.4	Trouble-Shooting	Considering Screen Resolution	126

Chapter 23 - UI AUTOMATION▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
23.1	Examples of UI Systems		127
23.2	Our Example		128
23.3	Starting Applications	Finding an Executable Path Running an Application	129
23.4	Working with UI Elements		130
23.5	Creating the Flow	Going to the Server Name Text Box Typing in the Server Name Clicking on the Connect Button Expanding Nodes Creating a Query	131

Chapter 24 - RECORDING ACTIONS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
24.1	Recording a Flow		134
24.2	Limitations of Recording		135
24.3	Recording	Recording Actions Adding Comments Pausing Recording	136

Chapter 25 - CASE STUDY – BACKUPS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
25.1	Attacking The Problem	Choosing the Input Medium Creating an Algorithm	138
25.2	Design Choices		140
25.3	The Individual Subflows Explained	Initial Checks Initialising our Variables Getting the Files and Folders Initialising Logging Logging Processing the Files and Folders The Final Message	141

Chapter 26 - CASE STUDY - EMAILING FILES▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
26.1	The Problem		146
26.2	A Suggested Algorithm and Main Flow		147
26.3	The Subflows Called	Creating a List of Recipients Starting Outlook Adding Attachments to Recipients Sending Files to each Person	148

Chapter 27 - CASE STUDY - SEO RESULTS▼

Section	Title	Subsections	Page
27.1	Purpose of Flow		151
27.2	The Flows Involved	The Main Flow Time-Stamping the Results Getting the List of Search Phrases Getting the Search Position for each Phrase	152
27.3	Possible Improvements	Searching beyond the First Page Getting the Correct Position Number	155

If you book a place on one of our courses you will automatically get access to the relevant courseware manual online, and also have the option to receive a paper copy of it.

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