Democratizing RPA with Power Automate Desktop

Discover how desktop flows can interact with your everyday tools and automate tasks, freeing up time to do more important thingsPurchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBookKey FeaturesLearn how Office programs can assist with automating recurring tasksMaintain superior work quality by including daily desktop and web applications in your flowsEnrich your flows with additional AI-based information and integrate them with cloud systemsBook DescriptionWhether 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.What you will learnMaster RPA with Power Automate Desktop to commence your debut flowGrasp all essential product concepts such as UI flow creation and modification, debugging, and error handlingUse PAD to automate tasks in conjunction with the frequently used systems on your desktopAttain proficiency in configuring flows that run unattended to achieve seamless automationDiscover how to use AI to enrich your flows with insights from different AI modelsExplore how to integrate a flow in a broader cloud contextWho this book is forWhether you’re a home user looking to automate simple tasks on your workstation or a business user or citizen developer seeking to automate more complex rule-based processes, this book will help you overcome the challenge. No knowledge of a programming language is required, but in the more advanced chapters, a general understanding of information technology, including basic programming language structures, protocols, and cloud concepts, will be helpful.Table of ContentsGetting Started with Power Automate DesktopUsing Power Automate Desktop and Creating First FlowEditing and Debugging UI FlowsBasic Structure Elements and Flow ControlVariables, UI Elements, and ImagesActions for UI AutomationAutomate Your Desktop and WorkstationAutomating Standard Business ApplicationsLeveraging Cloud Services and Power PlatformLeveraging Artificial IntelligenceWorking with APIs and ServicesPAD Enterprise Best Practices