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Populating a pdf form with from a table in excel or power bi using desktop power automate

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Posted on by selster

Hello, Is it possible to take the data from each row of a power bi query or excel table table and then use this data to fill in a pdf form, using power automate?

======sample table

=====number -- direction --

row1 => 123 ------- up --

row2 => 456 ------- down --

=the pdf form would have two fields that are fillable: col1 is "number" and col2 is "direction."

==I realize that this can be done with online solutions such as with a sharepoint list or, for instance, with smartsheet but I am wondering if it can also be done with the desktop version of power bi query or excel and desktop power automate.

I posted this question in the power bi forum and it was suggested that I ask the question here, in the power automate forum.

Thank you, Steve

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Power Automate Desktop

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MichaelAnnis 5,727 Moderator on at

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The short answer is yes. You can pull in excel table data and reference the data (as text) to populate text fields. The hardest part will be identifying the text fields which should be difficult as long as they can be picked up by Windows UI elements or gotten to via "Send Keys" {Tab}. Good luck!
selster 4 on at

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Since in the excel table, since each row has identical columns, and the column name correspond to the filed names in the fillable pdf form, I thought that there might be a way to use some kind of for loop, go row by row, scooping up each field, saving it to a variable, and then, switching to adobe, adn stuffing the corresponding field name. But I am not sure how to do this with a loop let alone access the excel row values??
yoko2020 495 on at

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This is my code for handling fillable pdf using Power Automate Desktop and Powershell action using itextsharp.dll

Code to get field name inside pdf

$Template_form = '%File_PdfTemplate%' $output_file = '%PathFileToSigned%' $dllfile = 'Z:\Bots\itextsharp.dll' [Reflection.Assembly]::UnsafeLoadFrom($dllfile) ## Instantiate the PdfReader object to open the PDF [iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfReader]::unethicalreading = $true $reader = New-Object iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfReader -ArgumentList $Template_form ForEach ($FieldName in $reader .AcroFields.Fields.Key) { $taik2 = $FieldName Write-Host "$taik2`: " -NoNewline } $reader.Close()

This is sample code for filling the pdf, stamp/flattened and save as new pdf file.

$Template_form = '%File_PdfTemplate%' $output_file = '%PathFileToSigned%' $dllfile = '%File_ItextSharp%' $customer = '%CompanyName%' $address = '%CompanyAddress%' $customercontact = '%CustomerContact%' [Reflection.Assembly]::UnsafeLoadFrom($dllfile) ## Instantiate the PdfReader object to open the PDF [iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfReader]::unethicalreading = $true $reader = New-Object iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfReader -ArgumentList $Template_form ## Instantiate the PdfStamper object to insert the form fields to $stamper = New-Object iTextSharp.text.pdf.PdfStamper($reader,[System.IO.File]::Create($output_file)) $stamper.FormFlattening = $true $pdf_fields =@{ 'customer' = $customer; 'address' = $address; 'customercontact' = $customercontact; } foreach ($field in $pdf_fields.GetEnumerator()) { $stamper.AcroFields.SetField($field.Key, $field.Value) | Out-Null } ## Close up shop $stamper.Close() $reader.Close()
Lyndaleader 7 on at

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there is a new option in 2023, much simpler, no coding required.

https://appsource.microsoft.com/pl-pl/product/office/wa200005545?tab=overview&exp=kyyw

5-min video walkthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6h7s8COkXA

Hope this helps!
johnsmith3 3 on at

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Good to know this Power PDF Filler, thanks!