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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Automate / Approval Action/Adapti...
Power Automate
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Approval Action/Adaptive Card Markdowns

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Posted on by 467

When using the Approval action seems like formatting works inconsistanly across the Outlook client and online client.  Many others have discussed this as well and seems like after 2 years not much is different.  Using the follwoing documentation

I have a flow that uses H3 Header and ordered lists which is basically a bulleted number.

 

In the follwoing image we have what my approval action looks like within the Outlook 2016

client.jpg

Our Outlook Version

oulook.jpg

 

And finally what it looks like when opening from Mobile Outlook or the Online Outlook both which work as expected.

2019-10-10_12-42-30.jpg

For bulleted number lists we are using

 

0. First item.

0. Second item.

0. Third item.

 

Header we are using ### This is a H3 header

 

Also using underscores as a seperator are also a disaster, basically if you create a seperator line built from underscores such as

___________________________________

works fine on mobile and online however client it skews all the spacing and only displays a single _

 

I have to say these approval/adaptive cards formatting are a nightmare to even perform basic formatting items.  How is it possible header and bullets can't render properly in the full client yet they work in mobile and outlook online?  I have tested this same flow with multiple employees and its always the same results as described above.  Any help on this is appreciated.

 

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  • Dudditz Profile Picture
    467 on at

    Seems worse than I originally thought, as far as I can tell no markdowns in the approval card are workign with our outlook clients, not bold, italics, bulllets, etc. 

  • Dudditz Profile Picture
    467 on at

    Another example, look how ugly the Desktop client version is compared to online and mobile.

    First image is desktop client and 2nd image represents online/mobile

    clientcard2.jpgonlinecard2.jpg

     

     

  • v-bacao-msft Profile Picture
    Microsoft Employee on at

     

    Hi @Dudditz ,

     

    Thank you for your feedback and the detailed test results you provided.

    It is currently known that markdown can be displayed as expected in both the Outlook web client and the mobile app, but some versions of the Outlook desktop client do not seem to support all markdowns.

    If you want MS Flow to improve this feature, please consider submitting your suggestions in the Flow ideas forum so it might be considered for future releases.

    https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Flow-Ideas/idb-p/FlowIdeas

     

    Best Regards,

  • Verified answer
    Dudditz Profile Picture
    467 on at

    Hi v-bacao,
    Thank you for your feedback. I have already posted my feedback to the Flow Ideas and will continue to monitor this for future changes.
    This will be my last input on this post for now,  after further testing the Approval action on teams is also an inconsistent experience with markdowns. The same approval adaptive card across Outlook Online, Outlook Client, Outlook Mobile, Teams client, Teams Mobile with something as simple as a H3 header or underscores is quite inconsistant when using markdowns. This results in having to remove all or most markdowns as only a few might work consistently resulting in a cobbled together looking approval. While text might be okay for a simple approval when you are consuming data from a LOB you typically need structure and proper formatting along with tables. As powerful as the approval action is it's a bit surprising such a gap exists.

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