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Power Platform Community / Forums / Power Apps / How can I get Launch()...
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How can I get Launch() to open Excel file in client application

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Posted on by RacRig5407 74

I have a canvas app in GCC High. I put a button in a gallery that is using Launch to open an Excel file stored in a SharePoint Online document library. Even though the library is configured to open files in the client application, the button always opens the file in the web browser. Is there a way to configure the launch URL to open in Excel desktop rather than the browser? I have tried:

 

Launch("ms-excel:ofe|u|"&ThisItem.'Link to item')

 

...which does launch the Excel desktop app, but the file itself will not open properly. The Excel sheet just looks blank -- no row lines even. Also it's in Read-Only and says 'Saved to this PC' -- which is not what I want. Ideally, it would keep the file connected to its SharePoint home so that changes would be tracked in version history. Why is it making a read-only copy?

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Building Power Apps
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  • RacRig5407 Profile Picture
    RacRig5407 74 on at

    Thank you -- constructing the URL from scratch does actually work! It's a shame that I can't use ThisItem.'Link to item', however, because this method will only work for this particular type of file, where I can know exactly what the file name will be. Luckily, I am creating this file via Power Automate so I do know what the file name will be. But it won't work for other Excel files or any other file types.

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