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Operate "Save As" dialog box with Power Automate Desktop

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Posted on by Stiabhna

Hi everyone,

Please excuse my newbie question!
I'm attempting to use PAD to automate some steps in a web-based project management system we have.
In one of steps, I would like to select a list of projects and use the built-in button on the web interface to download the list to an Excel file.

The problem is that a Windows "Save As" dialog box then appears and I can't seem to select anything on it (for example, to enter a file name or click "Save".

Any help would be much appreciated.

Many thanks in advance and best wishes,
Stephen

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Power Automate Desktop

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Expiscornovus 33,844 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @Stiabhna,

I would use actions from the UI Automation category for this. You can probably use a Click UI element in window for this. Try and track the UI element and use it in that action.

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-gb/power-automate/desktop-flows/actions-reference/uiautomation#click

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lema7913 37 on at

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The problem is you cannot capture the UI element.
And therefore not click it.
I have the same problem in any other popup in Edge (Log-in forms fx)

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Expiscornovus 33,844 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @lema7913,

It should be possible to find these UI elements with the Add UI element control. For example Window 'Open' in my earlier example is a file explorer dialog box. This can be found via this selector

> window[Class="#32770"]

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/winmsg/about-window-classes#types-of-window-classes

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lema7913 37 on at

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I agree - withe windows controls.
The problem is that it doesn't seem to work with Microsoft Edge

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Expiscornovus 33,844 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @lema7913,

What is the selector of your group, where the UI element is listed under? In my example the group is using selector with a specific filter for msedge process:

:desktop > window[Process="msedge"]

Sometimes it helps to be more specific and add additional criteria like the name to the selector.

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MichaelAnnis 5,727 Moderator on at

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Use focus window, use the select window feature once you have manually opened the save window dialog box. When the red square shows up around the right window hold Control + Left click to capture the window element.

The file name field should already have the cursor in it. If not, you can populate text field (you have to capture the element using the same process as select window. If the cursor is already there, just use send keys. Both should work. For send keys:

send keys %filepath%
wait 1
send keys {Enter}
wait 1
send keys %filename%
wait 1
send keys {Enter}

Sending the file path and pressing enter will take you to the file path.

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lema7913 37 on at

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The problem starts earlyer. I can not capture the element.
To replicate the problem: Start Edge, Open Downloads (Ctrl+J), try to grab the elements in that list (I can capture the window itself, but not the elements)

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lema7913 37 on at

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> pane > pane > pane > pane > pane[Class="DialogClientView"] (the Downloads window in Edge)
The problem is that I need to go a step deeper to get the "Save as" button

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KirilOkun 9 on at

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Hello,
did you ever find a solution for this. I'm having the same problem. UI element capture only highlights the container pane but not the "Save as" button in it.

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lema7913 37 on at

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No. As a (temporary?) solution i had to go back to Internet Explorer 😞
I'm waiting for Microsoft to fix their shortcommings.
(If Microsoft Power Automate can't work with Microsoft Edge, then Microsoft has a problem they should focus on, and fix ASAP)

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