Unanswered

Excel UI Automation

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee

Hello everybody,

I am trying to do a UI-Automation but have the following problem:

I have several Excel Files - all in the same format - and I am trying to do a UI-Automation with those files. However, I think that my UI Elements are linked to the File where I originally created them - as it does not work for my other files. I have already changed the name properties of the UI element to a variable, however it still does not do the automation for my files.

Does somebody know how to tell power automate that the UI-Element applies for every excel file I am opening?

Thank you in advance

Categories:

Power Automate Desktop

I have the same question (0)

All responses (3)

Answers (0)

Sort by

amamidwar23 62 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

HI @Anonymous

not sure why you are opening excel files using UI as you can use launch excel actions.
if still want to go with Ui automation then could you put a snip of it ? what exactly you are trying to achieve

Thanks

AR

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
tkuehara 667 on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hi @Anonymous

Yes, your understanding is correct: everytime you map an UI element it becomes associated to a specific instance. You could try to generalize in order to work for every instance by changing the selector. Example:
Specific to an Excel instance (default when selecting an element in Power Automate Desktop)
Generic - unselect the file Name, thus PAD will look at every [Process="EXCEL"] instance, losing the coupling with a specific Excel window

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
MichaelAnnis 5,727 Moderator on at

Like (0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

I would try tkuehara's first. I also require opening Excel through UI's so I understand your struggle.

Opening is easy, as I have one file that is always my base file. So, if I have to open any file, it goes to the window of the base file and does File -> Open -> Browse where those UI elements never change because the base file never changes, and then the path/filename is built into the bot. For other Excel UI functions, there might be better ways. Hot Keys are fairly reliable. (ex. Alt+WMV to pull up the Macro Menu).

The most reliable would be to build a VBA macro, and the bot can literally just perform Run Excel Macro, and you can do anything in Excel. 90% of my bots are Run Report, Open Report, Run Macro, and most of my automation is built into Excel VBA.

Hope this information helps. Good luck.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No