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Excel File editing

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Posted on by elau Microsoft Employee

I created a desktop web recording of me editing an excel file that was in my downloads folder as a csv file. After the script ran ie. added the formulas, hid the columns I am not using I saved the file and it would not change to xls. So I tried saving as as a CSV and of course all of the formatting is gone. Is there a way to save as an .xls file?

OR my idea is that I first save the file as an xls first and then run the script. However, the start of the script is looking for the csv file type. How can I change where the desktop recording is pointing to without having to redo all the steps or save as an .xls?

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fraenK 2,125 on at

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You don't really need to use Excel itself for doing this.
Just read your CSV:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/actions-reference/file#readfromcsvfile
Change the data table to your desired output:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/variable-data-types#advanced-data-types
Launch Excel with a blank document
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/actions-reference/excel#launchexcel
Write data table to Excel
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-automate/desktop-flows/actions-reference/excel#writetoexcel

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elau Microsoft Employee on at

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Thanks for the suggestion. The file I am using is a download of data (csv) from a website and I need to manipulate that data the same way every time. The data is always different though, but the formatting is going to be the same. It sounds like I can have the script open excel and the csv file and have the data moved over into the blank excel file and then manipulate, right?

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GeoffRen Microsoft Employee on at

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Have you considered using Office Scripts, specifically Office Scripts with Power Automate? This is the 'Run Script' action on the Excel connector for Cloud Flows. With Office Scripts you can use the 'Run Script' action to execute javascript against a workbook.

Basically, instead of using PAD to record your script, if you're only trying to format an Excel file you can use Office Scripts to do so instead (you can use the recording in ExcelOnline to record your actions and modify the script as you wish). That way you can download the data as an xls and then run the Office Script on it to do the formatting.

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elau Microsoft Employee on at

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Oh well. Yay. That works too. I'm very new to this automation so these tips are very helpful. I was able to figure it out on through power automate desktop, however, I will do it again with office scripts too and see which is better.

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