Workflow Automation with Microsoft Power Automate - Third Edition

Build intelligent automations with AI, RPA, and Microsoft 365 to streamline work and reduce manual tasks

Free with your book: DRM-free PDF version + access to Packt's next-gen Reader*

Key Features:

- Build flows faster using Copilot, AI Builder, and Gen AI tools

- Learn to create robust cloud and desktop automations through real-world examples

- Implement best practices for security, governance, and monitoring

Book Description:

Whether you're automating a daily task or implementing automation at scale, this third edition gives you everything you need to succeed. This practical guide makes automation accessible, helping you streamline operations using low-code cloud flows, desktop RPA, and AI tools built into Microsoft Power Automate.

You'll begin by building foundational skills through easy-to-follow tutorials that show how to automate actions across Outlook, Teams, SharePoint, Slack, and more. From there, you'll level up to integrating approvals, databases, and Forms, handle complex scenarios such as sequential and parallel approvals, and manage shared flows.

The book explores Power Automate's robotic process automation capabilities, teaching you how to automate legacy applications, web interfaces, and Access databases. With expanded coverage of AI Builder, sentiment analysis, Copilot, and document summarization using generative AI, you'll gain hands-on experience creating intelligent, responsive workflows that drive efficiency.

Written by a Microsoft 365 expert, this third edition adds 8 new chapters along with guidance on governance, compliance, and enterprise deployment, making it a complete guide for anyone looking to get started or scale automation with Power Automate.

*Email sign-up and proof of purchase required

What You Will Learn:

- Build cloud flows using triggers, connectors, and actions

- Use Copilot and generative AI to create and edit flows

- Automate desktop tasks with Power Automate for Desktop

- Create approval processes for Teams, Slack, and email

- Connect Power Automate to Dataverse, Forms, and SQL

- Implement error handling, monitoring, and troubleshooting

- Govern and scale automations using best practices

Who this book is for:

This book is ideal for information workers, citizen developers, and Power users looking to automate workflows across Microsoft 365, Teams, Outlook, and third-party platforms. Basic familiarity with Microsoft 365 is recommended.

Table of Contents

- Introducing Microsoft Power Automate

- Getting Started with Power Automate

- Working with Email

- Copying Files

- Creating Button Flows

- Generating Push Notifications

- Working with Shared Flows

- Working with Conditions

- Understanding Expressions and Functions

- Getting Started with Approvals

- Working with Multiple Approvals

- Posting Approvals to Teams

- Using Databases

- Working with Microsoft Forms

- Posting to Slack

- Accepting User Input

- Automating Entra ID

- Introducing Robotic Process Automation

- Contributing to an Access Database with RPA

- Automating Webpages with RPA