MS Word Automation in Power Automate Desktop

KT Sessions November 15, 2024

 

MS Word Automation in Power Automate Desktop

If you frequently work with Microsoft Word documents, you’ll know that automating repetitive tasks can save you a lot of time. Whether it's creating documents, filling out templates, or extracting specific data, Power Automate Desktop (PAD) offers a simple yet powerful way to automate Microsoft Word tasks. With PAD, you can control Word through a series of actions that allow you to automate workflows directly from your desktop.

In this blog post, we'll walk you through the basics of automating Microsoft Word using Power Automate Desktop. We’ll cover how to:

  • Open a Word document.
  • Write to a Word document.
  • Read text from a Word document.
  • Save and close a Word document.

By the end of this post, you'll have the knowledge to begin automating your own Word-related tasks with Power Automate Desktop.




Prerequisites: Setting Up Power Automate Desktop with Microsoft Word

Before we dive into examples, ensure you have the following:

  • Power Automate Desktop installed on your machine.
  • Microsoft Word installed on your machine (since PAD communicates with Word via its desktop application).
  • Basic familiarity with Power Automate Desktop interface and actions.

Key Actions for Automating Microsoft Word in PAD

Power Automate Desktop provides several actions to interact with Microsoft Word. These are some of the most commonly used actions:

  1. Launch Word: Opens Microsoft Word.
  2. Open Word Document: Opens an existing document.
  3. Write to Word Document: Adds text or modifies content in a Word document.
  4. Get Text from Word Document: Extracts text from a Word document.
  5. Save Word Document: Saves the current Word document.
  6. Close Word Document: Closes the document.
  7. Close Word Application: Closes the entire Word application.

These actions allow you to open, edit, read, and save documents automatically, without needing to open Word manually.

Example 1: Creating and Writing to a Word Document

Let’s start with a simple example where we create a new Word document and write some text into it.

Step 1: Launch Microsoft Word

First, we need to launch Microsoft Word.

  1. Add the Launch Word action in your flow.
    • Set Visible to True (so you can see Word open on your screen).
    • Set New Document to True (this will open a blank document).

Step 2: Write Text to the Word Document

Now, let’s write some text into the document.

  1. Add the Write to Word Document action.
    • In the Text field, input the text you want to write. For example, “Hello, Power Automate Desktop!”
    • You can specify the Location (where the text will appear in the document) as Start of Document, End of Document, or a specific Bookmark (if you've created one in Word beforehand).

Example configuration:

plaintext
Text to Write: "Hello, Power Automate Desktop!"
Location: Start of Document

This action will write the text at the beginning of the document.

Step 3: Save and Close the Document

Once the text is written, you’ll likely want to save the document.

  1. Add the Save Word Document action.

    • Choose the location where you want to save the document (e.g., C:\Users\YourName\Documents\AutomationExample.docx).
    • Set the Overwrite option to True if you want to overwrite an existing file.

  2. Finally, use the Close Word Document action to close the Word document.

You now have an automation that creates a Word document, writes to it, and saves it!

Example 2: Reading Text from a Word Document

Next, let’s say you need to extract some text from an existing Word document.

Step 1: Open an Existing Word Document

To begin, open the document you want to read from.

  1. Add the Open Word Document action.
    • Specify the file path to the Word document you want to open, such as C:\Users\YourName\Documents\ExistingDocument.docx.

Step 2: Extract Text from the Document

Now, use the Get Text from Word Document action to extract the text.

  1. In the Text to Extract field, specify the area from which you want to extract the text. You can use the Start of Document and End of Document options, or you can specify a range of pages or bookmarks.

For example:

plaintext
Text to Extract: Start of Document to End of Document
  1. Store the extracted text in a variable, say ExtractedText.

Step 3: Use the Extracted Text

You can now use the extracted text for any further automation steps. For example, you might log it to a text file or process it to generate reports.

Example 3: Automating Form Filling in a Word Document

Many businesses use Word documents as templates for contracts, reports, or invoices. Instead of manually filling out these documents, you can automate the process by filling in predefined placeholders or bookmarks.

Step 1: Open the Template

Start by opening a Word template file.

  1. Add the Open Word Document action and specify the path to the template.

Step 2: Fill in the Form

Assume you have a placeholder in the document, like [CustomerName], that you want to replace with actual customer data.

  1. Add the Find and Replace in Word Document action.
    • Set Find to [CustomerName].
    • Set Replace With to a variable, such as CustomerName, that holds the actual customer’s name.

Example:

plaintext
Find: [CustomerName]
Replace With: "John Doe"

You can repeat this for other placeholders like [InvoiceNumber], [Date], etc., by using additional Find and Replace actions.

Step 3: Save the Filled Document

After filling in the placeholders, you’ll want to save the filled-in document.

  1. Add the Save Word Document action to save the updated document to a new file, such as Invoice_JohnDoe.docx.

Step 4: Close the Document

Finally, use the Close Word Document action to close the document.

Additional Tips for Automating Word with PAD

  • Bookmarks: Use bookmarks in Word to mark specific locations where you want to insert or extract text. This makes automation more accurate, especially if the document structure is fixed.
  • Error Handling: Use Try-Catch actions to handle errors gracefully, such as if a document doesn’t exist or Word isn’t installed.
  • Formatting: While basic text operations are easy to automate, you can also manipulate fonts, paragraph styles, and tables in Word using actions like Format Text and Table Actions.

Conclusion

Automating Microsoft Word tasks in Power Automate Desktop can save a significant amount of time, especially when dealing with repetitive document generation, data entry, or report creation. In this post, we’ve walked through examples of creating Word documents, extracting text, and automating form filling—all fundamental operations when working with Word.

With Power Automate Desktop’s Word actions, the possibilities are endless! You can automate complex workflows, generate documents dynamically, and even integrate Word automation with other business processes to increase productivity and efficiency.

Now it’s your turn! Try automating your own Word tasks with Power Automate Desktop, and let us know how it works for you!

KT Sessions

Posted by KT Sessions