Tracy van der Schyff

Before we can start building our first #PowerAutomate workflow we need to take a look at the templates available first. No need to reinvent the wheel right? This is definitely the easiest way to learn as you’ll understand how the triggers and actions are linked and put together. For me in the beginning it was easier to use a template and then modify it, than building it from scratch.

Disclaimer:  The purpose of this #PowerPlatform 1 month blog series is not to create experts, but create curious, self-learning #HumansofIT, not afraid to try, fail and learn. Focus is to enable #CitizenDevelopers (non developers) to add extra to ordinary and become EXTRAORDINARY. All humans have the ability to be great, it’s fear of failing and the unknown that keeps us back. If that’s the only thing I can achieve, to break down your fear of technical concepts, then my work here is done 🙂

Microsoft Power Automate Templates

Think of the templates similar to the ones you get in Office – for example #PowerPoint. You can start a PowerPoint presentation from scratch (blank), or you can use one of the preconfigured templates (themes) that are available.

What you should know

Navigating the Templates in Power Automate:

In Power Automate there are many preconfigured templates to use. MANY! How nice of Microsoft to help us out like that 🙂

At the top you’ll see the categories you can filter by and the sort order. It’s also easy to identify the template by the icons used for the apps (connectors):

Difference between OneDrive and OneDrive for Business:

The search option is easiest for me. Below you’ll see I searched for “OneDrive for Business”. This will return results on all templates that includes OneDrive for Business. Be careful when just searching OneDrive – as it might return templates for OneDrive Personal (Consumer). If you want to automate tasks related to your OneDrive in your Office 365 account – that’s OneDrive for Business:

Difference between Outlook and Office 365 Email:

Another one you have to be careful of is email templates. If you’re on an Office 365 small business or enterprise plan, then your email is Office 365 email (business / enterprise) – not Outlook (on premises / non professional purposes):

Published by and Used:

You’ll also see who the templates were created by and how many times they have been used. In this example by Microsoft and by the Microsoft Flow Community. That’s crowdsourcing #FTW!! 🙂

Well that covers the templates available. I would definitely go take a look at them. Great way to get inspired by processes you could improve. Now I think we’re ready to build our first Power Automate workflow. Sorry, I know I said that would be today, but we needed to cover the basics first. 

Other blogs in this #PowerPlatform series:

1. Getting Started with the Microsoft Power Platform
2. Microsoft Power Platform: What is Power BI?
3. Microsoft Power Platform: Using Power BI on different platforms / devices
4. Microsoft Power Platform: Introduction to Power Automate (Flow)
5. Power Platform: What are the connectors & triggers in Power Automate?
6. Power Platform: How to use Templates in Power Automate

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See you tomorrow… 🙂

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Disclaimer: I create content about Office / Microsoft 365. Content is accurate at time of publication, however updates and new additions happen daily which could change the accuracy or relevance. Please keep this in mind when using my blogs as guidelines. And yes, I change my mind all the time as well, because “The only thing that is constant, is change”.
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