Export Power BI to MS Word / PDF | Paginated reports with Power Automate and Power BI

[@markclancy]

Thank you so much for this detailed walk-through. The effort you put in to create the content is apparent! I was able to use this technique to extract data from a Fabric Lakehouse and perform a "mail-merge" to Word. For those watching the video, two things that took me awhile to understand: • If your dataset is simpler (i.e. one row per Word document) and you don't require the embedded table in Word, you don't need the step to populate the array. • You must select rows from a table prior to clicking the button. If you just edit the button and click "Run", it will produce no output (since there's effectively no input).

[@CurbalEN]

Thanks for the input !

[@scronmiller]

You are the BEST Ruth! Do you have a video that demonstrates how to email created pdf's (ie invoices) to a group of customers using PowerBI Pro and Flow?

[@Wolverius]

Please do not remove this video I will need it so much in few months. Also, congratulations, very good content.

[@CurbalEN]

I will keep it :)

[@clacby]

Extraordinary! Thank you so much for sharing all the twists and turns on this method. It is a great solution to print out a report that does not fit a single PBI canvas page, for example.

[@CurbalEN]

Wonderful to hear!

[@swathirasagna1741]

Can you plz plz make a clear video of using RDL migration tool for migrate SSRS reports to Power BI. I’m eagerly waiting for your videos.. you are my first and best PBI teacher 👩‍🏫

[@jamesc330]

All of these videos are great. Your content is extremely helpful and practical

[@CurbalEN]

Wonderful to hear!

[@MV-us8lw]

Thank you thank you thank you for sharing! I used your info this morning and noticed one thing. In my case I didn't need the step "Append to array variable" as the array was already correct with the initialization step. When performing that append step, all lines were doubled in my Word table, so I just skipped that part.

[@CurbalEN]

Uhhh, I like the sound of that. Have you try it myself, thanks!

[@Anuj-pt1il]

Me too

[@rajamahendrareddyvangala114]

Great video Ruth! Did you notice the report or the word document generated has duplicate entries! I followed your video and my report generated has duplicate values similar to yours. Can you post a fix here?

[@augustroitsch9147]

I second this comment. The flow works beautifully but it adds duplicate (and empty) rows below the rows of data in the table. Is there an update to this video?

[@teresaaitchisonmagnasapbi295]

Hi! I am facing the same issue - did anyone find a solution by now?

[@eduardoferreira9715]

Estou passando pelo mesmo problema, alguem conseguiu resolver?

[@manchitas997]

Same here, its there any fix?

[@scenicadventuresnzl]

I accidentally populated the array variable on initiation. This caused blank rows to be added to my table. I removed the json on variable initiation and just appended in the Apply For All Loop.

[@TheMerlino68]

Thank you so much! I'm becaming crazy to get a good result using PBI Paginated Report based on PBI Dataset, now I can explore a different way to get a PDF/Word report from Power BI with automate. Maybe you saved my mental health. May I ask you how I could populate multiple array structures with power automate in order to fill different table in my word Template?

[@CurbalEN]

You probably can but I haven’t done it

[@JoseMartinez-qt8qw]

Great video, thanks for the tutorial. Im having trouble matching the colums ID on minute 7:27 with the flow. You mention to look down on the selection but not even on your selections appears. I think Im lost some where hehe. Can you please guide how you match "OrderID", "Product name" ... :D

[@money_wins_controls]

hi , where is the word template to edit , did u again do that from scratch ?

[@JoseMartinez-qt8qw]

@@money_wins_controls Hello, yes I did it from scratch. When she starts to explain the word document I hit pause a couple of time to get it right.

[@diegohcandrade]

Hi, I'm having the same problem, could you figure it out?

[@CurbalEN]

I think they changed something that forces the each but haven’t tested it myself. Check on the power automate community to be sure.

[@qcoats]

Thank you for sharing this. I'm just getting started with any automation and it is really exciting. I love how you can see the excitement in your videos of how you love what you do. I agree.....it's really cool stuff!!! Thanks again for sharing.

[@CurbalEN]

My pleasure!

[@karivengasaho2601]

Thank you great video 😀How do you do json input data, video point around 7:00 (Append to rray variable value)?

[@peya02]

did you find the solution?

[@LeghrandDeJesus]

thank you for this content! I am excited to apply this to my workplace! Thank you Ruth!

[@ahsanrossi4328]

Thanks for your nice video. Is there any video for extracting excel in a required format or template from power bi?

[@moadbouzida6693]

AM I DREAMING ??? thanks a lot you are incredible

[@CurbalEN]

You are not, it truly works 😃😃😃

[@alexanderrubanenko3697]

Hey Curbal, thanks for you videos....I know you have done a lot of similar videos but can you create a video to use Power Automate to export report from Paginated Report to sharepoint? It seems to be quite challenging when there are parameters involve

[@MrTC-rv3jo]

Were you able to do this process? I'm also looking for doing something similar

[@AkhtarHussain-ct2hr]

Thank you so much, excellent contents, if I may suggest few things that would improve your presentation even more. 1). If you could make your pointer larger or highlight it, so its easier to follow you. 2). if you press any short cut key on your keyboard that are not obvious, if you could say it what you pressed to get those function, it would help a ton to follow you . Again thank you, contents are excellent.

[@CurbalEN]

Thanks!

[@ximenaandreaalvarez9424]

Muchas gracias Ruth por el detallado camino que describers para lograr exportar a reportes en Word. ¡Tuve que cambiar el idioma a inglés porque utilizo mi Office365 en español!!

[@CurbalEN]

Genial que te funciono, bien hecho 👏

[@fashion-girl3680]

Wonderful tutorial, thank you so much! I tried to apply it but I meet some troubles. Do you know what is the formula to return the power BI values (OrderID, ProductName, Quantity, UnitPrice) ? I didn’t find my own data in the automatically selection Thanks for your reply

[@money_wins_controls]

hi , where is the word template to edit , did u again do that from scratch ?

[@diegohcandrade]

Hi, I'm having the same issue, could you get it?

[@hugobaur]

OMG! Thanks! Can I do this for each company automatically? N PDFs one for each company?

[@manchitas997]

This is awesome, thank you so much for teaching me how to use power bi im getting great feedback from my work, i was wondering if there’s a chance to export graphics from power bi with automate for my pdf reports

[@sneakeraplus]

Is there a way to create nested tables as a word template.. For example. One product in first column, two sub product names in the second column, and then each sub product can have a bunch of rows of their own in the third column.... And how could we populate this template using PBI and power automate.? Thank you for all the help.

[@CurbalEN]

Never done it, so not sure. Try asking in the power automate community!

[@mubeenniaz9095]

Fantastic, A query here, How do I treat a column as other column's data header like matrix chart?

[@douglasbrito2921]

Hi Ruth, Thanks for that. I think there is a limitation of 1000 rows to export using this approach isn't it ? Thanks

[@CurbalEN]

Yes, for now :(

[@kawitajagai5632]

Thank you for sharing!!! It's looks pretty helpful. Though I was trying it this morning and seems that it's not working for me. I get the following error, not sure what's going wrong: "The input body for trigger 'manual' of type 'Request' did not match its schema definition. Error details: 'Required properties are missing from object: entity.'."

[@manipav0077]

Amazing video. I tried it on a report that embedded in our client's website. But it is not working. Is there any work around ?

[@vrushabhwandhare4950]

Thank you for the video. For some reason, power automate does not show any of flow templates or any one that i had created before. Can you help?

[@samson6874]

Great video, I really enjoy it, one interesting question, can user choose the recipient and send through email without saving in sharepoint, or user even can do subscription ? Thank you!

[@CurbalEN]

If the recipient is the data, then use that as a parameter, it should work!

[@juansepowerplatform]

Thanks, I always saw premium on that word connector so I stayed away from it. I did something similar but used an HTML table instead of the word document. I need to give this a try now 😀

[@CurbalEN]

It works flawlessly!!

[@Ayuu]

Thank you so so much for your tutorial, it helped me a lot! I wonder, do you think it could be possible to integrate this tutorial in a scheduled flow? Instead of a trigger with a pwbi button.

[@olgamelo7056]

Wow Is it Christmas?? This is wonderful, can't wait to try this out. Thank you Ruth for sharing!

[@CurbalEN]

It is! 🎅🎅

[@money_wins_controls]

hi , where is the word template to edit , did u again do that from scratch ?

[@joaoboaventura4759]

Hello Ruth, I have a question, for the flow to work, all the people that click on the button need to have the "premium" permissions or only the person that construct the flow?

[@88packito88]

Great video. Thank you very much. It would be nice to give control to the end user to choose who to send the email to.

[@CurbalEN]

You can do that maybe with a parameter?

[@sivachagaleti6614]

This is simply awesome

[@CurbalEN]

Right? Proper automation :)

[@fistandantilus8638]

Hi Ruth, nice video and very helpful! We're implementing a regulatory document following the same approach, but we find a roadblock. For single fields, or repeated fields (rows) inside a table, like in your example, it's clear. But what about having a line chart in the Word template? Is it possible to populate also the graph using Power Automate? Otherwise, can you take a single object (line chart) from the report and get it populated inside the final Word? Thank you for all you content!!

[@CurbalEN]

This could do it but it is not ideal: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eYjQoqV7lrijqac&ab_channel=Curbal if you have python, do it there instead!

[@hungdang6333]

can use data from fields which are features of New Measure?

[@IconicLemon]

This is great and would help me out massively! Thanks Ruth!

[@CurbalEN]

My pleasure!! So cool to see so many excited 🥳🥳

[@sophiatoh4527]

It's like magic! Thanks Ruth for sharing and explaining :)

[@money_wins_controls]

hi , where is the word template to edit , did u again do that from scratch ?

[@wisid]

Amazing , who needs premium for paginated anyway! Thanks

[@lolao4642]

Mindblowing Ruth! Thank you for this video. Are the pages numbered?

[@CurbalEN]

I am sure word can do that for you ;)

[@LandscapeInMotion]

Great discovery Ruth! Is it possible to put power bi visuals on a word template via flow?

[@CurbalEN]

You could put each visual in a separate report page on the service, create separate subscriptions so they all get emailed, then use Flow (or equivalent) to send the attached png files into Word. Will be messy though...

[@LandscapeInMotion]

@@CurbalEN Yeah that’s a possibility. Also, have you uses Power BI Tile from App Source? It allows you to manually insert PBI visuals in Word template. Then the report becomes “dynamic” inside Word as it’s embedded to a reference of the visual.

[@CurbalEN]

I havent , but thanks for the tip ")

[@jeremiasp5829]

Increíble Ruth, muy bueno! Te consulto ¿se podrá descargar de manera local ese archivo docx. o pdf, sin tener que pasar por el sharepoint? Gracias

[@CurbalEN]

Pues no lo he hecho, así que no te se decir :(

[@spen2431]

Ruth. You make it look so easy. 💥💥💥💥 I have an issue where I have a very similar dataset, BUT, when adding the JSON format i end up with a nested Apply to each and after 20mins of the flow running just cancelled it... any ideas? (I will post here if/when i sort it!)

[@scenicadventuresnzl]

I faced the same issue. Not sure if this is the best way, but it worked... I initialised a variable for each of my repeating table columns . I set each variable with the PowerBI field (in the ApplyToEach), then referenced my variable in the JSON table rather than the PowerBI field.

[@ronnieschneider8643]

​@@scenicadventuresnzl would you mind posting a screenshot(s) of that? I am having the issue with multiple blank lines and I wonder if this will help. Thanks!

[@DiogoHSLenzi]

Amazing Content! Thamk you Soooooooooo much!!! Cheers from Brazil! :D

[@CurbalEN]

👏👏👏

[@dannyhometown]

Happy Monday, this is really a good one🥇. It seems the premium license of Power Automation is also very critical. Recently, I am struggling with the Dataflow of Power Platform (feature of Premium). 🤔

[@CurbalEN]

Haven't used that yet, so I am afraid I can't help with that :( Love this one too!!

[@ishaqsikder4391]

Thanks and it's really good job...

[@CurbalEN]

:)

[@rizwanriz7455]

Gday Ruth, Thanks for the video on paginated report. I was wondering if could have series on this topic such as how to convert SSRS reports in to paginated power bi reports using data driven subscription . Also if possible a video on creating a flow on converting SSRS agent jobs. and output as PDF report with row level Secuirty topic. Many thanks

[@CurbalEN]

I dont work with SSRS, so I cant help you. Maybe Guyinacube? Ask them!

[@rizwanriz7455]

@@CurbalEN sure will do thanks!

[@lakshitjain225]

Hi mam, I have an office 365 e3license , just wanted to know can we use All power automate premium connectors using it

[@petervanlierop3431]

Hi Ruth, very nice and interesting. I’ve tried several times according to your steps however the Word and PDF files are not populated with data and also for each one file. The flow is succeeded. Do you have any suggestions?

[@CurbalEN]

Post your flow on the power automate community to see if someone can spot the issue

[@fearrarirf]

Woww amazing vídeo! Does this works with a large quantity of rows (>1000?) I'm struggling with the button connector because the array doesn't exports more than 1000 rows. Do you know some workaround? Thanks!

[@CurbalEN]

No workaround yet :(

[@vida1719]

Great video about this useful tool (Power Automate) and great explanation!

[@CurbalEN]

Thanks Vida!

[@money_wins_controls]

hi , where is the word template to edit , did u again do that from scratch ?

[@norbione]

Great video , Thank you Ruth! Any ideas to export the visuals in word as well ? :D

[@CurbalEN]

As I mentioned in another comment, maybe with power bi service subscriptions you can do that?? Try it!

[@anthonyanyoti]

Great video, have so many use cases-grateful😁

[@CurbalEN]

I can imagine !!

[@mikeeb8530]

Hi there, I’m getting stuck at the append variable stage… every time I link a field to a PowerBI data field it automatically changes the append ‘name’ from my variable to PowerBI data and sets a new ‘for each’ statement. What am I doing wrong?

[@Chirchiq-Chemical-Quality]

DID YOU FIND SOLUTION?

[@DanielBesmer]

Great! Thank you very much!

[@barnabascheeseman-buckley1675]

Hello, thank you for a fantastic tutorial, this is going to be so useful. I have implemented this solution, however I have run into some trouble with it. The table within the filled in template is proceeded by just as many blank lines before the imputed data. I have checked my JSON output and it is all correct. Is this something you have come across? Thanks again for your great videos!

[@CurbalEN]

No, I havent. Are you sure your data does not have blanks?

[@barnabascheeseman-buckley1675]

@@CurbalEN I re-checked the JSON output from the append to array variable step, and found that a mismatch of variables which caused the data to 'double up' incorrectly. Seems to have solved the issue! Many thanks for your help and your fantastic channel!

[@CurbalEN]

Yey!! Well done 👏

[@money_wins_controls]

hi , where is the word template to edit , did u again do that from scratch ?

[@sneakeraplus]

This is great . Thank you..

[@bahattab]

thanks for your tutorial I hope you can put direct links for the files that you are using thanks again

[@CurbalEN]

Not possible , I am afraid,it is too difficult to maintain afterwards :(

[@prateekvarshney8257]

it is a very nice options and I am waiting for these options

[@CurbalEN]

Test it, works like a charm!!

[@tianshen65]

Everything works well except the table always has blank rows before the correct data is displayed. If 50 rows are displayed, there are 50 blank rows on the top. Any advise is greatly appreciated.

[@sravankumar1767]

How to do validations in power BI for report data, can you please explain

[@Chirchiq-Chemical-Quality]

WHERE YOU GET JSON??????????????????

[@VladMZ]

Really cool and useful. Thank you, Ruth!

[@CurbalEN]

My pleasure!!

[@gonzalorengifo1031]

Muy buena técnica Ruth

[@CurbalEN]

Gracias!

[@Danny-cd7cu]

This is fun and helpful, thanks Ruth :)

[@mubeenniaz9095]

If you have 2 CompanyNames and you want see two sheets for eachCompanyName, how would you do that??

[@sambasivarao576]

Great video, Looking forward for more like this.

[@CurbalEN]

Me too 😁😁

[@peya02]

Hello! The video is great but I have a small problem when I start the variable, when I start the variable with the power bi table data and then go through that data, it duplicates it. It is normal?

[@fernandolozerdesouza4107]

Thanks, you are the best!

[@CurbalEN]

You too!!

[@juliob.p.4456]

can you export a grafic from power bi to word??

[@powerbiisrael6819]

Thanks Ruth!!

[@mahi0430]

Hi Ruth, I have a Paginated report which has 5 cascading parameters and all of those are multiselect (the last one being the address field - multiselect again). I added a Power BI dataset to this report and embedded the paginated report into Power BI report. I am stuck with the URL length limitation (2k chars). Is there any way I can use my Power BI report for users to play with the interactive power BI report and once they have selected all their options in slicers, I can have the same selection carried over to the paginated report and export the excel format? Thanks again!

[@jonathanjedrczak1753]

Thanks for the great video, it's so cool seeing what you can accomplish all with a button inside Power BI. Is there any chance you know if it's possible to do something similar but with visuals?

[@CurbalEN]

Like export the visual not the data?

[@jonathanjedrczak1753]

@@CurbalEN Something like that. Ideally there would be a template word document set up, so the visuals can be exported directly into pre-set locations (like you did with the data). I didn't think it was possible, but this video is the closest thing I've seen to this idea

[@CurbalEN]

Mmmm maybe with subscriptions in the service but it is going to be messy...

[@jonathanjedrczak1753]

Hmmm I can sort of see how that would work. You could put each visual in a separate report page on the service, create separate subscriptions so they all get emailed, then use Flow (or equivalent) to send the attached png files into Word. Is that roughly what you had in mind?

[@CurbalEN]

Exactly that 😄

[@FernandoFrenkel]

Que bueno esto! gracias Ruth!

[@AadelAboobacker]

I can't access the Premium Flows with E5 License, and the Microsft Document says w ehave to purchase the RPA license for Power Automate to get access to the Premium Flows. But how did you happen to get those?

[@CurbalEN]

No idea, I am on an E3 license.

[@herberthsoares8244]

How i get the template of world?

[@AgulloBernat]

would this approach work to generate a flat csv file?

[@CurbalEN]

I have a video for how to export to excel, have you seen it?

[@ljubicar1987]

Interesting topic. But I would like to learn something more about how to use Power Automate. I understand that is a wide topic. In this case I could only replicate what you did, and this business situation is not something I need, but I would like to use it to some others.

[@CurbalEN]

There are a lot of Flow youtubers out there, give them a follow!

[@ljubicar1987]

@@CurbalEN 😁Didn't thought of that! Ok, thanks for the advice.👍

[@proyectopapaya]

Hi i try your solution but my office aaount dont have access to Word for Bussiness Premium, I solve it with the creation of HTML document a convert it into PDF. Thanks for your guide!! You r so beutifull i love your Eyes

[@awadheshdammaniaddy]

Is there a way I can get the WORD doc you have shown in Video. I am not able to download it ??

[@CurbalEN]

My download Center is down at the moment, it will be back up on Jan 10th

[@awadheshdammaniaddy]

@@CurbalEN Is it possible to share it here. I am finding it hard to create that DOC. Developer version is confusing as well in word.

[@CurbalEN]

I am afraid not, the o my copy is in the download Center

[@awadheshdammaniaddy]

@@CurbalEN Thanks Anyways! BTW that Function for First value of Company name is saying invalid in Flow. Overall Your Videos are very valuable content.

[@ahsanrossi4328]

Hi Is it for premium per user or for premium capacity?

[@CurbalEN]

Neither, it works with Pro license

[@ahsanrossi4328]

@@CurbalEN thanks I mean when you say premium in your video , is it premium per user or premium capacity. I actually tried with free trial premium per user but there are some errors

[@cbovikings]

@@ahsanrossi4328 She was referring to premium connectors for Power Automate. This is not related to Power BI Premium.

[@sivaprasadpulikanti4938]

how to export pdf particular pages in power bi

[@calebpennington5310]

Great video and thank you! I might suggest that you remove yourself form the screen. It makes it difficult to track what you're doing at some points in the video.

[@CurbalEN]

Yeah, my editing sometimes is horrible :(

[@Chirchiq-Chemical-Quality]

Why are my numbers displayed as obj?

[@gabrielchavezmo]

Hello Ruth! download center doesnt work :( Help me please :(

[@CurbalEN]

It will be back up on Jan 10th

[@shwetasg6968]

Can we export Power BI to PPT with Power Automate ?

[@CurbalEN]

Yes there is a export step that does it but it requires premium

[@jasonbarnett5039]

At the 7 min mark you make the append to array variable data just "appear" as you whisper something I can't understand. I can't seem to recreate this no matter how many air quotes and whispering I do. Can you help explain why when I try to construct that it adds additional apply to each steps?

[@CurbalEN]

I remember i had some trouble setting some of the parameters so when it worked I just showed the code :(

[@jasonbarnett5039]

@@CurbalEN Thanks for the quick response. Even though I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong it helps to know it was problematic for you too. I'll keep studying it.

[@CurbalEN]

I wish I could had kept the part where ai troubleshooted it, but after a few tries it “suddenly” started working so I didnt have an explanation for what I did to make it work :(

[@ronnieschneider8643]

@@CurbalEN do you have the plain text version of the JSON? I simply cannot get rid of the extra blank lines at the top of my table. (Great resource, I'm inspired, now I just need perfection!)

[@ronnieschneider8643]

Blank lines: I had paragraph breaks in my template. Removed those, and the extra blank lines went away. Now, every row repeats.

[@shadyhowidi7862]

I followed every single step of this tutorial and every time I run the flow the word file comes empty !

[@diegohcandrade]

Hi, I couldn't get how you do the json inside the append to construct the array (07:00), when I try to put the outputs form PowerBI it keeps inserting "Apply to each" structures into my flow. Can anyone help with this?

[@Chirchiq-Chemical-Quality]

DID YOU FIND SOLUTION????

[@jozw126]

Since when the subtitle is gone?

[@CurbalEN]

Only when I publish it too close to the go live time. If you come back in 1-2hrs you will see the subtitles.

[@Wzxxx]

I wish it was better explained not an instruction. It seems that all this flows stuff is just made for a developers who created this as nobody understand how to use it. Tons of options and you need to search for them - so u need to know what to search for. Extremely counterintuitive. I think i am smart but it is not made for a user like most things form ms. Can be super useful but there is no way to learn it.