Power Automate - From SharePoint to Word

In this video we will grab data from a SharePoint Online List and populate a Word Template Document using Power Automate. The Document creation will be triggered by a Choice Column in SharePoint where the user can select if the document is ready for creation or not.
If you want to learn more about Power Automate in cooperation with SharePoint, you are welcome to follow the channel and subscribe to the playlist here: • Power Automate & Share...
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[@shanlera61]

Oh my! How wonderful. It took me some time to get this to work for me, but that is because I have never worked with Power Automate. I now believe I understand the processes and am so excited to experiment with other flows that I have in mind.

[@bobbirowlett6728]

This showed me things that I didn't realize you could do. This is a way not to have to pay for premium connectors. Really appreciate that! Thanks for making it so easy to follow and sharing the information wealth with all!

[@Enea]

Happy I could help Bobbi! :)

[@djdoctordealer]

Thank you so much! This was a HUGE help for me!

[@BrianDufort]

This was VERY helpful. Thank you!!

[@andmanrique86]

Great video, Thank for your time!!!!

[@izidorrojs4838]

A smart solution to overcome the fact that populate word is now a premium step.

[@vitoriacarolinadeoliveira7167]

Great work, this video helped me a lot!!! Thank you so much.

[@Enea]

Happy to help Vitoria :)

[@jennifercollier3218]

So useful - I've been looking for a replacement for Word Mail Merge for some time now - thank you

[@luismartinezmadriz2097]

Thanks! Super useful and clear.

[@Enea]

Thank you, subscribe if it helped. Would mean a lot :)

[@haris0akku]

Amazing flow

[@edifurqon3154]

Thanks bro, nice informative video

[@sorafarron937]

thank you so much for this tutorial! I used it and it worked well. I have a Q. How do I update the word document to include more sharepoint columns to my existing one?

[@tubez29]

Very informative. I would have liked to hear more about the caveats. For example, what field types are not supported (Rich text, multi values, lookups?), etc. That would be even more helpful.

[@izidorrojs4838]

All field types are supported :)

[@hustlahhh1790]

Big thanks, well done

[@Enea]

Thank you, subscribe if it helped. Would mean a lot :)

[@mannymorales7913]

Thanks so much for sharing!

[@Enea]

Thank you!

[@VongsiLoryongpao]

Good one, thanks for sharing

[@Enea]

No worries, happy to help Vongsi :)

[@Ludgard]

Excelente, muito bom!

[@Enea]

Thanks :)

[@houcinecharbouni633]

Many thx

[@bernadettepaterson6867]

Wow !!!!!

[@noeldillane4570]

Thank you - great video. This works very well until you try to add the contents of a multi-Select Choice field. You need to create some kind of loop to add this. Would really love to see a video on how to do this, tks N

[@gauravguliani358]

This approach doesn't work when quick parts are used because Word Online still doesn't support them. I have to follow an alternate approach or end up with VBA which I hate. Thanks for the tutorial though- I liked it, enjoyed it and learnt from it- the voice can me more loud though, but it's manageable and understandable as you are not a native speaker, even I am not. Good luck with channel, keep posting

[@Enea]

Thanks for your comment Gaurav, this approach works for Word desktop not for Word web. The video is one of my older ones, I think I have improved a little bit. Thanks for the feedback, take care

[@StephanOnisick]

Nice Tutorial. Without Word online showing the fields that makes it kind of a bummer for people to see what is in the document--doesn't it? Or did I miss something.

[@Noah_Oye]

Thank you so much. Though I have a challenge, the word document did not edit with the information provided after using plain text content. Can you assist please?

[@cedrictay3679]

for the SharePoint list, am I able to link it to (multiple) word files and generate them?

[@anamahmed2765]

Hi Enea, when using QuickParts, the Person (user) field from SharePoint List is not getting populated in Document Property due to which I cannot enter it as a placeholder on the Word template. I am sure if this was a text field in the List, it would get populated using Quick Parts. I am wondering why the Person field is not available in the Document Property.

[@brandtsmith5621]

Nice Enea! Is it possible to use Content Types instead of a 2nd library for template docs?

[@Enea]

Haven’t tried yet, cool idea. Might give it a shot on a future video :)

[@anamahmed2765]

Hi Enea, great content as usual. I tried using this flow to populate items from a SharePoint List to a Document Library. The flow saves without any errors however, it is not getting run even when I run it manually by updating the item in the list. Any idea what I might be missing?

[@anamahmed2765]

I figured it out! I was using the incorrect connector that was only to trigger when an item in the list was modified as opposed to item being created/modified. Thanks for all the clear instructions.

[@rxang9759]

Thanks for this tutorial. I am facing an issue at the "create file" step. It kept showing the following error, "JSON.parse: bad escaped character at line 1 column 1996 of the JSON data"

[@Enea]

Sorry but I am not familiar with this error. If you have done everything like in the tutorial it should work. Check again otherwise try to recreate the flow. Hope you will resolve this. Good luck!

[@susanclark1778]

Thanks for the video! I created this flow and trigger is based on a button in Power Apps - this Power App button edits my row to change the Create Document field to Yes. Do you have a recommendation to then flip this field back to No automatically, can I do this in the Flow? I seem to be getting an error about creating an infinite loop in my flow and won't allow me to add an 'update item' step into the same flow. Any help appreciated.

[@Enea]

Hi, you are welcome! Add another choice column and name it “UpdatedByFlow” with a Yes and No option and No as default. After the flow has run, you should be able to enter a last update item action which will turn your “Create Document” column to No and your “UpdatedByFlow” to Yes. In the trigger conditions you need to set it to be triggered only if “UpdatedByFlow” equals No. This might still warn you about the infinite loop but just ignore it

[@erelozen7735]

Is it possible to use an image instead? On the list can you have one of the columns be an image, and somehow copy that into a Single text column on the sent word doc library?

[@Enea]

Hi, unfortunately not with the standart connectors. There is a "Populate a Microsoft Word template" connector that allows you to do it, but its premium.

[@mehdielghozail9633]

Great demonstration ! I have a question please, What if we want to import photos from SharePoint list to word ? (and the photo is loaded in an image type column)

[@Enea]

I have not tested it with images yet, not sure if that is possible tho. Might test it in a future video :)

[@mehdielghozail9633]

@@Enea OK thank you ! I would be eager to see that video :)

[@Enea]

@@mehdielghozail9633 Hi, unfortunately uploading images in word is not possible with the standart connectors. There is a "Populate a Microsoft Word template" connector that allows you to do it, but its premium.

[@mohamedaronababacarcamara3571]

Hello I have an issue... I update my file properties. When I open the work document, I see that the properties are there and well updated. But in the body of the document, the field are empty. Who can help please?

[@aisyaharimurti]

i have question : when i try to move the template to document template folder, there is a pop up message " the contain of file or folder properties will be lost in the new destination" why this happened?

[@davidpippen6898]

Excellent video, with this work with rich-text fields?

[@Enea]

I am afraid not. But give it a try

[@davidpippen6898]

@@Enea Thanks, I gave it a try and it did not work. I think I will just export the list then use VBA to populate the list.

[@reneenyong4638]

Hii sir! thanks for the great video! wanted to ask is there any way to generate template based on user choice 1. user fill up a microsoft form to select which template they want 2. there is a sharepoint that will locate over 1000 of word templates 3. based on user choice, the word template will be populated with their information And the placeholder for all templates is the same i am facing trouble to handle the dynamicfileschema, it would be great if you can do a vid on this topic! thanks a lot

[@pallavis3675]

Hey, I have written same logic in my flow. However the date adding in the form was 1 day back. Any idea?

[@Enea]

No sure, but I would quick fix it in Power Automate by adding on day 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@alejandrozurita9075]

Hi! I need to be able to export Sharepoint pages to word. It's possible? All the tutorials I see are about exporting lists. This is something we normally did with Atlassian Confluence. Thanks!

[@Enea]

Hi, which part of the page do you need to export? Since a SP page is a collection of information from other places (SP lists, Libraries, etc) you can either export the data from those locations, or export a printed view of the SP page. There is no way to export the page dynamically

[@alejandrozurita9075]

@@Enea What bad news are you giving me. The print view is not the best option because you cannot put a client template to make the result pleasant. We worked with Confluence for several years and it was as simple as going to the menu and exporting to pdf or word (kzbin.info/www/bejne/iKbOZZKXqdeViNk). THANKS! Sorry for my English

[@lacho3710]

Love this, is there a same way to excel?

[@Enea]

Yes, there is an excel connector in Power Automate for this use case 👍🏻

[@michellepobre5747]

Hi. Very informative. Would you know if there was a way to populate a Word table with repeating sections from a SharePoint List? For example, throughout the day there are multiple data entries in my SharePoint list. At the end of the day, I would like to take all information for the day and populate that information into one word table.

[@Enea]

Thanks! Does it have to be word? If you need your SP data in a table outside of word, your are much better off with Excel. I have videos on how to export data from SP to Excel tables.

[@michellepobre5747]

@@Enea Yes. I'm hoping to place it into an word template.

[@Enea]

@@michellepobre5747 let me have a look into it and let you know. There are unfortunately a lot of limitations on what we can do with standard connectors and word…

[@michellepobre5747]

@@Enea Yes, you're right. I know I'm able to populate repeating sections with the Premium word connector, but trying to see if there is a work around instead.

[@heatherchambers4570]

Hi Enea - love this video, thank you for sharing! I'm stuck on something weird happening with 3 columns in my list that are Choices (using drop-down menu option to select them because User can pick multiple). In the Powerautomate flow at the Update File Properties step, when I add any of these columns, Powerautomate adds an 'Apply to Each' loop. I ended up with 3 nested Apply To Each loops and can't figure out how to stop this happening. Do you have any tips you could share please? In the File Properties in the Sent Docs library, those columns only have one of the choices (the last one). So it looks like it's cycling through them and overwriting the previous one each time. I guess I'll try converting the list value to a string? Also, the fields in the document are not populating. I'm going to try recreating the template again and see if I can fix that though.

[@yuj.9319]

I got the exact same issues with yours, have you figured out?

[@mardithpascua8112]

Hello, I would like to ask if is it possible to attach also the Images/Pictures in the templated Doc??

[@Enea]

Hi, unfortunately not with standard connectors. There are premium connectors that can do that

[@anthonysaiz1890]

Hello, Thank you for the video !! Its possible to make an other action, to transforme the docx file in pdf instead send the docx file, send a pdf file?

[@Enea]

Sure, follow this instructions: spknowledge.com/2020/09/26/power-automate-convert-word-document-to-pdf/

[@saherkhatani]

By creating this flow, would I be able to convert the word document to PDF?

[@Enea]

No this will create the Word document. You can extend this flow so that in the next step it does the conversion

[@ameirafitriah5665]

Hi, I want to ask. I have a little problem in "Condition" part where "Create Document Value" is not appear, how to overcome this. When this not appear it will not fully successful

[@Enea]

Hi, Create Document is a choice column I created in the SharePoint List and it has two values, yes/no. Check if you might have missed that step

[@ameirafitriah5665]

@@Enea okay i got it. Thank you!

[@Enea]

Thank you, subscribe if it helped. Would mean a lot :)

[@dabketroop]

How do you extract SharePoint multi-select Person or Group field text values in MS Word? I have a person Column Field called PersonTeam the user can select a multi name. I added the field in my MS Word template, but running my flow only gives me a single name, not the multi names in SharePoint. Any help or suggestion, please note that in my flow, I created an Initialize variable (Array) and then Apprned to an Array variable

[@Enea]

A multiselect person column is a table and cannot be written as simple since there are multiple values. Since you have already created a variable with the values from the person column, write that array in a new text column in SharePoint and use that in word. Quick and dirty. Otherwise I am not sure it can be done

[@dabketroop]

@@Enea Thank you for the quick reply, I will try this. Much appreciated.

[@peertube1]

Hi Enea, i am stuck on one more thing. I figured out a lot but now i am stuck. I have one column with a choice and the option to fill in multiple choices. And now at the 'update file properties' i got stuck.... Do you know a solution pls.? When i choose for 'item Value' i get a extra action with a header 'apply to each'.

[@Enea]

Hi, are you updating an item with values from a get items action? If yes this will always create an apply to each. If you are sure it will always be one item, ignore it and continue with your flow.

[@peertube1]

@@Enea I need to have more items (mutiple choices). When i choose item value in the 'update file properties i can fill in multiple choices but in my word doc i only get one chosen option and not two. Where do i go wrong? When in update file properties and the 'apply to each' pops up a field with 'select an output from previous steps also pops up.

[@Enea]

@@peertube1 reach out to me on Facebook and send me some screenshots. It is dificult to follow from pure text :) Here is my account: facebook.com/eneailias.licaj/

[@carabaker9540]

@@Enea I am having the same issue as @Peer. Were you able to come up with a solution?

[@Enea]

@@carabaker9540 he never reached out to me :)

[@GiuseppeDAscia]

hi, how do I bypass the 255 character limit? if characters exceed that value power automate fails

[@Enea]

That is for single line of text fields. Use multiline fields

[@GiuseppeDAscia]

@@Enea thanks for replying. I tried but it doesn't work, I think it's just a limitation of the file properties :(

[@tainaalves61]

I followed all the steps and verified the process, which was ok and running succesfully, but still I'm not receiving the e-mail neither the file is being edited with the infos I had provided :/

[@Enea]

well whats the error then, can you check?

[@bedo7948]

Hello, does this also work with a picture column?

[@Enea]

As of my knowledge, no

[@bedo7948]

Thank you for the quick answer!@@Enea

[@mad-max-music-]

could some one please let me know how to update Check Boxes in Word/excel using SharePoint !

[@Enea]

Hi, you can use the same method. I have tested it with Yes/No column

[@peertube1]

I do not have the option "create document value" in the condition.

[@Enea]

Check minute 3:00, you might have forgotten to create the Choice Column “create document”

[@peertube1]

@@Enea Thanks voor your response. I will check it and let you know

[@peertube1]

@@Enea YES!!! thanks that was the error. I only have an error sending the e-mail now.

[@Enea]

Thank you, subscribe if it helped. Would mean a lot :)

[@aisyaharimurti]

what if we make changes to the list but we already generate the word file. will the contain of the word automatically change according to the newest update we make to the list?

[@Enea]

No it will not. As of my knowledge, there is no live connection between them…

[@aisyaharimurti]

@@Enea if i want to make that happened what type of flow i need to add to this existing flow? do you have any suggestions?

[@Enea]

@@aisyaharimurti I dont think that can be done to be honest, because you will have also other information already written in your document. So replacing the document whenever you do any changes to the columnsin SharePoint wouldnt work since then you would be missing the plain text you had in your word document. I am not sure if that can be done at all. Maybe with third party applications? I will do some research and let you know :)

[@aisyaharimurti]

@@Enea oh thankyou so much! 🙏

[@karshoony]

Hello Enea. Very nice video and useful. I have followed your steps but unfortunately when the email is sent, the file is arriving in an unknown format and non-readable. Any idea why is this happening? Do you think that we can add another step and convert the Word file to PDF and send it by email? Thanks a mill and well done :)

[@Enea]

Hey Tony, thanks! You might be missing the file type at the end of the create file step. But yes, you can convert the file to pdf first. That can be done by saving it in OneDrive and then converting it (Its a OneDrive action). Let me know if you need any further help

[@karshoony]

@@Enea hi Enea. Thank you for your prompt response. I did put the .docx as you said in the video but it is still not working :(. As for the PDF, I can do all in the same flow and then then send the user a PDF file instead of Word? Your support is much appreciated.

[@karshoony]

@@Enea just for your information I am using the "Send an email V2" and not the "Send an email notification". Do you think that matters? Because, when I am putting send an email notification, it's giving me an error saying that I don't have the rights to do so. Thanks

[@Enea]

@@karshoony it shouldn’t make any difference. Yes you can do all that before the “send an email” step. But first you should get the word file working, because if you are missing something and the file is not created properly, then the “convert to pdf” action will fail as well!

[@karshoony]

@Enea ah too bad :(. I am following every step in the video. The file is getting created on SP library and working properly but when sent by email it's becoming unknown format:(. Any chance I can share with you the flow? Thanks a mill

[@aisyaharimurti]

can a template get data from two different list?

[@Enea]

Maybe by syncing two lists into one and then using that for the template.

[@aisyaharimurti]

@@Enea syncing means look up column?

[@Enea]

You can try that as well but you can set up a flow to sync two SP lists with each other. I have a video on how to do that as well

[@yungga2281]

Can i do from words to sharepoint list?

[@Enea]

Yes you can, try converting the file to an xml file (just change the ending from .docx to .xml via Power Automate) and then you can extract the values with a xml function in a compose action in Power Automate. After you have the values you can save them in a SharePoint List

[@yungga2281]

Thank you!