Day: May 16, 2024

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1.

The 9th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is view two action properties panes simultaneously.

Makers can view two action properties panes simultaneously, facilitating copying and moving values, comparing the properties across two actions, and taking a screenshot of the flow.

Enabled for: –
Public Preview: –
Early Access: May 2024
General Availability: Jan 1900

Feature Details

With this feature, you can pin an action properties pane, which allows you to open another action pane side-by-side to the pinned one. This allows you to easily compare the properties of one action to another. You can also copy values across panes and take screenshots of the flow.

My Opinion

This enhancement sounds like it should be very useful. I’ve had a few flows recently where I wanted to copy settings from one action to another and found only having one property pane open at a time very frustrating.

This post is part of the New Functionality In Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1 series in which I am taking a look at the new functionality introduced in Microsoft Power Automate 2024 Wave 1.

The 8th of the new functionality in the Cloud Flows section is create Power Automate flows in Excel.

Makers can quickly create useful flows from the Automate tab in Excel. Excel is one of the most popular data tools in the world, with hundreds of millions of people using it for work and personal purposes across various industries. It has advanced features for teamwork, simplicity, flexibility, and automation. Power Automate simplifies the automation of tasks and processes from Excel.

Enabled for: Users, automatically
Public Preview: –
Early Access: –
General Availability: Jun 2024

Feature Details

This feature improves the Automate work button by adding ready-made templates to the ribbon that give access to prebuilt templates and let users make workflows easily and quickly. This feature helps users start quickly in Excel. The prebuilt templates allow users to make workflows by entering information into the parameters. Makers can also view and manage their flows from Excel.

My Opinion

On balance this is probably a good addition, but I think that organisations need to have a clear plan about by whom and how Power Automate flows will be built, and ensure they stick to best practice around ALM (Application Lifecycle Management).