Power Automate Tutorials: Learn Cloud Flows, Expressions and Desktop Flows

This page lists all 317 Power Automate tutorials on EnjoySharePoint, grouped by task. They are written by Bijay Kumar (13-time Microsoft MVP) and Preeti Sahu (Microsoft MVP), and every flow is built and run in a real Microsoft 365 tenant.

You will find cloud flows for SharePoint, Outlook, Teams and Excel, the expressions you need inside them, and desktop flows for Windows. Pick a topic below or follow the learning path.

TopicWhat you will learn
Get started with Power AutomateYour first cloud flows, triggers, error handling
Variables, loops and flow designVariables, Compose, Apply to each, child flows
SharePoint list itemsGet items, filter queries, create and update items
SharePoint files and foldersCreate, copy, move and rename files
SharePoint sites, columns and attachmentsSites, columns, attachments, choice fields
Approval flowsParallel, multilevel, reminders, reassign
Outlook email and notificationsSend an email (V2), HTML tables, reminders
Teams, Microsoft Forms, Planner and Outlook calendarTeams messages, Forms responses, calendar
Excel, CSV, Word and PDF filesExcel rows, CSV, Word templates, PDF
String functionsconcat, substring, split, contains
Replace and clean textreplace(), special characters, line breaks
Arrays and JSONFilter array, Parse JSON, union, sort
Numbers and conversionsint(), float(), number formats
Date and time functionsutcNow, formatDateTime, addDays, time zones
Conditions and OData filter queriesIF, switch, empty checks, OData filters
Power Automate for desktopDesktop flows for Excel, web and PDF
Dataverse, Power BI and comparisonsDataverse, Power BI, Logic Apps
Power Automate errors and fixesCommon errors and how to fix them

What is Power Automate?

Power Automate is Microsoft’s service for automating tasks and business processes across apps and services. It has two main kinds of flows:

Flow typeStarts whenExample
Automated cloud flowAn event happens, such as a new email or a new SharePoint itemSend an email when an item is added to a list
Instant cloud flowSomeone selects a buttonStart an approval from a SharePoint item
Scheduled cloud flowA schedule you setSend a daily report every morning
Desktop flowYou run it, or a cloud flow calls itCopy data from a website into Excel on your PC

You can build a flow from scratch or describe it in plain language with Copilot, which works in the new designer. Read how to use Copilot in Power Automate.

Power Automate limits and licenses you should know

LimitValue
Maximum flow run duration30 days, including steps that wait for approvals
How long an approval can wait28 days; after that the flow fails, but the approval stays in the action center
Apply to each concurrency1 by default; you can set 1 to 50
Do until (Until) loop60 iterations by default, up to 5,000
Run historyKept for 30 days
Inactive flowsA cloud flow that has not triggered for 90 days may be turned off (not for premium or Process license owners)

Source: Limits of automated, scheduled and instant flows and known issues for approvals on Microsoft Learn.

  • Free (work or school account): cloud flows with standard connectors, without sharing, and desktop flows that you run yourself on your PC.
  • Power Automate Premium: adds premium and custom connectors, one attended RPA bot and process mining.
  • Process licenses: unattended bots and flow-level capacity for business-critical processes.
  • Power Automate for desktop comes preinstalled on Windows 11. On Windows Home editions you can build and run desktop flows locally, but not trigger them from the cloud.

Where to start: a Power Automate learning path

  1. Create an automated cloud flow
  2. Create an instant cloud flow
  3. Create a scheduled cloud flow
  4. Get SharePoint items with a filter query
  5. Loop through items with Apply to each
  6. Send an email with Send an email (V2)
  7. Build an approval flow
  8. Add error handling

Get started with Power Automate

Create automated, instant and scheduled cloud flows, use templates, trigger conditions and error handling.

Variables, loops and flow design

The building blocks of every flow: variables, Compose, Apply to each, delays and child flows.

SharePoint list items

Create, get, update and delete SharePoint list items, with Get items filter queries and more than 100 items.

SharePoint files and folders

Create, copy, move, rename and delete files and folders in SharePoint and OneDrive.

SharePoint sites, columns and attachments

Create sites, lists, columns and content types, and work with attachments, choice and multi-select columns.

Approval flows

Build approval flows: multiple approvers, parallel and multilevel approvals, reminders, custom responses and comments.

Outlook email and notifications

Send and process email: Send an email (V2), HTML tables, attachments, shared mailboxes and reminders.

Send email

Process email and attachments

Teams, Microsoft Forms, Planner and Outlook calendar

Post messages and adaptive cards to Teams, save Forms responses, and create Planner tasks and calendar events.

Excel, CSV, Word and PDF files

Read and write Excel tables, convert CSV and XML, fill Word templates and create PDFs.

Excel

CSV, XML and text files

Word, PDF, HTML and images

Expressions and functions

Expressions let you transform data inside a flow. These sections cover text, arrays, numbers, dates and conditions.

String functions

Expressions for text: concat, substring, split, contains, trim and more.

Replace and clean text

Replace characters, remove line breaks and special characters, and clean up strings.

Arrays and JSON

Filter, sort, merge and parse arrays and JSON objects.

Numbers and conversions

Convert strings to numbers, format numbers and currency, and check number types.

Date and time functions

Work with dates: utcNow, formatDateTime, addDays, time zones and date differences.

Conditions and OData filter queries

IF expressions, switch, empty checks and OData filter query operators.

Power Automate for desktop

Automate desktop and web tasks with desktop flows: Excel, PDFs, web data, variables and scheduling.

Dataverse, Power BI and comparisons

Work with Dataverse and Power BI from a flow, and compare Power Automate with Logic Apps and Power Apps.

Power Automate errors and fixes

Fixes for connection, expression, OData and SharePoint errors, and how to restore a deleted flow.

Official Microsoft documentation

More tutorial hubs

Frequently asked questions

What are the types of flows in Power Automate?

There are cloud flows and desktop flows. Cloud flows are automated (they run on an event), instant (they run when someone selects a button) or scheduled (they run on a timetable). Desktop flows automate web and desktop apps on Windows.

How long can a Power Automate flow run?

A flow run can last up to 30 days, including steps that are waiting for approvals. An approval itself can wait for 28 days; after that the flow fails.

Is Power Automate free?

There is a free license for work or school accounts that runs cloud flows with standard connectors, without sharing, and desktop flows on your own PC. Premium and custom connectors need Power Automate Premium or another premium license.

What is the default concurrency of Apply to each?

Apply to each processes one item at a time by default. You can turn on concurrency control and run between 1 and 50 iterations in parallel.

Is Power Automate for desktop included in Windows?

Yes. Windows 11 comes with Power Automate for desktop preinstalled. You can build and run desktop flows locally; triggering them from cloud flows needs a work or school account and the right license.