SharePoint

Tired of the tediousclick-click-click to convert documents to PDF? If your job involves converting files manually, you know the drill — open the file, export, download. In this post, I’ll show you three ways to use SharePoint Buttons to convert documents to PDF right from your document library, ranging from quick deep links to full Power Automate automation. The Methods at a Glance Method Best For Supports 1. Word Deep Link Quick Print/Save Word only 2. Fast Browser PDF Speed & Preview Word, Excel, PowerPoint 3. Power Automate Full Automation All Office Files Method 1: The Word Print Link This is a simple deep link that opens your Word document directly in “Print Mode” within the browser. From there, you just hit print and save it as a PDF to your local machine. It’s a great entry point, but keep in mind it’s limited to Word documents. ...

Ever needed to programmatically delete files or folders from SharePoint? Whether you’re enforcing data retention policies, cleaning up processed files, or simply keeping your document libraries tidy, the Microsoft Graph API combined with Power Automate makes it straightforward. In this post, I’ll walk you through every step — from obtaining the right IDs to making the DELETE call. Why Automate File Deletion? There are several reasons why one might want to delete a SharePoint file or folder via the Graph API using Power Automate. Firstly, automating deletion can help maintain the organization and cleanliness of a SharePoint site, especially when dealing with temporary or obsolete files. Secondly, it allows for the enforcement of data retention policies by programmatically removing files that are past their retention period. Thirdly, it can be used to streamline workflows by deleting files that have been processed, reducing clutter and potential confusion. ...

Want to automatically add comments to Microsoft List items using Power Automate? In this post, I’ll show you how to use the SharePoint REST API to both post a comment and read ALL comments on a list item — including how to handle the tricky mentions array. Surprisingly, adding a comment is a single action, reading all comments into a convenient format when there is tagging involved, is rather complex as tagging is handled by a separate array. The SharePoint REST API is well documented here as are the Microsoft List comment features, like the ability to tag and therefore trigger an email, notifying the user of a mention in a list comment. The email is a feature of Microsoft Lists and therefore does not depend on a Flow. If you create a comment on a list item and tag a colleague, they will be emailed with a link direct to the associated item. ...

If you regularly receive emails with attachments that need filing into specific SharePoint folders or sites, this one’s for you. In this post, I’ll show you how to use Power Automate to automatically save email attachments to a custom folder or SharePoint site based on the subject line or file name. This use case was originally inspired by Xerox Docucentres, which enable end-users to email themselves a scanned document — but it applies equally to any routine email with attachments. This can be achieved relatively easily and would save you a lot of routine administration time. ...

Need to dynamically pull the choice values from a SharePoint column into your Power Automate flow? There’s a handy but little-known REST endpoint in the SharePoint API that makes this straightforward. In this post, I’ll show you how to call it and format the results into a clean array for use in your Cloud Flow. The SharePoint REST Endpoint Here is an example Choice Column in SharePoint: Using the endpoint http://myserver/_vti_bin/ListData.svc where myserver is the SharePoint site URL, you will retrieve an XML formatted list of all collections of information available on this site. Here you can browse a list of the various data collection names. ...

Invited an external guest into your Microsoft Team only to find they can’t access any files? You’re not alone — this is one of the most common SharePoint and Teams issues I come across. In this post, I’ll show you exactly why it happens and how your SharePoint admin can fix it, including a PowerShell script for those tricky private channel scenarios. “We can’t get your files. We’re working on getting them back” ...

Off the back of my Power Platform Quiz concept where I first used the HTTP API, I have built a solution that in real-time will dynamically serve up files hosted on SharePoint, also using the HTTP API in Power Automate! I first learned about this possibility whilst in discussion with Paul at TachyTelic. This is a working proof of concept and I would love to get your feedback. Imagine that you create documents that need to be served up to the public via your website. You might have version control on these and you might want approval. Quite often the file would be saved to a traditional server or onto a SharePoint document library and then comes the time of publishing. You get in contact with your web team, you send them a copy of the document and they publish the file to the website for you. What happens next? You spot a typo and you need to edit the file and have the Web Team republish that file via the corporate content management system. How much time would you spend on this process each time? ...

Need to combine data from multiple sources — like Excel tables and SharePoint lists — into a single array in Power Automate? In this post, I’ll show you how to create a one-to-one relationship between non-relational data sources using a single Apply to Each loop, filter arrays, and a compose trick to build a clean JSON array for the next stage of your flow. Data Sources Excel Sheet contains two tables of data that are related by the ID ...