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A Beginner’s Guide to Microsoft Power Apps

Editor’s note: This post was updated in January 2023.

Power Apps is, fundamentally, a development platform for mobile and web apps. It allows “citizen developers” to reach capabilities that were once only reserved for high-end development tools by enabling low to no code custom application creation.

What’s more, Power Apps is generally quite easy to learn. You can use it to swiftly take charge of your destiny as long as you make the correct decisions when it comes to structuring. Follow this guide to help avoid any nasty surprises.

Table of Contents

What is the power platform for power apps.

• How to Build an App with Microsoft Power Apps – Step 1: Select Your Environment – Step 2: Select Your Power Apps Application Type – Step 3: Select Your Storage Type – Step 4: Connect Your App to an Online or On-Premises Data Source

Microsoft Power Platform is comprised many different applications and tools, but the most used currently are Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps, and Virtual Agent. Microsoft has been increasingly promoting this as a whole. These four services provide tools to manage our digital world where data is king and the basis of any enterprise process. Their applications are as follows:

• You can display and analyze data with Power BI.
• You can act and modify data with Power Apps.
• You can automate data with Power Automate.
• You can create intelligent virtual bots with Virtual Agent.
• You can build low-code business websites with Power Pages.

How to Build an App with Microsoft Power Apps

The simplest way to build a Power Apps app is to start from the data source. This is part one in a three-part process:

• For this example, we could start from a Microsoft list, such as one that stores consulting interventions or pending IT tickets:

2. Next, we’ll select the “ Create an app ” option in the Power Apps menu:

3. This takes us to the Power Apps Studio where we’ll find a fully functional canvas app generated by the system:

Keep in mind that these are just the default choices. They hide a much wider set of available options, configurations, and architectural choices that Power Apps provides. Without further ado, let’s take a more in-depth look!

Step 1: Select Your Power Apps Environment

There are five tools or environments that you can work within Power Apps, and they each have their own capabilities and roles.

Power Apps Website

Here’s a small snapshot of some of the templates that might give you some usage ideas for the app:

Power Apps Studio

Here you’ll be able to design and adapt apps that you create to your specific business needs! Power Apps Studio is specifically for designing, building, and managing canvas apps (which we’ll touch on in the next section).

Power Apps Mobile   App

This handy mobile app is available on both phones (iOS, Android) and tablets (Windows 10). No matter the platform, the app provides a runtime environment where you’ll be able to execute all of your Power Apps apps. This includes the ones that were shared with you as well as the ones you designed and coded yourself.

Power Platform Admin Center

Administrators can manage Power Apps in the Power Platform admin center at admin.powerplatform.com . Here, you have the power to create and manage environments, view key metrics, apply DLP (Data Loss Prevention) policies, adjust user roles, and submit support tickets, among other capabilities.

Microsoft Dataverse for Teams

With Microsoft Dataverse, you can create apps and workflows directly in Microsoft Teams. This fully integrated experience allows app makers to quickly publish, share, and edit apps for anyone on the team to use, without having to switch between multiple services.

Step 2: Select Your Power Apps Application Type

There are a few main types of apps you can create with Power Apps:

• Canvas apps
• Model-driven apps
• Portals (now Power Pages)
• Cards (in preview)

Canvas apps  enable you to organize freely and easily interface by positioning controls and fields in a “pixel-perfect” user experience. The main focus here is bringing your business knowledge and creativity to the app’s design. Canvas apps target  lightweight apps   or even disposable apps that can be designed and used in minutes, all within Microsoft tools where your data lives.

Model-driven apps  are built on top of the  Common Data Services used to help rapidly build forms, processes, and business rules. They focus on targeting  heavier apps that are intended to be used intensively (multiple hours at a time). These types of apps must be built in the Power Apps site.

When working with model-driven apps, a good amount of the layout is determined for you and mostly designated by the components you add to the app. By contrast, the designer has complete control over the app layout in canvas app development.

Power App Portals, which are external-facing websites that allow users outside your organization to sign in with a wide variety of identities, create and view data in the Dataverse, or browse content anonymously, recently became Power Pages.

Cards is currently being previewed as an additional way to create apps in Power Apps. These apps, which Microsoft calls “micro-apps,” are extremely lightweight, allowing you to quickly create cards that surface data through Power Platform Connectors, or use your own business logic for customization. I am sure we’ll hear more about this option as Microsoft continues to develop it.

Step 3: Select Your Storage Type

Power Platform and specifically Power Apps target a world where data is king and the foundation of any business process. Thus, choosing the correct data sources is very impactful when it comes to designing an app.

Data are stored in a data source and you import them in your app by creating a connection.

SharePoint lists and Excel spreadsheets are typically some of the most usual data sources, but there are also more than 200 data connectors available. Power Apps share connectors with Power Automate and Logic apps (the Azure service on top of which Power Automate is built). One of the great strengths of the platform is to provide connectors towards Microsoft world : Microsoft 365 , SQL Server, Azure, etc., as well as towards  external data sources  like Salesforce, Dropbox, and Google Drive.

In Power Apps, a connector can provide data tables, actions, or both. Here’s for example of how a data source to a “Lessons” table can be used in Power Apps:

An action will have to be manually connected to a control to be executed:

Be aware  that the choice of data sources will have an impact on licenses needed to create and execute your app. If you choose or need a Premium source (like Salesforce or Common Data Service), you may need advanced licensing.

Step 4: Connect Your App to an Online or On-Premises Data Source

Power Apps is born in the cloud and can natively connect to cloud data sources. That said, it can connect to on-premises data sources as well. For that to happen you should configure an on-premises data gateway. This gateway is shared between several cloud apps like all the Power Platform (Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps), Azure Analysis Services, and Azure Logic Apps.

At the time of writing, supported data sources by the gateway are:

Here’s hoping these elements will allow you to design better Power Apps for solving your business’ needs.

Recommended Resources

5 Best Practices for Power Platform Management

Copilot for Microsoft 365 Adoption: Why Native Analytics Tools Simply Aren’t Enough

Navigating Microsoft 365 Education Platform Changes: Tips for Improving Storage Management

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The Secret Way To View Word, Excel & PowerPoint Files In Power Apps

• Posted by - Matthew Devaney
• on - January 16, 2022
• 46 Comments

Power Apps has a secret Word, Excel and PowerPoint document viewer hiding in plain sight. It’s actually the PDF viewer. No, the PDF viewer can’t do this by default. But with one-line of code you can use Power Apps PDF viewer to show docx, xlsx, and pptx files instead of pdf files. It is very easy to implement. You just have to know how to do it.

Introduction: Document Viewer App

Employees at an animal hospital user the Document Viewer app to look at Word (docx), Excel (xlsx) and PowerPoint files (pptx). When the employee selects a file from a list it opens to show the full document on the right-side of the app.

Setup The SharePoint Document Library

Create a new SharePoint document library called Document Viewer one of each filetype:

• Word (docx)
• Excel (xlsx)
• PowerPoint (pptx)
• Another filetype not found in the list above

Create A List Of Word, Excel and PowerPoint Files

Open Power App Studio and create a new tablet app from blank. Insert a label at the top of the screen with the text “Document Viewer” to act as titlebar. Then add the Document Viewer SharePoint Document Library to the app as a datasource.

Make a new blank vertical gallery and position it on the left-side of the screen. Choose Document Viewer as the datasource.

This code will appear in the Items property of the gallery.

Next, we will update the style of the gallery.

Use this code in each of these properties in the gallery to achieve the same style as shown in the image above.

Then create 2 new labels and insert them into the gallery.

Write this code in the Text property of the labels to show the document name and the last modified date.

Display Word, Excel and PowerPoint Icons

To make a better looking file explorer we will place an icon beside each filename in the list. Insert a new Image into the gallery and place it on the left-side of the row.

Then we will create the icons Word, Excel and PowerPoint icons with some SVG code.

Copy and paste this long code block into the Image property of the Image. The EndsWith function checks the file extension at the end of the filename. Then it uses the SVG code from this free Power Apps Icon Set to draw the icon.

Add The PDF Viewer Control To The App

Now that we’ve got a list of PDF files to open the next step is to add a pdf viewer control to the app.

Place the PDF viewer so it fills right-side of the screen. It will display Lorem Ipsum text until we supply a it with a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file.

Convert Word, Excel and PowerPoint Files Into A PDF

We will use the PDF viewer to display a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document instead. To do this we must convert the docx, xlsx or pptx file to a pdf. This task can be accomplished in Power Apps with only one-line of code.

Write this code in the Document property of the PDF viewer.

The Document Viewer app is now completed. The app should work as shown below.

How Does The Word, Excel & PowerPoint to PDF Conversion Work?

When we select the thumbnail of a Word, Excel or PowerPoint file from the gallery like this it does not directly return an image.

Instead, it returns the SharePoint API web address that will return an image. This API transforms a docx file into into a thumbnail. Take a look a the code below to see where the words docx and thumbnail appear.

But wait a minute, we need it to return a pdf instead. Using the Substitute function we change the word thumbnail to pdf . Now the API will change the docx into a pdf and we can display it in the PDF Viewer.

That’s how the magic works!

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If you have any questions about The Secret Way To View Word, Excel PowerPoint Files In Power Apps please leave a message in the comments section below. You can post using your email address and are not required to create an account to join the discussion.

Matthew Devaney

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This is a great workaround with SharePoint. I do not use SharePoint. How can we do this using Dataverse?

For Dataverse we have two known options but neither is as slick as SharePoint:

1. We can create a flow to convert the Word document to PDF and store it alongside the original file. It could be automated to create a new PDF each time a Word file is added or changed. Not my favorite solution but it works.

2. My colleague Vivek Bavishi came up with a very neat solution you should look into. He managed to link a Dataverse to a SharePoint document library and serve files from there. It was done to avoid the 2GB database limit in Dataverse for Teams. However, you could apply it to achieve your goals of viewing documents in Power Apps as well.

Link to Vivek’s YouTube video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_vKzIy4jF8c

Thanks for your response and the link. I could attempt to take what Vivek demoed little further. My fear is, that such workaround is not sustainable for a serious app with multiple personas. I only hope and wish PA team comes up with Office viewer control.

Thank you again. I really enjoy your posts.

Great, thanks!  Will this work with sharepoint attachments?

Hi Matthew,

I tested this option in December but it doesn’t work 🙁 PDFViwer show only “Couldn’t open PDF file. Open in my browser instead”. Open in browser also doesn’t work and shows error:

Example generation link: https://northeurope1-mediap.svc.ms/transform/pdf?provider=spo&inputFormat=pdf&cs=fFNQTw&docid=https%3a%2f%2feuropasystems.sharepoint.com%3a443%2f_api%2fv2.0%2fdrives%2fb!bdAKQUXUEU2GDQyNmH3VY477j2TAMTlOmV4ZhYSGvtSk-9v4D45KRJ–Civ5HHzT%2fitems%2f01GS25KWRGXMZJZAKIUJAICSHQTQESA2MT%3fversion%3dPublished&access_token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJub25lIn0.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.OEFOOUF6WlB6VE5VRFBBV3YwNmxBRzdxb2J0ejBNTmVTbTVJS2ZZeTQxMD0&width=800&height=800

You can help?

In the screenshot it looks like you are trying to open a PDF. This article is about how to open DOCX, XLSX and PPTX files. Opening a PDF in a document library requires a totally different process.

I will be posted an article on how to open a PDF in a SharePoint Document library and view it inside Power Apps next week. You can subscribe to email list and have it sent directly to your inbox once its published 🙂

Yes, I am trying to open a PDF. I saw your technique also used for PDF ( https://youtu.be/vqK29FWbLxU ) so I tried 🙂 Thanks for information about article. I’m looking forward 🙂

Hhen can the article about pdf be expected? 🙂

This month. I’ve already written the article. Just a few more ahead of it in the publishing schedule 😉

Thanks for this great tutorial! I’m a amateur in PowerApps, so this was helpful. I’m aiming to display a library of Excel files in a PowerApp using this technique, but I am receiving the same error as above. Would you be able to take a look at this error code:

Hmmmm, I have not encountered this before. In the document property of the PDF viewer what code are you using? Can you share the result of that code? It’s the code where I use the SUBSTITUTE formula.

Hello Matthew, I am getting the same error as Evan for one Excel file, while others are opening successfully using your Substitute code. Could the problem be the part reading “XLSPageLimitExceeded”? The one that does not open is a much larger Excel sheet than the others.

I have a gallery where the document is selected on one screen, and the PDF viewer on another screen. The user clicks a PDF icon in the gallery to view the document. The icon’s OnSelect code is:

Set(varSelectedDocTracker, Substitute(gal_TrackerSearch.Selected.Thumbnail.Large, “/thumbnail”,”/pdf”)); Navigate(‘Tracker File Viewer’,ScreenTransition.Fade)

and the code in the PDF viewer is simply:

varSelectedDocTracker

Any insight you can provide is much appreciated!

You probably have an empty (no content) Excel file. Try to edit the file and write anything in it, then use the PDF viewer. This raises another question for Mat, how can we avoid it. How can we check if a file has no content?

Great article and thanks for sharing your knowledge. Do you know if the transform option can have a policy within an organization?

I have tried to convert a file by replacing thumbnail for pdf in the items url. This only seem to work for word but not for excel for instance.

I would also like to know if you have tried to host this file explorer in a model driven variant and make use of dynamic values to start browsing the sharepoint folder.

To my knowledge the success of this experience is mostly dependent on how the sharepoint site is structured. You need to have root folder for the most optimum experience, correct?

Great questions, but I’m not sure I have the answers for any of them. I haven’t experienced any issue with policies or root folder access and the Excel file conversion worked well on my-side. I wish I could be of more help but without being on your site its hard to troubleshoot 🙁

Hi Matthew, Can I know whether there any way to download the excel file in addition to viewing the file from sharepoint document library.

Thanks, Pavan

You can use the ‘File path’ field in a DOWNLOAD function to get the file.

Thanks Matthew for the suggestion the file path is working well in Google Chrome and Mozzilla but when I try downloading in Microsoft Edge it is directly opening the Excel file which is residing in Sharepoint in my Microsoft Excel Desktop Application.

Hey Matthew, how would I go about using this but the the folder inside document viewer for instance is dictated by an item selected in gallery?

If I click Alex in gallery for example, it opens document viewer/alex folder?

This article will help you to understand how navigating SharePoint Document Libraries in Power Apps works: https://www.matthewdevaney.com/power-apps-navigating-folders-subfolders-in-a-sharepoint-document-library/

Hello this is great. Eny ideas why thumbnails does not refresh even if i manually refresh library from app?

Sorry, I have not encountered this issue before. Not sure how to reproduce it.

Ok sorry about that. I have added an “Edit” button to this gallery to allow the user to edit the file. Everything works fine, but it didn’t refresh the thumbnail. I’ve already found an ugly way to fix this by adding the string “a” after making any changes to the document, and it works, but maybe there is another way to do it.

varPDFrefresh is a variable with “a” constantly being added when the file is edited

I’ve add an Icon : OnSelect – Refresh(yourGallery)

hi, How refreshing a Gallery? Refresh only works on Datasources…

I have the same problem the Thumbnail doesn’t change/updates when the document is modified, so the PdfViewer shows an old version of the document.

Adding a character as proposed by Damian it only works once, when the app is modified to add it. Then if the Doc is changed again the pdfViewer doesn’t show the changes.

Hi, Did you find a solution for this at all? I have the PDF viewer displaying a word document with a Version number included, If I edit the document and come back into the App the thumbnail doesn’t show the new version number. Is this a cache error?

Though my excel is of a single sheet. it comes in 2 pages. How can i fix it ??

Nice one. Have you tried it with a SharePoint List an attachments as well? For example, if you have a Power Apps based SharePoint Form and want to display the attachments within the form.

Use this method by Reza Dorrani to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dNeMVLZDHo

How can we show office file from dataverse in powerapp screen

I haven’t looked into it yet…

Hi Thanks for sharing. Will this work with sharepoint list attachments?

No, this article is for SharePoint document libraries only.

Can we convert the mentioned files to PDF but coming from Dataverse instead? I need to convert and show Annotations files in canvas app.

Please check the 1st comment on this blog where I have already answered this question.

Does the user need to have any particular permission to the SP Document Library? I have a library with Restricted Read permissions. No documents are displaying in the viewer panel – I just get the grey “Couldn’t open PDF file”. It seems the user must have at least Read or Contribute permissions. Any suggestions?

If the user can view the documents inside of the SharePoint document library they should be able to view it in Power Apps. Can you please verify that?

As the error message says, the user needs either read or contribute permissions. Check the security permissions on the document library.

Hi Matheu, thanks for wyour example, this is fantastic. I tryed to put it on action, but i couldn´t with xlsx files, can you please help me to understand what am i doing wrong or if there is anything i need to do to achive that. (i can see the ppt files in the PDF viewer)

Hello! when I use this method, I don’t get just the excel file on return. instead, I get a return of a document of twenty pages (what I’m trying to display is one to two pages each document), that consists of all other documents combined in one. to note as well, I tried another method to display only one document with power automate and it is also giving me the same problem.

It’s the best method we have available at this present moment. I wish I could help more here…

Nice article. Is it possible to have multiple document libraries as possible data sources, and have the user specify the library? I am looking to do an approval for minutes from different entities each having it’s own SPO site (&library) and would like to have the Approvers (multiple-kudos WonderLaura) look at the document inside the app. If not I guess I can require the initial minutes document to be in a shared site and then use a flow to put the Final document wher it should reside.

Yes, I think you can do it. The user could choose the library from a dropdown: * Library 1 * Library 2 * Library 3

Then you could run the logic of which document library to target off of a SWITCH function: Switch(Dropdown1.Selected.Value, “Library 1”, , “Library 2”, , “Library 3”, )

thank you very much for this trick! Is there a way of opening/viewing these kind of documents if only the shared link is available but the document itself isn’t in a connected library?

I have a gallery which connects to a sharepoint list with several data and rows/columns. One of these columns is the link to a video which I can perfectly show via the Video control.

Basically I look for a way to achieve the same with Powerpoint: saving the link to the sharepoint row and the control opens it up in PowerApps.

Is this possible?

Thank you for the article!

Is it possible to format the PDF in landscape?

This would be brilliant!

Forgive me if this has been stated prior, but in a Word document being viewed in the PDF viewer we have pixelated images (screen shots w/in the document). Does anyone know a way to fix that? If you open in browser or the original Word document, it’s not pixelated.

Power Apps: Presentation, tutorial and feedbacks of Canvas Apps

This Chronicle presents the Canvas Apps, one of the three Apps existing in the PowerApps suite developed by Microsoft.

• The First Part introduces PowerApps.
• The Second Part specifically introduces the Canvas Apps
• The Third Part presents the main components encountered when developing a Canvas App.
• The Fourth Part focuses on the Licenses to use Canvas Apps
• The Fifth Part explains how to share a Canvas App to make it available to other users
• The Sixth Part shows different ways to use Canvas Apps
• The Seventh Part reports a concrete case of a project using Canvas Apps

Note: Canvas Apps are a very large subject. The Microsoft Documentation on Canvas Apps is already exhaustive. This Chronicle intends to be a quicker way to understand Canvas Apps. And to gather the experience acquired during projects.  

Power Apps Overview

Presentation.

Power Apps is a suite of apps, services, connectors and data platform that provides a rapid application development environment to build custom apps for business needs.

There exists three types of Apps in PowerApps: Canvas Apps, Model-driven Apps, and Portals:

• Canvas apps start with user experience, crafting a highly tailored interface with the power of a blank canvas and connecting it to a choice of 200 data sources. You can build canvas apps for web, mobile, and tablet applications.
• Model-driven apps start with your data model – building up from the shape of your core business data and processes in the Common Data Service to model forms, views, and other components. Model-driven apps automatically generate great UI that is responsive across devices. The User Interface of Dynamic 365 uses Model-Driven Apps.
• Portals start to create external-facing websites that allow users outside your organization to sign in with a wide variety of identities, create and view data in Common Data Service, or even browse content anonymously.

Managing Power Apps

The development of Apps is done at this URL: make.powerapps.com     It has two main components:

• Power Apps Studio is the app designer used for building canvas apps
• App designer for model-driven apps lets you define the sitemap and add components to build a model-driven app

Power Apps admin center: admin.powerapps.com Used to create and manage environments, users, roles, and data-loss prevention policies.

Power Platform admin center: admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com Used to manage environments, get real-time, self-help recommendations and support for Power Apps and Power Automate, and view Common Data Service analytics.  

Canvas App Presentation

Canvas Apps are Business apps created with a low-code tool. They are described by Microsoft in the following way: “Design and build a business app from a canvas in Microsoft Power Apps without writing code in a traditional programming language such as C#. Design the app by dragging and dropping elements onto a canvas, just as you would design a slide in PowerPoint. Create Excel-like expressions for specifying logic and working with data. Build apps that integrate business data from a wide variety of Microsoft and third-party sources. Share your app so that users can run it in a browser or on a mobile device (Smartphones and Tablets), and embed your app so that users can run it in SharePoint, Power BI, or Teams." More information on the possible ways to use Canvas Apps are given in Section "Overview: where Canvas Apps can be used".  

Canvas App Development

This Part presents the main components encountered when developing a Canvas App. It will give you quick marks if you ever land on this tool.

Editor Interface

As said before, Canvas Apps are created following this link: make.powerapps.com. To create a new Canvas App: on the Menu on the left: Go to Apps. Click New app -> Canvas. A form opens. It allows to choose to create a Canvas App from a blank canvas or from a Template. One can also choose either a Phone or a Tablet layout. One main difference between the two layouts is that it is possible to set a custom height and width for the App for the Tablet layout but not for the Phone Layout. After the App is created, the following window opens:  

The centre of the window (1) contains the layout of the Canvas App. The Menu on the left (2) can display a Tree of the elements in the App as well as the different Data Sources that are available.  The Menu on the right (3) allows to configure the properties of the element that is selected on the Canvas App The Menu on the top (4) allows to insert elements in the Canvas App, and also change some of their properties This list (5) allows to choose a property or an action of an element that is selected in the App This bar (6) contains a formula associated to the property or the action that is selected in (5) This “File” Tab (7) provides several functionalities:

• Manage Connections to Data Sources
• Manage Flows
• Settings: Name & Icon of the App, Screen Size & Orientation, and all Advanced Settings
• View of first records in the Collections
• View of variables and their values
• Media: used to import pictures, videos and audios into the App

More information will be given on these things later in the Chronicle.  

Canvas Apps Language - Presentation

To define the logic of the application, the creator of a Canvas App has to write formulas using a programming language. The formulas used can make think of the ones in Microsoft Office Excel. The formulas are written for properties of the elements on the App, or for triggers linked to actions performed on these elements. When a modification occurs in the App, the properties containing formulas are directly updated, just like in Excel. To give an overview of the language, below is a part of a formula used in the Canvas App (client name blurred):  

Like most programming languages, it contains Conditions (If) and Loops (ForAll). Some of the most useful functions will be mentioned in this Chronicle.     Functions are separated with semi-colons. Inside a function, the arguments are separated by commas.     By default, the expressions in the formulas are sequentially executed. It is possible to execute some expressions in parallel by using the Concurrent function. The use of parallelism can save a significant amount of time for instance when using it for a Data transfer. The language doesn’t provide Functions nor Classes. As will be seen later in the Chronicle, I personally found that the code lacks a lot of structure because of this and it adds a lot of complexity to the App. The whole reference for the programming language in Canvas Apps can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/formula-reference  

There are a few triggers in Canvas App that can launch the execution of a formula. Here are the main ones:

• OnSelect: Available on buttons and many controls. Runs the formula when the element is selected
• OnChange: Available on Lists. Runs the formula when the user changes the option selected in the List
• OnStart: Triggers the formula when the Canvas App starts
• OnTimerEnd: Available for Timers. Executes the formula when the Timer ends
• OnTimerStart: Same but when the Timer starts  

The Canvas App can have several screens. New screens can be added in the App, in the tab Home -> New Screen. The navigation between the screens is made using the function Navigate. It can for instance be used on the OnSelect property of a button. Then, when the button is selected, the App will navigate to the specified screen.

Add a Gallery

Galleries are the equivalent of Views in a Model-Driven App. There are used to list the records of an entity. The creator can choose the fields he wants to display. Unlike a Model-Driven App, the creator can here customize all the design. To add a Gallery to the App, go to Insert -> Gallery.

Then, on the element that appears on the screen, click add a Connector and choose a Data Source. For instance, Dynamics 365. Then, choose the Environment to work in, and select an Entity. The Gallery has one section per record of the Entity. In the Editor, the modifications are done in the first section of the list. All other sections follow the same structure as the first one. Add a Label in it. Select the label object. In the Formula bar, select the property “Text”, and set the Formula to ThisItem.fullname . It now displays a list of the names of the contacts:  

Other fields can be added in the sections, as well as icons or images. Below is a little improvement where the mail address, separating lines and an icon were added:

The Forms in a Model-Driven App are called the same in Canvas App. They allow to display data of a particular record and to update this Data. They can also be used to create a new record. The main functions used for Forms are:

• EditForm: Edit the data of a record
• NewForm: Create a new record
• SubmitForm: Submit the form
• ResetForm: Reset the form to his previous state

This Parts presents some of the main controls available in the Canvas Apps.

Buttons are quite simple elements. They have an OnSelect trigger that allows to runs a formula when they are selected.

The Application can take as inputs:

• Date pickers
• Audio from microphones
• Video from Camera
• Pen input: the user can write on the screen. The writing is kept as an image

The Application can show:

• Power BI tiles

Designing the User Interface

Designing the User Interface in PowerApps is extremely simple. It is very similar to the edition of slides if Microsoft PowerPoint. Elements can be designed with Drag&Drop and selections of properties in menus. To make a more precise design it is also possible to fill the properties of an element with a number: for instance the number of Pixels for the height of an element; the hexadecimal code of a color for the background of an element, etc Example of properties:

• Height, Width, Size, x-Position, y-Position, Padding
• Visibility, DisplayMode
• Border thickness

A property field can be filled with a formula. This allows to change the design of the elements on the App depending on the current context of the App. For instance, the creator of the App can write a formula to hide a button if its action has no meaning in the current context.  

Responsiveness

It is possible to have responsive layouts in Canvas Apps, so that the app adapts to the actual space in which it is running. It can be activated in the Advanced Settings by turning off the app's "Scale to fit" setting.

The responsive design can also be customized by writing Formulas based on the height and width of the device. The documentation of Microsoft can be found here : https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/create-responsive-layout

Data Manipulation

In a Canvas App, the formulas can directly refer to the Table of a Data source. Very often, the creator of the Canvas App will want to create new Tables and manipulates theses Tables. In Canvas Apps, these are called “Collections”: Collections are a special kind of data source. They're local to the app and not backed by a connection to a service in the cloud, so the information can’t be shared across devices for the same user or between users.  The main functions to manage Collections are:

• Clear : Clear a Collection
• Collect : Add Data to a Collection or a Data Source
• ClearCollect : Clear a Collection and then add Data to it
• Update/UpdateIf/Patch : Use to Update a Collections or a Data Source
• LookUp : Select a record in a Collection or a Data Source
• Search/Filter : Select a set of records in a Collection or a Data Source

It is possible to create variables in Canvas Apps. Variables can be global or contextual. Global variables can be used anywhere in the Canvas App. Context variables can be used only on a precise screen. The functions to set variables are: Set: Set a value to a Global variable UpdateContext: Set a value to a Context variable

Define Custom Functions

Writing custom Functions is not possible in Canvas Apps, which is really a significant drawback. However there is a way to imitate the behaviour of a function: Create a Button. Write a code on its OnSelect trigger. From somewhere else, use the Select function on this Button. It will call the code written in the OnSelect trigger of the Button. However, as said in the documentation: “Select queues the target OnSelect for later processing, which may happen after the current formula has finished being evaluated. Select doesn't cause the target OnSelect to evaluate immediately, nor does Select wait for OnSelect to finish being evaluated.” Basically, this means that the sequential order in the Formulas is not maintained with the Select function, which is not convenient in many use cases.

The signals in the Canvas Apps return information about the environment of the device. Signals are values that can change at any time, independent of how the user may be interacting with the app. Formulas that are based on signals automatically recalculate as these values change. The available signals in Canvas Apps are:

• The Acceleration signal returns the device's acceleration in three dimensions relative to the device's screen.
• The App object includes a signal that indicates which screen is showing.
• The Compass signal returns the compass heading of the top of the screen. The heading is based on magnetic north.
• The Connection signal returns the information about the network connection. For instance, whether a Network is available or not.
• The Location signal returns the location of the device.  

Offline Mode

PowerApps provides functionalities to create an Offline mode in the Canvas Apps. Two functions combine to form a simple mechanism to store small amounts of data on a local device: SaveData: Saves a Collection in a local storage using a Name provided as argument LoadData: Retrieves the Data in the local storage using the Name provided, and writes the Data in a Collection. 

The Signal “Connection” mentioned previously can be very useful in this case, as it allows to know if the device is connected to a Network or not.  Unfortunately, it is not possible to trigger some expressions when the value of Connection.Connected changes. To catch a change in this value, a workaround could be to create a Timer with a certain duration and on the event “OnTimerEnd”, to check the value of Connection.Connected and then call a certain logic.

The available memory with this Offline mode is around 30-70 MB. Some data might be lost above this amount. The Offline mode is available for Smartphones and Tablets but doesn’t work in a Browser. The section "Project Feedback" provides information about a project made that contained an Offline mode. It explains some main points of the development of the Canvas App and presents some lessons learnt with this project.

Artificial Intelligence

Business Card Reader: Scan a Business Card and extracts information from it. This requires an AI builder license to be used. Form Processor: Detects and Extracts text in documents. Requires training on an AI model Object Detector: Detects objects in Images and draws bounding boxes around them Receipt processor: Scan a receipt and extract information from it Text recognizer: Extract printed and handwritten text from images

The trainings do not require to create a model. The models already exist but they need to be trained on a Database provided by the creator of the App.

The Canvas App can also connect to the Text Analytics API of Azure cognitive Services. This API enables to detect sentiment, key phrases, topics, and language from text.

More details can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/cognitive-services-api

There are 2 pricing plans for PowerApps:

• CHF 9.80 /user/app/month
•  Allow individual users to run applications for a single business scenario based on the full capabilities of Power Apps.
• CHF 39.40 /user/month
• Equip users to run unlimited applications based on the full capabilities of Power Apps.

The use rights of PowerApps are included in other licenses, such as licenses of Office 365 and Dynamics 365. For instance, the licenses of Dynamics 365 give the following rights for the utilisation of PowerApps:  

One important feature to take care of concerns the Connectors used in the Canvas App. A Connector is the name given to the link binding a Canvas App to a DataBase or a Service. Power Apps has connectors for many popular services and on-premises data sources. Is it possible to create custom Connectors. The out-of-box Connectors can be of two types: “Standard” and “Premium”. Some licenses provide use rights to “Standard” licenses but not to “Premium” licenses. So this has to be studied carefully when choosing the License. Examples of “Standard” Connectors: OneDrive For Business, SharePoint, Outlook.com Examples of “Premium” Connectors: Dynamics 365, Salesforce, SAP ERP

Details about the Connectors can be found here: https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/

As shows the previous table, the license of Dynamics 365 grants right to use “Premium” Connectors. However, as shows the next table, the license of Office 365 doesn’t provide an access to the “Premium” Connectors:   

All the details for the licenses of PowerApps can be found in the Microsoft Power Apps and Power Automate Licensing Guide: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2085130 As licenses plans often change, it is important to check the Licensing Guides regularly.  

Share Canvas Apps

The person who creates a Canvas App is the owner of the App. After creation, he is the only person who has access to it. To make the App available to other people, the App has to be shared with these people. The owner can choose to allow or not these people to share themselves the App with others. To be able to share the App, the person must also have the permissions on the data used in the Canvas App. To share an App, go to make.powerapps.com. Select “Apps” on the menu on the left. Select the App. And click “Share” on the menu on the left:  

Overview: where Canvas Apps can be used

Canvas Apps can be used in many tools:

On Smartphones and Tablets

Download the free Application PowerApps on iOS and Android. When opening the Application, the user has to sign in with his credentials. Then, the user sees a list of the Canvas Apps that he owns or that were shared with him. He can then select the Canvas App that he wants to use.

In Model-Driven Apps

When editing a Form of a Model-Driven App, it is possible to insert a Canvas App. But note that this is only available in the UUI. In a Model-Driven App, the authentication in the Canvas App is automatically made. It authenticates with the credentials of the user of the Model-Driven App. So, the Canvas App has to be shared with all the users that are expected to use it. Note that a Canvas App can be put in Solutions. 

In Power BI

It is possible to embed a Canvas App into a Power BI report. To do so, a visual of Power BI called “PowerApps” is used. The visual can be inserted in the report like any other visual. Then, the Canvas App to be used in this visual must be selected. One great functionality is that it is possible to send data from Power BI to the Canvas App. This allows to display data in the Canvas App that corresponds to the Filters activated in Power BI. This creates a true interaction between the Power BI report and the Canvas App. To retrieve and manipulate this data in the Canvas App, an object called “PowerBIIntegration.Data”. Like in Model-Driven Apps: the authentication in the Canvas App in the Power BI report is made using the credentials of the user. So the App has to be shared with the user. More details can be found here: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powerapps/maker/canvas-apps/embed-powerapps-powerbi

In Websites as iFrames

The Canvas Apps can also be embedded in any Website as iFrames. An authentication must be made in the Canvas App. The developer of the Website can choose to let the user authenticate by himself with his credentials. It is also possible to handle the authentication automatically by writing code using the Azure Active Directory Authentication.

Canvas Apps can be integrated in SharePoint.  

Project Feedback

This section describes a project of Canvas App made for a client. One main specificity of the Canvas App is that it had to implement an Offline mode. The client will be called Company AAA here.

Project Presentation

In this project for Company AAA, ELCA has put in place new developments on the CRM Dynamics 365.

Company AAA organises events (like conferences) in many countries. Among other things, the new developments concerned the management of these events and of the participants to the events. Company AAA also wanted to be able to manage this on an application on a Tablet, directly during the event or a little before, while travelling for instance. Many events occur in places where networks can’t be reached so the Application requires an Offline mode.

3 main Entities in the CRM are implicated in this Business:

• Events: The events of Company AAA
• Contacts: People in contact with Company AAA. Participants to the Events are Contacts
• EventPart: The relation between Events and Contacts is N:N. So, this entity was created to store the relationship existing for a Contact that participates to an Event

With this Application, Company AAA wants to be able to:

• Select an Event among all existing Events
• Have the list of all Contacts participating to the selected Event
• Be able to modify the information of the Contact, and specify if he was indeed present or not to the Event
• Be able to create a New Contact and add him to the Event
• When Online, be able to add an existing Contact to the Event

When Offline, a Contact and its participation to an event must be stored. It is necessary to track if a record is new or already existing (and to keep the GUID in this case).

    Developing an application from scratch can be long. A Model-Driven app can be used on a Tablet, but the customisations possibilities were too limited for this use case. So it was deciced to develop the application using the Canvas Apps ! The Offline mode was clearly the main challenge of this Application.

Here is an overview of the final interface of the Canvas App that has been developed:

Presentation of Offline specifities

This Part will explain shortly how the Offline mode was handled in the Canvas App.

When using Canvas App, it is possible to handle data by referring directly to the Data Source. As mentioned before, it also possible to create Collections to manipulate the Data of the Source.

When the device is Offline, it is not possible to refer directly to the Data Source. Only Collections can be used. In consequence, the App has been designed to manipulate (almost) only Collections. When Data is uploaded from a Data Source into the Canvas App, this data is directly inserted into a Collection.

Data Consistency in Offline mode

When switching between online and offline mode, data must be synchronised between the Cloud and the local storage. The user has to click on a button to execute the synchronisation. He has to make sure that he has a steady network when making the synchronisation. If the synchronisation was automatic we were afraid that there might be issues with intermittent networks.

Also, as the offline mode only uses the local device, it is faster than the online mode. So it can be more convenient to use even when some network is available.

Use of resources external to Canvas Apps

The first specifications of the App involved 7 entities: Events, EventParts, Contacts, Projects, Accounts, Countries, Notes.  Managing all these Entities in Offline mode appeared to be close to impossible due to the lack of functions and structure in the code of the App. Remember that to make it easy, the code kind of look like Excel formulas! It was then decided to remove the Accounts and the Countries from the App, at least in a 1st version. Events and Projects are read-only entities in the App so there are not too hard to handle.

At this point, 3 entities could be modified, and 2 entities were read. Again, it appeared to be extremely complex to handle in the App in Offline mode.      We found a solution to overcome this. Instead of replicating the data model of the Source in Collections of the App, only one collection was used to track all the changes made on the App in Offline mode. When switching to Online mode, this Collection updates or creates records in the Entity EventPart. Then, workflows in Dynamics 365 are launched to dispatch the data contained in the EventPart to Contacts and Notes.

In the Data model, EventPart has a N:1 relationship with Contacts. The relationship had to be in this sense to be able to update the Entity Contact from a Workflow.

In fact, only two collections are used in the App. One Collection stores data about the selected Event and the Porject it is related to (called EventInfoCollection in the next Part). Another Collection stores the data about EventParts, Contacts and Notes (called EventPartsCollection in the next Part).

So, the key to solve the complexity of the App was to consider an EventPart and a related Contact as a single record in the Data model of the App. And to dispatch the data in the right records in Dynamics a using Workflows.  

Design of the App

The Design of the App was elaborated by a Professional Designer at Elca, using Adobe. At that time, we still had many unknowns about the functionalities and limits of Canvas Apps. So it took some time to find a design that could fit well the needs and the constraints.

The interface finally looks great thanks to the help of the professional designer. It adds a lot of value to the Application.

In the end, we found that we had not been really limited by the visual customisation capabilities of Canvas Apps!  

Lessons Learnt - Conclusion

The Canvas App allows to create Business Applications with a low-code platform and a drag & drop interface. It makes the development of Business Applications available to a large audience! It not necessary to have an advanced technical knowledge and to know programming much. They can save a huge amount of time compared to an application coded from scratch. The design of the Canvas App can be customised really well and easily.

However, it is very important to keep in mind that Canvas App can become very hard to develop for applications which involve quite complex processes, or complex features such as an Offline mode. In my opinion, it can even become impossible to develop in certain cases. One of the main reasons for this is that the code lacks structure (for instance it has no functions or classes)

A key to make a Canvas App work in complex use cases can be to use external resources (such as Workflows of Dynamics 365) to move some advanced logic outside of the Canvas App.

So, my point of view about Canvas Apps is that they are great for simple applications. But in quite complex use cases, they should be avoided and a traditional fully coded application should be developed instead.

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How model-driven app main forms appear on different devices

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There are four types of form. Main, quick view, quick create, and card.

The main form is a fundamental building block of any model-driven app and is used by all devices used to run them.

A main form can be rendered using a web browser, Dynamics 365 for phones, Dynamics 365 for tablets, or Dynamics 365 for Outlook, and its design adjusts to accommodate the device. This responsive design is an important feature of model-driven apps.

Additionally, the main form is an intrinsic part of the table and it travels with the table as part of any solution. This helps with application lifecycle management .

Learn more about all the form types

Notes on Microsoft Dynamics 365

Main form presentation options

Any main forms that exist for a table may be displayed differently depending on the factors in the following table below. When you design a main form, consider how it works in each presentation tool.

This diagram represents common components found in main table forms.

The layout of the form works with a wide range of displays and window sizes. As the width of window decreases, section columns move down so that you can scroll down to work with them instead of being compressed or requiring you to scroll to the right.

The image below illustrate the accounts table main form as it would be viewed through a web browser.

The following table summarizes available components of the main form for tables.

Dynamics 365 for phones and tablets forms

Most system tables and custom tables are available for Dynamics 365 for phones and tablets. The main form for these tables is transformed to a presentation optimized for phones or tablets.

Tables enabled for Dynamics 365 for phones and tablets

Only tables that are enabled for Dynamics 365 for phones and tablets use this presentation of the main form. More information: Entities displayed in Dynamics 365 for phones and tablets

Form design

Dynamics 365 for phones and tablets takes many of the main form elements and presents them in a way optimized for phones or tablets. The following diagrams show the reflow from the web app to the tablet and phone apps.

The form elements are transformed to a wide panorama layout in Dynamics 365 for tablets, where users swipe the screen to change elements visible within a view port. In Dynamics 365 for phones, users swipe the screen to see a different column, or pane of elements, and the process control appears over every column.

View port element

The following items are always visible within the view port in the context of a form:

Nav bar The nav bar is a presentation of the sitemap that is optimized for touch. More information: Change navigation options

Home The home button takes users to the dashboard that is the starting page for Dynamics 365 for phones and tablets.

Process Control If the table has a business process enabled, it will appear in the top-right corner next to the search control in Dynamics 365 for tablets, and at the top of the screen in Dynamics 365 for phones.

Search People can tap the search control to open the screen to search for records.

Command Bar By default, some of the commands that appear in the app running in a web browser don't appear in the Dynamics 365 for phones and tablets apps. Similar to the web application, the command bar is context-sensitive, so the available commands change depending on what is currently viewed or selected. More information Change commands

Form elements

The form elements displayed are taken from the main form and presented as a series of panels that users see through the view port.

In Dynamics 365 for tablets, the first panel displays contact information about relationships that exist for the record. In Dynamics 365 for phones, the first panel also displays header columns from the form above the relationship tiles.

For Contact and User forms, the top item displays a communication card for the record. The communication card provides buttons to initiate communication with the person. For other tables, a communication card is displayed if there's a Contact quick view form embedded in the main form.

You can show additional tiles based on table relationships, but you can’t customize the tiles for the following tables:

You can customize the remaining tiles with the form editor. The order is fixed, but you can set which elements are visible in the relationship panel.

In Dynamics 365 for tablets, the second panel begins with the name of the first tab on the form. Any columns that are included within the header are included and then the contents of the first tab. In Dynamics 365 for phones, headers appear in the first column.

If there is a process flow active for the form, the third tab displays tasks for the current stage of the process in Dynamics 365 for tablets. In Dynamics 365 for phones, the process control floats above the panes, expands over the user’s current pane when it’s selected, and is always visible and actionable.

The remaining panels of the form contain the contents of the tabs in the form. Any subgrids found display as a separate panel.

The Dynamics 365 for phones and tablets form always displays the labels for tabs and subgrids. The Display Label on the Form setting isn't applied.

To optimize performance on mobile devices, the number of objects is limited to 5 tabs or 75 columns and 10 subgrids.

Forms for Dynamics 365 for phones and tablets don’t support the following features:

Activity feeds

In addition, table images are visible in list views and contact cards, but not within the actual form.

Multiple forms

Dynamics 365 for phones and tablets supports multiple forms but doesn't provide a way for people to switch between forms if they can access more than one. People will see the first form in the form order that they have access to.

For example, if you have the following main forms for the opportunity table and have assigned the following security roles for each one, you’ll see the form order shown in the following table.

People with the Salesperson role will always see Sales Form One .

People with the Sales Manager role will always see Sales Form Two .

People with the Vice President of Sales role will always see Sales Form Four .

Classic forms

For information about the classic forms available with Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement (on-premises), see Classic forms .

Create or edit a main form overview

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• 3. What are PowerApps? “PowerApps is an enterprise software as a service for innovators everywhere to connect, create, and share business apps on any device. It couples naturally with the vision of Office as a platform and takes advantage of capabilities like mail, calendar, contacts, users, lists, and libraries from across the Office Family: Office 365, SharePoint Online, SharePoint on-premises, Excel and OneDrive. With PowerApps, you can build apps with clicks – not code – and with templates for many common app types to help you get started. It’s no longer a matter of end-users waiting for IT or a professional developer to write the code; they can easily build apps to solve their own problems. Building a solution with PowerApps on top of Office is a simple matter of (a) open the PowerApps tool, (b) connect to an Office/SharePoint data source, (c) customize the UI and (d) start using your great new app. “ http://dev.office.com/blogs/PowerApp-Your-Office-and-SharePoint-Solutions
• 4. PowerApps for Employees  Quickly create apps that work on any device using a Microsoft Office-like experience, templates to get started quickly and a visual designer to automate workflows.  Use built-in connections, or ones built by your company, to connect PowerApps to cloud services such as Office 365, Dynamics CRM, Salesforce, Dropbox and OneDrive and on-premises systems including SharePoint, SQL Server, Oracle databases, SAP and more.  Share PowerApps like documents. It’s as simple as typing an email address and your coworkers can take advantage of an app you created. http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2015/11/30/introducing-microsoft-powerapps/
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How To Get Free Access To Microsoft PowerPoint

E very time you need to present an overview of a plan or a report to a whole room of people, chances are you turn to Microsoft PowerPoint. And who doesn't? It's popular for its wide array of features that make creating effective presentations a walk in the park. PowerPoint comes with a host of keyboard shortcuts for easy navigation, subtitles and video recordings for your audience's benefit, and a variety of transitions, animations, and designs for better engagement.

But with these nifty features comes a hefty price tag. At the moment, the personal plan — which includes other Office apps — is at $69.99 a year. This might be the most budget-friendly option, especially if you plan to use the other Microsoft Office apps, too. Unfortunately, you can't buy PowerPoint alone, but there are a few workarounds you can use to get access to PowerPoint at no cost to you at all.

Read more: The 20 Best Mac Apps That Will Improve Your Apple Experience

Method #1: Sign Up For A Free Microsoft Account On The Office Website

Microsoft offers a web-based version of PowerPoint completely free of charge to all users. Here's how you can access it:

• Visit the Microsoft 365 page .
• If you already have a free account with Microsoft, click Sign in. Otherwise, press "Sign up for the free version of Microsoft 365" to create a new account at no cost.
• On the Office home page, select PowerPoint from the side panel on the left.
• Click on "Blank presentation" to create your presentation from scratch, or pick your preferred free PowerPoint template from the options at the top (there's also a host of editable templates you can find on the Microsoft 365 Create site ).
• Create your presentation as normal. Your edits will be saved automatically to your Microsoft OneDrive as long as you're connected to the internet.

It's important to keep in mind, though, that while you're free to use this web version of PowerPoint to create your slides and edit templates, there are certain features it doesn't have that you can find on the paid version. For instance, you can access only a handful of font styles and stock elements like images, videos, icons, and stickers. Designer is also available for use on up to three presentations per month only (it's unlimited for premium subscribers). When presenting, you won't find the Present Live and Always Use Subtitles options present in the paid plans. The biggest caveat of the free version is that it won't get any newly released features, unlike its premium counterparts.

Method #2: Install Microsoft 365 (Office) To Your Windows

Don't fancy working on your presentation in a browser? If you have a Windows computer with the Office 365 apps pre-installed or downloaded from a previous Office 365 trial, you can use the Microsoft 365 (Office) app instead. Unlike the individual Microsoft apps that you need to buy from the Microsoft Store, this one is free to download and use. Here's how to get free PowerPoint on the Microsoft 365 (Office) app:

• Search for Microsoft 365 (Office) on the Microsoft Store app.
• Install and open it.
• Sign in with your Microsoft account. Alternatively, press "Create free account" if you don't have one yet.
• Click on Create on the left side panel.
• Select Presentation.
• In the PowerPoint window that opens, log in using your account.
• Press Accept on the "Free 5-day pass" section. This lets you use PowerPoint (and Word and Excel) for five days — free of charge and without having to input any payment information.
• Create your presentation as usual. As you're using the desktop version, you can access the full features of PowerPoint, including the ability to present in Teams, export the presentation as a video file, translate the slides' content to a different language, and even work offline.

The only downside of this method is the time limit. Once the five days are up, you can no longer open the PowerPoint desktop app. However, all your files will still be accessible to you. If you saved them to OneDrive, you can continue editing them on the web app. If you saved them to your computer, you can upload them to OneDrive and edit them from there.

Method #3: Download The Microsoft PowerPoint App On Your Android Or iOS Device

If you're always on the move and need the flexibility of creating and editing presentations on your Android or iOS device, you'll be glad to know that PowerPoint is free and available for offline use on your mobile phones. But — of course, there's a but — you can only access the free version if your device is under 10.1 inches. Anything bigger than that requires a premium subscription. If your phone fits the bill, then follow these steps to get free PowerPoint on your device:

• Install Microsoft PowerPoint from the App Store or Google Play Store .
• Log in using your existing Microsoft email or enter a new email address to create one if you don't already have an account.
• On the "Get Microsoft 365 Personal Plan" screen, press Skip For Now.
• If you're offered a free trial, select Try later (or enjoy the free 30-day trial if you're interested).
• To make a new presentation, tap the plus sign in the upper right corner.
• Change the "Create in" option from OneDrive - Personal to a folder on your device. This allows you to save the presentation to your local storage and make offline edits.
• Press "Set as default" to set your local folder as the default file storage location.
• Choose your template from the selection or use a blank presentation.
• Edit your presentation as needed.

Do note that PowerPoint mobile comes with some restrictions. There's no option to insert stock elements, change the slide size to a custom size, use the Designer feature, or display the presentation in Immersive Reader mode. However, you can use font styles considered premium on the web app.

Method #4: Use Your School Email Address

Office 365 Education is free for students and teachers, provided they have an email address from an eligible school. To check for your eligibility, here's what you need to do:

• Go to the Office 365 Education page .
• Type in your school email address in the empty text field.
• Press "Get Started."
• On the next screen, verify your eligibility. If you're eligible, you'll be asked to select whether you're a student or a teacher. If your school isn't recognized, however, you'll get a message telling you so.
• For those who are eligible, proceed with creating your Office 365 Education account. Make sure your school email can receive external mail, as Microsoft will send you a verification code for your account.
• Once you're done filling out the form, press "Start." This will open your Office 365 account page.

You can then start making your PowerPoint presentation using the web app. If your school's plan supports it, you can also install the Office 365 apps to your computer by clicking the "Install Office" button on your Office 365 account page and running the downloaded installation file. What sets the Office 365 Education account apart from the regular free account is that you have unlimited personal cloud storage and access to other Office apps like Word, Excel, and Outlook.

Read the original article on SlashGear .

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• 1 Screens simulated. Features and app availability may vary by region.
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• 3 Microsoft 365 subscription sold separately.
• 4 Windows 11 upgrade is available for eligible PCs that meet minimum device specifications . Upgrade timing may vary by device. Internet service fees may apply. Features and app availability may vary by region. Certain features require specific hardware (see Windows 11 specifications ).
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Microsoft Teams announces freely move toolbar for improved presentations

published on June 4, 2024

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• Microsoft Teams introduces movable presenter toolbar for screen sharing.
• Presenters can now optimize video playback for smoother presentations in Teams.
• These features are in preview for Teams Public Preview or Microsoft 365 Targeted Release.

Microsoft Teams is introducing two new features designed for the screen-sharing experience for presenters in virtual meetings.

Previously, the Presenter toolbar in Teams remained fixed at the top of the screen during screen sharing. This new update lets presenters to drag and reposition the toolbar anywhere on their screen.

This customization ensures that the toolbar doesn’t obscure important areas of the content being shared, such as menus or captions.

Teams now offer a new “Optimize” button on the Presenter toolbar. This button allows presenters to manually optimize video playback for a smoother viewing experience for meeting participants. This feature is particularly useful in situations where automatic video detection fails or experiences delays.

How it works 1. Start your Teams meeting and, when the time comes to present, select Share from the toolbar to share your screen. 2. You can now move the Presenter toolbar from its default location at the top of the screen and reposition it in any area of your screen. Just click on any non-interactive area of the Toolbar or on the new drag handle. NOTE: The Presenter toolbar will also minimize after 4 seconds when not in use; when minimized, the toolbar will still display a red badge to clearly indicate the ongoing sharing session. 3. If you are sharing video or other high-motion content, you can click the Optimize?button on the?toolbar for a smoother playback experience.

These new features are currently available in preview for users enrolled in the Teams Public Preview or Microsoft 365 Targeted Release program.

The update applies to the new Teams client for Windows and macOS.

It’s important to note that only the presenter needs to be using the preview version for everyone in the meeting to benefit from these improvements.

In summary, these updates aim to provide presenters with more control and flexibility when sharing their screen in Teams meetings.

More here .

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These are the things that motivate me - creating informative and helpful content, pursuing my passion for motorsports and music, engaging in expeditions, maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and spending time with my adorable cat Taco.

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