If you haven't read any of my previous blogs you may not know that, how to put this, I wasn't a fan of the new Power Automate UI.
I would recommend reading it, as it gives some context to what was wrong and how far Power Automate has come.
The TLDR was it was buggy, missing core features (like undo), and it increased screen distance between key actions, impacting productivity (well for me anyway).
Since then the bugs have gone (well mostly, especially excluding Copilot), legacy bugs fixed like trying to add action at top of a container, missing features added, and new features like version control have been added. So much so that I switched to it for doing my professional work (it was version control what got me 😎).
But I still resorted to the Classic UI when I was playing/learning/blogging. The simple fact the UI was easier to read the flow (especially for code reviews), and to be creative, it minor friction points and allowed me to build quicker. And because it wasn't planned for prod it didn't matter if I lost it or made a big mistake.
That is until now 😎
Microsoft were kind enough to ask me to give a feedback sessions around the New UI, what missing features were key and how to get that creative magic back. And that was simple, go retro, go classic, go inline.
Inline actions is where we can add parameters to the action inside the action, not the side panel.
As you can see it has kept the cool new theme/look, but now everything is wider.
And now when we click in we can see the parameters, just like in the Classic UI. We can open multiple actions for code reviews and debugging.
Another cool thing is they have locked height of components and added scroll, so no more infinite actions scrolling down your screen like in the Classic UI.
You also can create an action and add parameters inline too.
This may seem insignificant but for me it felt so disjointed:
- click where want to add
- move to top left
- select action
- add parameters
- go back to flow
- click add and repeat
It also keeps the side panel if you prefer it, and the nice function of pinned for copy and pasting across 2 actions.
Like everything its still not quite perfect, the copy and paste is missing the clipboard list from Classic, but now it can copy paste containers and cross windows its definitely good enough.
And there are a few small bugs, my OCD cant handle that all controls use condition icon 🤣
So over a year later I think we finally have what I think is the right update to Power Automate. The contradiction is that it should have never been launched like this, but on the flip side the Power Automate team reacted quickly, releasing missing features quickly and then waited for the big update to get it right.
Its currently available in the preview environment in Copilot Studio (Agend Flow), but is planned for Power Automate full soon.
the HTTP connector even though its HTTPS :-)..
I am with you mate..