Creative Ideas for Microsoft Power Apps: Sharepoint-Ready?

Last Updated on August 26, 2023

What if there was an app for every business need there is?

Well, that’s basically the idea behind Power Apps. It’s meant to enhance productivity and help automate as many things as possible.

In this article, I will introduce Power Apps and show great creative ideas that you can use it in your business.

Let’s get started.

What is Microsoft PowerApps?

Microsoft Power Apps is a tool that can help you create custom business apps easily even if you don’t know how to code.

This isn’t some magic though. To create an app, you need to connect to data sources like:

• SharePoint
• Excel
• Microsoft Azure
• Power BI
• Dynamic 365

It’s a big platform that allows you to create an app that can interact with data, has business logic behind it, connect various data sources, and more.

What are the advantages of using PowerApps?

There are a lot of advantages and benefits when you use Power Apps in your business.

Here are some of them:

• No coding knowledge required – This enables anybody to create an app without hiring an app developer or knowing how to code yourself.
• Integration with Microsoft 365 – If your business ecosystem revolves around Microsoft 365, then you will have an easier time connecting data sources.
• Starting points – Power Apps provide starting points depending on the type of app you want to create.

Currently, you can start from:

• Scratch (add your data)
• Dataverse table
• SharePoint list
• SQL data source
• Image of an app or form
• Figma UI kit

Power Apps also has an extensive knowledge base library that can help you start building and sharing apps right away.

How does Microsoft PowerApps work?

Just because you can create an app without knowing any kind of app development, it doesn’t mean you can go blindly and hope for the best.

As with everything, you need to define a problem first so you can use MS Power Apps as a means to create a solution for it.

If you’re lost, you can also check out some ideas (like what I have in this list) and templates available in Power Apps.

Here are some examples of the templates available:

Now, there are basically two ways you can build an app in Power Apps:

• Canvas apps
• Model-driven apps

From the name itself, canvas apps enable you to customize and design the user experience while model-driven apps have a pre-existing structure.

Unless you start from a template, you really must plan ahead first since how you build the app will depend on your approach.

Note: They now added a new option called blank website, which basically allows you to create a no-code website.

Naturally, once you’re set on how you want to design your app, you can then link the app to data sources or storage that’s vital to the app.

If you’re wondering about how well Power Apps work with SharePoint, well, it works really well since you can even embed an app to a site:

SharePoint lists and document libraries have built-in integration options as well as you can see in the first idea below.

Note: For a guide to lists, check here: Introduction to Microsoft Lists: The Modern SharePoint List.

Creative ideas for using Microsoft Power Apps

If you’re not sure how to start using Power Apps in your business, here are some ideas that might help spark your creativity:

1. Create an app from a list

Do you have a SharePoint list that you wish was an app?

There are many types of lists that you can create in SharePoint — from an issue tracker to a content scheduler.

You can even create custom lists when needed.

Fortunately, if you want to make that list an app, you can easily do so using Power Apps in a few clicks:

What’s amazing here is that what changes happen in the app or in the source list are synced with one another.

That’s because PowerApps automatically saves the app in the cloud — though you can also do a custom save when you need to.

This is great for cases when you:

• Need to distribute a list to users and allow them an easy to manipulate it
• Use a list as a database and you want it in app form
• Want to create an app using the information from a list

Note: For a detailed guide regarding this idea, check out my article on using Power Apps in SharePoint Online.

2. Create a cascading dropdown

This next idea still relates to SharePoint. Specifically, I’m talking about making it easy for users to use forms through cascading.

With a cascading dropdown, you link a parent item to child options so when a user selects a parent item, he/she can only see options related to it.

This is a good example:

This helps clean up child dropdowns and avoids confusing the user and making the person select an option that’s not related to the parent item.

Power Apps plays a large role in this. There is some lookup logic that you need. But without PowerApps, this will not work.

This is great for cases when you:

• Use forms on your sites that need this functionality
• Have lots of parent-child dropdowns in your forms

Believe me — if you have forms that need this functionality, your users and administrators will love you for it.

Note: For more detailed instructions, check out my article on how to create a cascading dropdown.

3. Simplify data entry

Do you need more automation in regard to data entry?

Well, there are many issues with data entry. Most of it has something to do with the manual work that needs to be done after data is collected.

But what if there was a way to automate that? Like, update an Excel file in real time where the data are stored?

What’s great is that you can actually do this quite easily. Even easier if you’re using a SharePoint list for this.

You can even do data validation on the forms so forms that don’t follow rules in any field are not accepted.

This is great for cases when you:

• Need to create a form that automatically syncs with a storage platform or database
• Want to automate data entry-related tasks like profile creation, information update, etc.

4. Automate file sharing

File sharing is rarely a problem these days with the help of cloud technology. Even Microsoft has one with its OneDrive service.

But what if you need to update the same file to different locations?

The current solution today is to manually upload your file to different services. This is okay — until you need to do this regularly.

By using Power Apps, you can create:

• A page that will serve as the location where files are dropped
• A flow that will automate reuploading the file to different storage locations

This is great for cases when you:

• Need to drop off the same file to multiple locations
• Want your team to save a few minutes a week uploading files

Note: For more information on how Flow works, check out my article on the basics of flow and how it can save time.

5. Automate email notification

How many emails do you receive every week?

Well, there is a reason why a job regarding email management exists. Because managing so many emails is a hassle.

But what if there was a way to be picky and only get updated for emails that matter to you — like new updates on a specific list or new files uploaded to a certain location?

What’s even amazing is that OneDrive and SharePoint already have this functionality. Check out these articles for more information:

• How to Set Up Sharepoint Email Notification Alerts
• How to Set Up a Mail Flow Rule for External Email Messages

My point here is on cases that aren’t covered by the built-in features. Fortunately, the same can still be covered by Power App Flow.

This is great for cases when you:

• Need notifications for specific types of emails received
• Need a way to automatically manage your inbox

There are certainly a lot of ideas you can use PowerApps for — like for business problems that can be solved with automation.

Besides the ideas above, here are others you can try:

• Create your own innovation app
• Create an onboarding app
• Automate help desk
• Create your own modern community

Do you have some questions regarding Power Apps? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Need professional help? Reach out to me using the contact page for business inquiries and I’ll get back to you asap.