Microsoft Power Apps for Beginners From Idea to App!

hi Jamie here today at teachers Tech  today I want to show you how to use   Microsoft power apps this is a beginner's  tutorial so I'm going to start right at the   beginning and go through it step by step  if you've never heard of Microsoft power   apps this is a great way to build apps for  your organization and it is super easy to use if you're new to the concept of Microsoft  power apps it's like having a magic tool that will

help you build your own custom apps without having  to be a tech wizard imagine it this way you have a   box of Lego blocks but for building apps that can  do all sort of tasks for you like organizing data   automating routine task or even managing events  in short Microsoft power apps is like having an   app Factory that's easy to use it will help you  at work and you don't need a computer science   degree to start using it the apps that we create  with Microsoft power apps are either going to be

for the web or mobile after we go through and  create ours today I'll show you how to share that   out in those different ways as well but let's get  started with how do we access Microsoft power apps   so here's a quick way and I'll put this link Down  Below in the description you can start from this   page and you can start for free but where I  would tend to uh start because I already have   a Microsoft 365 account is if I go ahead and get  just logged in to my office. com or my Microsoft   365 and up put a link to this below also I can  go ahead and get this app I'm going to go to   the app launcher right up here and if you don't  see it here and mine is here because I've opened   it before you can go to explore all apps and I'm  just going to go over to here and click all apps   so this is the list of all my Microsoft 365 apps  I have available for me as I scroll down here is   power apps they're in alphabetical order as you  go across and down so I'm going to just click on   power apps here and when this opens up we're at  the SP spot where we can create start creating

our first app in Microsoft power apps let's take  a quick look at the layout of Microsoft power apps   if we go over to the left we have the navigation  panel here and if you're familiar with Microsoft   power automate you'll recognize the same kind of  layout that it has for all these and it even has   the flows I'll put a link to my video about how  to use Microsoft power automate Down Below in the   description and up above in card but I want to  point out so we're under the homepage right now   and I'm going to be starting with data right here  we have three different options to start but I can   go to create here and uh I can select from this  option too we have the learn there's lots of good   tutorials that you can pick from then they'll  walk you through with exercises on it and once   we create our apps this is where you're going to  find them now uh over here when I upload the Excel   spreadsheet that I will in a moment it's going  to create a table and our tables are going to   be stored right here I'm going to go back to the  home and I'm going to click start with data these

other two I'll talk about at the end of the video  so if I click Start with data and we can do a few   different things I'm going to upload an Excel file  here but we can start with a blank now notice it   says switch and create so I'm going to have to  switch environments to do this so I'm going to   go ahead and do this and now what you're going  to see is that I have this available and I'm   going to come back to the environment what I just  switched to in a moment I'm going to hit back down   here and you can see I can also use an existing  table so if I click on it uh right through here   these are some of the ones that already are  already in uh with power apps I could select   some of those tables or I could select to external  data so I could go from like a SharePoint list on   a page and that works great for this uh you could  go from an Excel file in one drive or you could   go from SQL uh I'm not doing it in this tutorial  but I'm going to hit back so this is the Excel

file that I'm going to upload so let's say in this  organization I always find that we're sharing uh   our favorite picks from movies or maybe streaming  services and I like what other people are saying   so we started this Excel file here uh you can  see with the employee names and the titles and   streaming service and so on but I want to find an  easier way uh to do this so we're going to make   an app so people can just open their phone or they  can go on their computer and simply enter in maybe   they've watched something good and uh it shares  it with all of us they can enter from the app or   even search what is there so you notice there's  no table or anything this is just data uh with   some columns in a Microsoft Excel uh sheet here  let's upload our Excel file I'm just clicking on   it and at this point I could drag the Excel file  right into here or select from device I'm going   to go get the file mine is called employee  favorites and hit open it uploads that Excel file

and creates a table from that so this is going to  be in the dataverse uh uploaded to it I believe   it's a 5 Meg uh Max on the size of the file for  these now you can see the uh the different column   headers here that was were created and then the  information that was in the file I can actually   clear out the information I can show you how to do  that uh in a bit in case you wanted to start from   scratch first of all I don't want this to just be  called table I want this to be called staff pick   so I'm just going to go and give this a different  name just so it's easier to identify uh later I'm   not going to change any of these options here  this is just a beginner's uh tutorial so we'll   keep things pretty basic notice uh over here it  took the uh First Column as headers here it's   turned off I can turn this uh off  it was selected on and I'm going to leave it like   that so what I want to point out on each of these  columns now if I drop down if I wanted to edit a   column you can see how it CHS what the format so  this is format text and that's fine that's what I   want and this would be format text as well uh the  reason why I put some data in here is because it   recognized what was already in there so in the  case of if I uh move over here if I drop down   it recognized that this was a number part right  here and this was a phone number and or an email   so what it does if I go and edit the column notice  that the format is already an email so that makes   it so if the person clicked on it would go  ahead and uh you know open up the email so you   could email a person and same thing if I go here  uh the format this time went text I could change   this to phone number and update it and then uh I  can make sure all my columns are uh the way I want   now once you get those all set up you can just go  below here and hit create the app and it's going   to go ahead and start creating it for you here's  our app it took that Excel file uploaded it to the

data verse and now we have this canvas of this app  that it put together I can see they have a search   they have a place where we can add new records in  it and we can go through and view what people have   but let's go ahead and run this to begin with if  I go here pre the app or F5 it will show me in on   different devices so right now I was on my phone  before but depending on what you pick you can see   on browser so if I was going to go to Canvas size  here's this uh if I go and change it back to the   phone I can pick a specific phone you can see from  the different ones here so if I go and pick the   iPhone 14 pro Max and I can go through and see how  everything's working in here so if I was going to   go and click new it even has that already where  I could be entering in this information on it so   you can go and play with it right away uh to see  maybe even on a tablet what it would look like and   how things would be working already I'm just going  to exit out of here because some of these things   might not be exactly the way I wanted to look and  I want to make some changes to it before we make   any changes I'm just going to go ahead and hit  save up here you can see the shortcut crl s and   after it's saved I'm just going to go and you can  see that it's saving as it turns right there and   now that it's saved I'm just going to hit back  here and I'm going to hit leave because if you   do have to access your app again I want to show  you where it is for quick access to go back into   it I can click it right here for staff picks or I  can go to the apps list and select it right here   and it will open it back up I just want to point  out with the tables once I uploaded that it if   I scroll down uh this was created right here so  this staff pick table is Created from uploading   that file now I just want to show you one more  thing so notice it says up here this developer   this is a developer environment and not meant for  production so I'm using the data verse right now   when I uploaded uh the way I did I had to switch  environments up top right here I'm just going to   click on this and notice that I'm build apps in  the data verse now I don't have a subscription   for this part and so but I can still show you  how to do everything you can practice building   in here you could do it a different way uh with  connecting with your uh business account or your   365 uh through an external like one drive or  SharePoint but in this tutorial I am using the   data verse and it is a developer environment but  all the things you can still work on just the same   so I just want to make sure that you understood  you can switch back and forth by switch to this   one you're not going to see the apps because  that's a different environment but now what I want   to do is just go back and open staff picks and  it will get me back into the app so I can start   formatting it so let's do some formatting now of  this app and first of all I'm going to open up the

tree view uh because this shows me exactly what  I'm clicked on and sometimes it works a little   easier to navigate now we have our app and our  main screen so this is our main screen that we   have over here uh you can add more screens we're  just working with one screen in this power apps   tuto tutorial but you can add more I could put a  button that goes to another screen uh if I drop   this you can see all the different components that  make up this main screen so if I select this right   here this screen container notice that went around  the whole thing here and I have some options for   properties on the other side so I can expand the  properties paint over here and this is where   I can make some changes here to my screen uh my  container so example if I go ahead and select the   color change here and I'll just pick let's say  a green you can see how it quickly changed the   background here as well or if I wanted it to be  transparent if I had a picture in the background   I'll show you how you can add a picture in a  moment now I can select other objects in here   and you'll notice that it changes what's selected  so this right here is the Side Bar container and   as I move through here's the search selected or I  could click in here so if I go and click once and   move down here this is selected these four things  are under the email uh data card so if I click   airor message you can see how it's changing within  that area here now if I was just clicking once on   it this gets selected but I can double click to  get to what I want and it shows what is selected   so I want to make sure you have the correct things  s selected before you make any changes so notice   at this point if I go up to the search here I'm  going to click on the search and you can see I   have this search input selected when I have this  search input uh selected I have options up here to   change color so I could quickly this is the font  this first one this is the border the background   you'll see if I change this orange it makes that  quick change I can undo or use contrl Z to go back   back a step now if I have a container so if I pick  body container notice that those options aren't   there but if I have that body container selected  I do have the options for the properties here   where I can uh make some changes so just to show  you what I'm changing if I turn this to Blue you   can see how that body container one changes so I'm  just going to go undo that step now if I wanted to   let's say change the background image that's going  to be under the main screen here and notice   I have a background image or image position I can  go and add an image so I could upload uh let's say   this movie night one and hit open and I'm going to  just replace because I already uploaded it at once   and how do I want it to fit the background so I  could have it go fit or stretch uh so depending on   the proportions of the picture you can play around  with different ones but now you see there is I can   see a little bit of the popcorn and everything  I've put an image to the back background so I   could go through do I want things like this to be  transparent do I want to uh change the font size   so notice as I change the font size this becomes  larger so really it's about selecting what you   want to change and then looking uh if it's not a  container you're going to see the options up here   but you always have the properties over here to  make all these different changes to it so we can   go through and change the app how you would like  notice that I have things without spaces so like

employee name show title streaming service uh  when I uploaded it those were the column names   and I should have actually put spaces in it but  I want to show you how you can go back and make   these changes so I'm going to go to the data  here and when I do that this is going to be my   staff pick I'm just going to click on the ellipses  here and edit the data now at this point I can go   to these different column rows I'm going to edit  the column and I'm going to go ahead and just put   spaces on each of these here so on the ones that  I need I'm going to go through and adjust them so   now I've made all those changes to the uh columns  that I have here and if I wanted to delete any of   these I can go and just pick the records that I  want gone and hit delete so those three will be   out of the list I have I'm going to go ahead now  and hit close so notice when I come back to this   now I have less records and I've had those spaces  added uh to the different titles so let's say we

don't want the people just typing in something  like sci-fi or Drama We want to make sure that   they can pick from a list so I'm thinking a drop  down would work really well for here to force them   to pick one of the options so what we're going  to do I have this selected here you can see if   I scroll down I have this one I'm going to go and  open up my cards here I'm going to go from to the   field and select edit when I select edit you can  see all the different fields that we have on here   and notice if you wanted to change the order  notice how email is here if I can drag them   around and put them in different places and this  will change so if I wanted genre first now that's   first I'm going to go and just drop down on the  genre and it's edit text is the control type but   I don't want that I want to have allowed values so  I'm going to force them the values that I want so   once I I've done that I'm just going to hit the  X here so you can see there's a grade in area I   need to make sure I have that selected that area  because this is where I'm going to add the values   too now go over in the properties over here to  the Advance you're going to need to make sure that   it's unlocked to change the property so I'm going  to click unlock there once it's unlocked locked   you can just move down to where it says items and  we're going to just go ahead we can delete this   we're going to start with the square bracket and  then we're going to use our quotation mark so the   first thing I want them to be able to pick from  is drama and then you end your quotation marks   hit comma and then what's the next thing that I  want well let's do comedy and you can change the   the list depending on how you want and make sure  you put your quotation marks after every one and   let's add just a couple more I'm going to go and  add sci-fi here I'll do a hyphen here and uh we'll   just do one more and we can adjust this come back  and you can adjust this if you want at a later uh   point so I'll just call this one Thriller and you  got to make sure you end your square bracket uh   just like this notice that I can see Sci-Fi over  here uh let's see how it works right now I'm going   to go up to the preview here and when I go and  hit new notice I have a drop- down and I have   the four different ones that I've added so if I  was creating a new one a new entry I could create   drama so I forc them into this and I can do this  with other items too as well here's something else

I want to change notice how they put email and  then the genre and the telephone number I don't   really want that information there so I'm just  going to click on this and open up actually the   tree and I want the records Gallery here I'm going  to go over and open up the properties for that and   right here with the fields you can see what they  have selected the phone number the genre and the   email now if I drop down I could pick something  else I could pick employee name and I'll just   close this back up and you'll see now that it's  just the employee name so I can make all those   changes uh depending on which ones I want there  now I can also change the layout of this so if you   look over here for the records Gallery there's  a layout if I drop down I have some different   options uh I could even do image and title if I  have an image there so if I went just title and   changed it like that you can see now there's just  the email coming up and then I could go and do the   selection and change it to just the employee name  so now if I was running it when I click uh and see   different ones here I would be able to just see  their names here and then see the more information   on this side so notice when I made the changes to  the names here I have my search down here but my   new records isn't showing up but if I look over  in my tree menu over here I have new records here   so I'm looking uh for the container this one right  here so you can see it's kind of highlighted what   I want to do is actually move this up to the top  I'm just going to right click on this and notice   that uh there's different options that we can do  I'm going to move this to the top now we have the   new record right at the top with the search so if  I went to the search container now and let's say   I'm going to change the order on this one and I'm  going to move this to the top so now I have my new   record and my search right there so if I go and  play this again now I have the option to search   and I can create my new record in here so I can go  ahead and add new things right here uh to fill up   the different records if I just go ahead and try  running it and then hitting the check mark let's

talk about how we can share this app now before  we go ahead and hit share here you got to make   sure this is saved up and I want to point out this  right here this is publish now if whoever I share   this with who has edit access when I hit save  they're automatically going to see the updates   but if I come back here and make some more changes  I'm going to have to make sure I republish this   again for everybody else that just kind of has  shared access but not edit access so I just want   to make sure uh if you make the changes make sure  you go ahead to P publish it uh for those people   that don't have edit access but I'm going to go  right here and hit share and I'm going to leave   this and you're going to see some options that  come up on how we can share this there's just a   few steps to do we could put individual people  in here right here so if I go and start typing   somebody in my organization that information is  going to come up here now if you didn't want to   type it Name by name and it's for everyone you can  see just type the word everyone and at that point   everyone in the organization would have access you  can send a message with this you can even include   an image I'm just going to uncheck everyone here  and notice now I have some options I'm going to   make Ashton a co-owner so he can uh edit and share  this app but not delete or change owner on this   one and the other thing is I'm going to assign a  sec role to the D database cuz if you are using   these databases you need to uh make sure that  you share them I'm going to just say as a basic   user on this and hit share so if you're using a  Microsoft Excel file through one drive that would   have to be shared with the correct permission  so that people could make changes uh to the   database so here's the email of the person I just  shared it with and they got the message that this   was shared with them they can go on and click the  app and run the app from right here but remember   we are in the developer environment so it's not a  fully functional app it's only for test purposes   of building it and then testing it from over there  if you want to use it on your phone just download

the app and when you open it up and connect to  the same account you're going to see that you   have your recent apps right there and you can go  ahead and open it up so notice that a new version   of my app is available tap to update now and  remember again any changes that you make inside   of your uh app to make sure that you republish it  so everybody has access to the newest one now I'm   just back on the apps page at the power apps page  here and you can see here is the staff top picks   that we've created here I can edit like I showed  you before I can hit play from here to run the app   again remember this is for development purpose  test only but the other thing I want to show

you can quickly add this to Microsoft teams so  if I just click the ellipses here I want to point   out share so if I go share I can go add to teams  then we're going to have some options here to go   through an ad so you can see the advanced settings  and different ones I'm just going to go ahead and   hit add the teams I have the option of downloading  and teams would let you upload too I'm going   to just click add to teams here uh I'm going to  use just stay with teams online I'm going to hit open now this is the staff top picks if I drop  down you notice I can add to a team or to a chat   here I'll just click add and you can see on the  side we have our app right here staff toop picks   if I rightclick on this we can open in a new  window we can pin it or uninstall it from this   point too now that you know how to customize your  app from scratch when we started with data do take   a look at these two options here so you can start  with a page design and it gives you an idea of   the page designs how they're set up or you could  start with a template and take a look at some of   the templates that you could start with that can  save you a lot of time and now that you know how   to customize these you can go ahead and select a  template and still make the changes you want to   color or different changes that I showed you when  we went through the tutorial here today so I hope   you like this uh how to use Microsoft power  apps beginners tutorial again we're using the   developer uh playground here in order to practice  but not to put things into production use thanks   for watching this time on teachers Tech I'll see  you next time with more Tech tips and tutorials