@WonderLaura – Laura Rogers

Microsoft Loop is a great tool for sharing notes, checklists, agendas and more.  One of its more powerful features is in task management and tables. These help you work more efficiently by letting you make tables with rules that work well with Microsoft Power Automate for easy task automation. By making rules in your tables, you can make things happen automatically (kick off a flow) when certain conditions are met, giving you more control over how you manage and assign tasks. In this post, I’ll explore how Microsoft Loop and Power Automate work together, helping you get the most out of automating tasks in Microsoft 365.

Overview of Microsoft Power Automate and Microsoft Loop

The Power of Microsoft Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate is a service that enables users to create automated workflows between applications and services, streamlining repetitive tasks and processes. Users can design workflows that automatically carry out tasks such as sending notifications, synchronizing files, collecting data, and more. Here’s a post I wrote: What is Power Automate?

Understanding Microsoft Loop

Microsoft Loop is a versatile Microsoft 365 app that facilitates collaboration and organization through fluid components. It allows users to create dynamic tables and lists that can be shared and edited by multiple team members in real-time. Loop components can be embedded in various Microsoft 365 applications, such as Teams, Word and Outlook, allowing for consistent and up-to-date information across different platforms. The strength of Loop lies in its capacity to adapt to the evolving needs of a project or workflow, with changes made by any user reflecting immediately for everyone collaborating on it. This dynamic, real-time updating ensures that teams are always working with the latest data, enhancing decision-making and project management. Loop’s integration with Power Automate further expands its functionality, turning it into a powerful automation tool that responds to the changing conditions within your data.

Task lists in Microsoft Loop

In Loop, a task list is not just one type of table, it’s got a couple of extra pieces of functionality.

• It’s a template that already has the columns you need for tasks, such as due date and assigned to
• It also integrates with Microsoft Planner and To Do!

In this set of steps, I’ll use a task list because it not only has the integration piece, but also has this ability to create rules, just like in all tables in Loop.

Step-by-step Guide

Creating a Table in Microsoft Loop

1. One quick way to create a Loop table is in a Teams chat. Click the Loop icon in a chat, and click Table. (creating a task list will work, too)

(Note: Another way to create one of these, is from within an email)

2. Create columns and rows according to the data you plan to capture. For instance, you might create columns for tasks, due dates, responsible team members, and status updates. You can fill rows with specific tasks and their corresponding details. The interface is user-friendly and allows for easy modifications, such as adding or removing rows and columns or adjusting the width to suit your content.

Notice in this picture, in Loop I’ve got a table on the top “Progress tracker table” and a list of “Tasks” below it. Notice the difference. There’s a little extra button at the top right of the task list, for task apps. Learn how tasks are synced. Both of these types of tables will allow the creation of rules.

With your table set up, you can then proceed to define the conditional rules that will connect this data to Power Automate for subsequent automation. With tasks, there is already some automation built in. For example, you’ll get an email when a task is assigned to you, or when a task’s due date is imminent.

Setting Conditional Rules in Microsoft Loop

After establishing a table in Microsoft Loop, the next step is to create conditional rules that dictate how and when automated actions should be triggered. These rules act as the backbone of workflow automation, enabling the table to interact with Microsoft Power Automate. Setting up a rule is straightforward: simply decide on the conditions that must be met for an action to occur.

3. Create a rule. When a task’s “priority” column is updated to “High,” Power Automate sends an immediate notification email to the “owner” of the task and their supervisor. This ensures high-priority tasks are communicated effectively and can be acted upon promptly. Click the ellipsis at the top of the table or task list.

4. My rule is going to be if the priority gets set to high, send an email. Notice that there are a few options for sending Teams messages. You can pick any of these and you’ll still have the ability to change it completely within the flow interface. Meaning, you’re not stuck with the only options being email or Teams. Click Continue.

5. Notice that the next screen lets you know which connectors that the flow will use. Click Next.

6. Fill in the next screen. Notice that there is no ability here to insert dynamic data, but that’s okay because you’ll be able to edit all of this in the flow in the next step. Fill in your name and type a subject, or fill in the Teams info, and click Create flow.

Integrating Microsoft Power Automate

Integrating Microsoft Power Automate with your Microsoft Loop tables is a crucial step in harnessing the full potential of task automation. For instance, when a Loop table row is updated, this can be the trigger. From there, you can define the action—such as sending an email, creating a calendar event, or updating a SharePoint list. Power Automate offers a wide range of actions to choose from, which includes hundreds of connectors. It also allows for custom responses if you’re dealing with a more unique workflow.

7. Go to make.powerautomate.com. Click on My flows. I’ve created two different rules in Loop, and notice that I have two flows with the loop icon. The one I just created is Send an email.

8. Click to edit your new flow. Send an email ( 2ip2 ) is what mine is called, but I’ll be able to change the name.

The Loop trigger is called Triggers when a rule in Loop gets triggered. The next action that gets the data is called Get the message content for a rule. Those don’t need to be modified. If you’d like to edit the email, click on the Send an email action. You can also see that the name of the flow is at the top left. Click that text and type a new name if you’d like. You can also add many more actions and make your flow do anything else that you need to happen automatically according to that condition.

All done! You’ve created a Microsoft Loop table, created a table rule, and opened up the flow to see how it can be edited. This is what that parsed message in the email body looks like:

Here’s a video where I taught how to use task lists in Loop:

Resources:

Microsoft Loop Plans & Pricing

João Ferreira How to embed Microsoft Loop pages in SharePoint