Simplify Office Automation with OpenBots

Word Command Group

The Word command group in OpenBots Studio contains application specific commands, that allow bots to interact with an existing or new Word document throughout an automation. As the first step of any Word automation, the user must include the “Create Word Application” command. This command will allow the creation of an “OBAppInstance” variable, which holds the information for a particular Word document (new or existing). This instance variable, can then be employed as input for all other Word commands available, allowing the bot to perform modifications, extractions, or additions to the referenced document, such as append text, append images, export to pdf, replace text, and more. In addition, the created instance variable can be passed across obscripts as arguments, in order to modularize a series of actions performed on a singular Word document.

OpenBots Word Commands include:

Excel Command Group

Similarly, the Excel command group contains application specific commands that allow bots to interact with an existing or new Excel document throughout an automation. Following the same structure employed for Word automation, the inclusion of the Create Excel Application command will be required as the first step when developing an Excel automation. The instance variable created can then be utilized to reference the targeted Excel document through the various commands available. It is a common practice in RPA to assist Excel automation by employing DataTable commands to perform data manipulation and processing. For instance, spreadsheet information can be extracted into a DataTable variable by employing the “Get Range” Command which can be modified during the course of the automation using the commands available under the DataTable command group. As a last step, the adjusted DataTable variable can be written back into the spreadsheet using the “Write Range” command.

OpenBots Excel Commands include:

Additional Excel commands include support for Pivot Table and Excel Tables, such as: Create Pivot Table, Refresh Pivot Table, Create Excel Table, Filter Excel Table, Sort Excel Table, and more.

Outlook Command Group

The Outlook command group enables bots to perform email automations by accessing the Outlook Application set on the machine executing the process. Before using the Outlook commands, it is necessary to ensure the user is logged into Outlook, as this will be the account employed by the bot to execute the directed tasks. The main functionalities surrounding Outlook automation can be divided into two general groups: sending emails and retrieving emails/email information. It is a common practice within the RPA world to utilize emails as a way to maintain communication between the bot and the business user. For instance, a summary or report can be sent at the end of any given automation, containing vital information about the run. On the other hand, a common use case among businesses is using a specific criterion as triggers to utilize incoming emails for certain automations.

OpenBots Outlook Commands include:

Office 365 is used by over a million companies worldwide, and over 731,000 companies in the United States alone (statista.com). The Microsoft Office Suite is a critical and common tool set within businesses of all sizes and often is used for repetitive manual tasks by employees. This makes processes using these programs very common and ideal for process automation.

As illustrated, with OpenBots, users can create automations using various crucial Microsoft Office suite commands to help save them time spent on daily/weekly/monthly tasks. Interested in learning more about OpenBots in-built Microsoft Office Commands? Request a demo today!