Automatically generate a branded monthly report from a text-heavy Sharepoint list?

[Walker]

I'm trying to do something people have been doing since before computers, Microsoft, or Office 365 ever existed:-

Take a set of data about a number of different matters my team is working on (a sharepoint list featuring column headers such as "Client Name", "Client Number", and "Notes from Monthly Client Meeting") and present it in an attractive, company-branded, monthly report.

Currently my team maintain this data in a Sharepoint List, and then, each month, I export it into Excel, and use it as the basis for an awkward mailmerge which generates something fairly close to what's needed.

It seems to me this is quite a long-standing and broadly needed function and the steps I go through are very mundane and lean themselves towards automation.

It may be that Flow isn't the right place to find the solution, but is there anything in Microsoft Office 365 that can generate this report fully automatically?

Thanks for any help.

[v-yuazh-msft]

Hi @ Walker,

Do you want to use Microsoft flow to generate a branded monthly report from a text-heavy Sharepoint list automatically?

Could you please share more details about how would you create the monthly report from a sharepoint list?

Microsoft flow support to create a excel with some special columns from a sharepoint list currently, if you would like to create a excel with some special columns from a sharepoint list, you could take a try to create a flow use “get items” action firstly, then you could add an “Apply to each” to insert each row to a excel table with special columns as screenshot below:

If you would to use Microsoft flow to generate a branded monthly report from a text-heavy Sharepoint list automatically, please share more details about the monthly report, so we could answer you whether your needs could be achieved in Microsoft flow.

Regards,
Alice Zhang

[anhthuch4ng]

Hi @Walker,

Have you had a chance to apply @v-yuazh-msft's suggestions to your work scenario as described above?

If yes and you found that solution to be satisfactory, please go ahead and mark @v-yuazh-msft's reply as the "Accepted Solution". 🙂


Happy Flowing,
-AT (Flow Community Admin)

[Walker]

Hi there - thanks for your reply which covers one small part of the task. Overall the motnhly project is:-

• Export Sharepoint List as Excel document
• Save Excel File
• Use Excel File as source data for Word Directory Mailmerge
• Add Table of Contents

Your reply addresses that first part to some degree.

It requires that an Excel Workbook already be set up and saved somewhere with a table in it. I'm not sure in what way Office is failing but currently I cannot use excel workbooks stored in our team shared space as the data source for a mailmerge.

Further, the method outlined adds a new line for each item in the sharepoint list, so that, if a matter has already been reported on in a previous month, this flow described, will duplicate that item and add it as a new row.

Thanks a lot, but this doesn't really help me.

[tauseefmsk]

Is possible to Export SharePoint List Items into a Word Document with out use of template as i do not have premium connector on my work account.