Best Way to use Attach to Excel and Launch Excel at the same time

[Anonymous]

I want my automated flow to recognize whether the mentioned Excel file is open or not. If its open, the Attach to Excel action should run, if it is not open, then the Launch Excel action should run.

What are the best ways in which the above mentioned constraint can be overcome?

Insights will be really helpful. Thanks! 

[Agnius · Accepted solution]

The easiest way to do that would be to try and run the Attach to running Excel action first and handle its error. If it fails, then run the Launch Excel action. If it succeeds, then continue without launching Excel.

An alternative could be using the If process action and checking if the Excel process is running. If it is, you could assume that the document is already open and use Attach to running Excel. But this approach is risky, because you could have an existing Excel process, but a different document, which would still lead to Attach to running Excel failing. There is no way to check the exact document that is open solely based on the process, apart from using some custom scripting in VBscript, PowerShell or CMD actions.

If the Excel instance is visible, you could also use the If window action and check if an Excel window with the specific file name is open, since the file name will be in the window title. Then, if it is open, you can use the Attach to running Excel to attach to it. But if the instance is not visible, that won't work.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
If I have answered your question, please mark it as the preferred solution. If you like my response, please give it a Thumbs Up.

I also provide paid consultancy and development services using Power Automate. If you're interested, DM me and we can discuss it.

[MichaelAnnis]

Perfect answer, as always. 2 thumbs up.  idk why, but when I click it, it gives 2, haha!

[Agnius]

Haha, it says your Kudo weighs 2: 

Must be because you're a super user - meaning that if you kudo someone, the post really deserves it, haha.

[Anonymous]

On Attach to Excel block error, the flow will go to the end of the block, running the Launch Excel Action. If there was no errors, the flow will jump to the label "Attached to Running Self Setup Instance". 

Thanks for the insights @Agnius & @MichaelAnnis !

P.S: Added y'all to my friends list😃

[Agnius]

To avoid having to use Go to + Label (I have a rule of not using these in our flows), I would have created a sub-flow with the Launch Excel action and made the On block error call that sub-flow if Attach to running Excel failed. But this works, too 😊

[Anonymous]

I believe what you mentioned is a much more cleaner approach than Go To + Label.

Let me see If I could clean up some parts of my workflow.

Thank you very much @Agnius !