Convert Email to PDF Using Power Automate

In this guide, you’ll learn how to automatically convert the body of an incoming email to PDF using Power Automate and Muhimbi PDF Connector. You can use different email services (outlook.com, Outlook for Office 365) as a trigger and send the generated PDF to your desired platform.

Steps to convert emails to PDF using Power Automate:

  1. Create a flow in Power Automate
  2. Define your action
  3. Create a file
  4. Publish your workflow

This example uses Power Automate to convert an email to PDF and archive it in Dropbox. However, you can save your PDF file to SharePoint, Google Drive, OneDrive, or any platform supported by Power Automate.

The Workflow

From a high-level perspective, the workflow looks like what’s shown below.

Convert Email Body to PDF - Overview

The full flow is automatically created by the Convert Email to PDF and archive in DropBox template. After selecting the template, make sure the following fields are changed:

  • Dropbox output folder (for HTML emails) — The Dropbox folder to write the PDF files to.
  • Dropbox output folder (for text emails) — The Dropbox folder to write the PDF files to.

When converting, you’ll need to check the format of the email, as it may appear to be simple, but the content can be represented in HTML, plain text, or RTF. Depending on the format, the body will be sent to either the HTML converter or the text converter.

This flow checks to see if <html’, \<p’, or \<br’ is found in the email body. If yes, it’s sent to the HTML converter. Otherwise, it’s sent to the text converter.

For more details about using Muhimbi’s flow actions, refer to the core concepts Knowledge Base article and our flow-related guides.

Troubleshooting/Caveats

HTML isn’t the best format for print or PDF conversion purposes. Depending on your exact needs and source material, you may need to experiment with various available settings. If you have any questions or require assistance, please feel free to contact us.

Please consider the following when using Power Automate:

  1. Modern views — In SharePoint Online, it’s possible to display lists and libraries in modern or classic mode. Modern view is undergoing constant change (by Microsoft), and some modern view pages will convert fine, while others don’t. As a result, we currently only support the conversion of pages displayed in classic view.

  2. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) — An increasing number of SharePoint Online/Office 365 environments are secured using MFA. Although this is a positive development, it gets in the way of automated systems, including our HTML converter. If your environment uses MFA, create an app password for HTML conversions, or disable MFA on your HTML conversion account.

  3. HTML conversion option isn’t displayed — The option to convert the current page to PDF is only available in classic SharePoint pages. Modern pages currently don’t provide the ability to extend the personal actions menu. As soon as Microsoft makes this functionality available, we’ll add it.

  4. PDF layout doesn’t match — By default, the page being converted is optimized for print/PDF output. If you prefer for a PDF to look exactly like what’s displayed onscreen, including user interface elements, set the Media Type to Screen in the HTML conversion configuration screen.

  5. User-modified content isn’t converted — The converter doesn’t have knowledge about the information currently displayed in the user’s browser (e.g. size of the browser window, or custom data entered but not yet submitted to the server). The converter always requests a fresh copy of the URL and converts that information to PDF.

  6. User-specific information is missing — HTML conversion is carried out in the context of the configured user account, though the system isn’t aware of the user carrying out the HTML conversion. Don’t specify accounts that display more information than what users need to have access to.

Additional Resources

For more information, refer to the following resources.

Power Automate Templates

Articles

Have a Question?
We’re Always Happy to Help.

© Muhimbi Ltd. 2008 - 2024
This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience. Learn more