- Release Notes
- Getting Started
- Tutorials
- Automation Projects
- Creating Automations
- Automation Basics
- Object Repository
- Automation Best Practices
- Tutorial: Creating a Pivot Table
- Tutorial: Iterating Through Rows in a Table
- Tutorial: Comparing Excel Files and Emailing Reconciliation Errors
- Tutorial: Extracting Data From Automated Emails and Moving It to a Desktop Application
- Tutorial: Filtering Data in Excel
- Tutorial: Formatting Cells
- Tutorial: Adding Information About the Files in a Folder to an Excel File
- Tutorial: Adding Your Own Formulas to the Project Notebook
- PowerPoint Automation
- Data Automation
- Common Activities
- Google Workspace Automation
- OneDrive & SharePoint Automation
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Tutorial: Extracting Data From Automated Emails and Moving It to a Desktop Application
In this tutorial, we will create an automation that makes it easy to extract specific data from blocks of text that follow a certain format. Let's imagine that you work in a bank and receive many email notifications related to new deposit transactions. You must open each email, manually copy the amounts and paste them into a teller application, and then move each processed email to an Outlook folder. The emails are automated, they all follow a template and the same text always appears next to the amounts you need in the email body. For example:
!!!This is an automated message, please do not respond.
A new deposit transaction can be submitted:
Cash in: $10
On Us Check: $20
Not On Us Check: $15
Thank you.
!!!This is an automated message, please do not respond.
A new deposit transaction can be submitted:
Cash in: $10
On Us Check: $20
Not On Us Check: $15
Thank you.
The default Project Notebook contains formulas that can extract only the needed amounts. We will manually edit the Project Notebook to extract the values from one email, as described in Step 2: Set up a project and get the necessary files , and then configure our automation to extract the same values from all similar emails.
The automation performs the following tasks for each email in an Outlook Search Folder containing the most recent unread automated emails related to deposit transactions:
- Copies the body of the email and pastes the data to the Project Notebook where specific data is extracted using Excel formulas for text manipulation.
- Enters the data field by field in a desktop application and submits the data.
- Marks the email as read and moves it to an Outlook folder for processed emails.
We will create a project and start by adding a Use Desktop Outlook App activity to indicate the Outlook account to use. We will then add a For Each Email activity, and then, to indicate the automation must be executed for each email, we will place all subsequent activities inside For Each Email. We will add a Write Cell activity to copy the body of each email to a specific cell in the Project Notebook. We will then add the UI automation activities needed to enter the data in our desktop application, and finally activities to mark the email as read and move the email .