Microsoft Power Apps Beginner: Getting Started

Name: Microsoft Power Apps Beginner: Getting Started
Author: Devan Walton

Learn low-code app development with Microsoft Power Apps by building canvas, model-driven, and portal apps

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Course: On-Demand

Hello, my name is Devin, and in these lessons you will learn how to sign up for Power Apps and also how to sign into your Power Apps account. You will also learn some of the basics for navigating the interface of Power Apps, both for creating an application, and also for managing existing applications. You will also learn what a low-code development environment means, and also pick up some key terms and concepts that are necessary for success on the Power Apps platform. In this lesson, I will show you how to navigate the fundamentals of a low-code development environment. By the end of this lesson, you will have an understanding of what it means to develop in a low-code environment like Power Apps, rather than a traditional coding environment like Visual Studio's code. When I talk about a traditional development environment, I'm talking about a development environment where you need to have some mastery of a coding language like JavaScript, C++, or C-sharp, and where you're using these languages to explicitly define every feature and element of your application. All of that will have to be explicitly declared within your code, within a formal coding environment like Visual Studio's code. Visual Studio's code provides minimal assistance with actually doing this implementation. It's not going to tell you what you need to type out to implement a button. It's assuming you already know that. This varies quite significantly from a low-code development environment like Power Apps, where the environment assists you with actually implementing things like a text label or a button or a data gallery. For instance, if we wanted to implement a button, all we would need to do is click on this Insert button on the top taskbar and select whatever element we want to implement within our application. So if we wanted to implement a button, we would just click on the button option and the button would appear on our Preview Canvas. Once on our Preview Canvas, we could just click and drag this button to wherever we want to appear within our application. We don't have to define anything, we don't have to type out any code to move it, we just drag and drop. Similarly, if we wanted to resize the button, we wouldn't have to define a height and width, we could just grab one of the little circles on the perimeter of the button, click and drag to expand or decrease the size of the button. You'll notice that on the right side of the screen, a Properties panel opens when we click on an element. This panel allows us to modify the button. So if we wanted to modify what the button says, we could just go to the Text parameter and we could modify it from saying button to say hello, and then we can see that change reflected on our App Screen Preview. If we wanted to change the size of the text, all we would have to do is look for the font size parameter and just modify that to be larger. So rather than being 15, we could increment it up to be 35, so that the text on the button would appear larger. We could do the same thing for color or we could change it from being blue to be red all through a pick menu rather than having to explicitly type things out. Now if we want to actually modify what happens when we click the button, we have to use a bit of logic that will have to be explicitly typed out. Fortunately, this isn't as complicated as learning a language like C Sharp or JavaScript. The logic for managing buttons and other elements within Power Apps is very similar to the logic that's used for things like conditional formatting in Excel. We'll get into that on a later lesson. For now, we can just assume that low-code environments provide us with the necessary scaffolding to implement the features that we want in our application without needing to know how to code. Stay tuned for the next lesson where I will show you how to sign up for Power Apps and also how to sign in for Power Apps. Thank you for watching.

Beginner Provider : Devan Walton 4 Lessons · 19m in English

Course Description

In these lessons, you’ll get started with Power Apps, Microsoft's low-code development platform that allows building apps quickly without coding. We’ll cover signing up for an account either through an existing organization or by creating a new Office 365 account. You’ll learn how to log in and navigate the main interface including the home, apps, create, and learn pages. We’ll also explain the core types of apps in Power Apps: highly customizable canvas apps, automatically generated model-driven apps, and externally sharable portal apps.

Next, we’ll dive into the studio designer, the main interface for building apps, explaining key components like the canvas, authoring panel, properties panel, command bar, and action bar. You’ll pick up fundamental skills like how to add buttons and text labels, modify control properties, write basic functions, and preview apps. We’ll also cover essential terminology including controls, properties, functions, and events like onSelect. By the end of these lessons, learners will have a solid foundation for getting started with low-code development in Power Apps.

What You'll Learn

Sign up for a Power Apps account through an existing organization or a new Office 365 account
Navigate the main Power Apps interface, including the home, apps, create, and learn pages
Differentiate between canvas, model-driven, and portal apps
Identify key components of the studio designer, including the canvas, authoring panel, properties panel, command bar, and action bar
Add buttons and text labels, modify control properties, write basic functions, and preview apps
Apply essential terminology such as controls, properties, functions, and events like onSelect

Key Takeaways

Power Apps is Microsoft's low-code development platform that allows building apps quickly without coding.
Power Apps offers three core app types: highly customizable canvas apps, automatically generated model-driven apps, and externally sharable portal apps.
The studio designer is the main interface for building apps and includes the canvas, authoring panel, properties panel, command bar, and action bar.
Fundamental building skills include adding buttons and text labels, modifying control properties, writing basic functions, and previewing apps.
By the end of these lessons, learners have a solid foundation for getting started with low-code development in Power Apps.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this course for?

It is a beginner course for those getting started with Power Apps, Microsoft's low-code development platform for building apps quickly without coding.

What topics does this course cover?

It covers signing up for an account, logging in and navigating the main interface, the core app types (canvas, model-driven, and portal apps), the studio designer and its key components, adding buttons and text labels, modifying control properties, writing basic functions, previewing apps, and essential terminology including controls, properties, functions, and events like onSelect.

What skills will I gain?

You'll learn to differentiate between canvas, model-driven, and portal apps, identify key components of the studio designer, and gain hands-on skills like adding buttons and text labels, modifying control properties, writing basic functions, and previewing apps.

Do I need an existing organization account to start?

No. You can sign up either through an existing organization or by creating a new Office 365 account.

What lessons are included?

The lessons are: Introduction to Power Apps; Signing up for Power Apps; Navigating the Power Apps Interface; and Power Apps Terminology.