Save time building Flows using Copy and Paste for your Actions

Microsoft just release the preview some long-awaited functionality that allows users to easily copy and paste actions for re-use.  This functionality will save makers significant amount of time when reusing actions within a Flow or across different Flows.

Copying Actions

To copy an action to the clipboard, all you need to do is click the ellipses and select Copy to my clipboard.

Once an action has been saved, you can add it as a new step by selecting My clipboard from the action chooser and clicking the action you want to paste.

You can even have a peek at the code by hovering on top of the (i) to the right of the action name

Save even more time with scopes

Scopes are collections of actions.  They are great if you want to move around a group of actions without having to move one by one.  With the addition of the Copy to my clipboard functionality, you are now able to copy an entire group of actions.  The caveat here is that variables cannot be initialized inside a scope.  So you have to be careful when you want to paste a scope somewhere within the Flow before the variables it's referring to are declared.

Copy actions across Flows

Yes, you read correctly!  The clipboard works across Flows as well.  But as with the scopes, you need to carefully review the copied actions.  If you are consistent with your naming convention, you may save some time here, as they may include references to dynamic content not found in the new Flow.

Clearing the Clipboard

The copied actions remain in the clipboard until you exit Flow completely. 


Note that this functionality is still in Preview, but will undoubtedly change the way we create Flows!