Copy-Paste & Upload Your Way to Faster Data Entry in Power Apps
If you’ve ever copied structured data from an email, spreadsheet, or document and then painstakingly filled it into a form field by field… this one’s for you.
This is a game-changer for speeding up processes like creating a new record from a project briefing document or a supplier spec sheet.
How it Works
Smart Paste leverages AI to detect patterns in copied content, such as labels followed by values, and attempts to map those to corresponding fields on your form.
No need to fiddle with controls or manually match labels. Just copy the structured text, click the new “Paste Copied Info” button at the top of your form, and Power Apps does the rest.
You can even simply upload a document to the Form Fill Assistant, and let Smart Paste extract as much information as it can from the form.
You can review and confirm the field mapping before applying it, ensuring everything is accurate.
Real Example: Creating a New Project from a Briefing Document
Let’s take a practical example.
We’ve been sent a document containing some basic project information—project name, start date, estimated value, and so on. Rather than filling out each field manually, we’ll use Smart Paste to pull the data straight into our Project form in Power Apps.
Step 1: Copy / Upload the project info from a document
The image to the right shows a word document containing project information.
Step 2: Open your Project form (or any other table type) and click “Paste Copied Info”, or upload the document by clicking the upload as per the image to the right.
Step 3: Review the field mapping and confirm the changes
Tip… In order to use Smart Paste on fields in seperate tabs, you will need to first navigate to the tab you wish to enter data on, and either paste or upload from there.
Why This Matters in Construction CRM Scenarios
For teams working in construction or selling to the built environment, this feature can seriously reduce admin time.
Think about how often you receive structured information,perhaps from contractors, tender documents, or project briefs. With Smart Paste, even non-technical users can create project records in seconds.
This makes your CRM not only more accurate but much faster to use, especially for people who just want to get the job in the system and move on.
This is a game-changer for speeding up processes like creating a new record from a project briefing document or a supplier spec sheet.
Final Thoughts
Small features like Smart Paste can make a big impact, especially when your team is dealing with project data every day. It’s one more way Microsoft is reducing friction in business apps and helping people spend more time on what matters.
If you’re already using model-driven apps in Power Apps, there’s a good chance Smart Paste is available to you. To get started, just look for the “Paste Copied Info” button at the top of your form. If you don’t see it yet, your system admin can enable it in the form settings via the Power Apps Maker Portal.
We’ll be experimenting more with this in our own Project-CRM implementation and will share more tips soon.
Contact the team at KMS to find out more about this feature, and other new developments available to our customers.