In a previous post we discussed how to use PowerApps to enhance your SharePoint list forms. That post focused on using PowerApps with custom lists – but what if you want to use one of SharePoint’s many preinstalled, out of the box lists like Contacts, Tasks and others?

As of this time, it’s not obvious how to use PowerApps with the OOTB SharePoint lists but it is possible. There are a couple of things to know:

1. Currently the OOTB lists still use the Classic SharePoint Experience
2. PowerApps requires the new Modern SharePoint Experience
3. The user experience to create a PowerApps SharePoint list form differs between OOTB lists and custom lists

Let’s go through a simple scenario – we want to create an Action Items list for on of my projects. My project team will use the Action Items list to track items that arise from their project meetings. For this list, we are going to use the OOTB Tasks list template. Let’s get started!

Create the Action Items List

1. Go to your SharePoint team site and click on New > App
2. From the list of apps, click on Tasks
3. For Name, enter Action Items and click on Create
4. Next, click on Action Items to go into the list
5. When you go into an OOTB list, note that it is using the Classic SharePoint Experience. Click on New Task and you will see a standard, classic SharePoint list form like below:

1. Click on Cancel to exit the form
2. Also notice that, unlike a custom list which defaults to a Modern SharePoint Experience, with the Classic SharePoint Experience there is not option to use PowerApps from the list toolbar. To fix this, we need to switch the list from Classic to Modern.

Setting the List Experience

1. On the ribbon, click on List and then List Settings
2. Click on Advanced Settings
3. The very last option is to set the List Experience. Change it to New Experience and click on OK
4. Now click on Action Items to go back to the list view and your list should be in the Modern SharePoint Experience like below:

Customizing the SharePoint Forms with PowerApps

1. Note that now you see the PowerApps option on the list toolbar. HOWEVER, when you click on PowerApps it only gives you the option to Create an app – but the option to Customize Forms is missing.
2. To customize the SharePoint list forms with PowerApps, click on the Gear and then List Settings
3. Click on Form Settings
4. When you go into Form Settings, you will see three options. Click on Customize in PowerApps.
5. The PowerApps Editor will load with your list form like below:

6. Note that the form only has the Task Name field. To add more fields, select the following fields in the Data pane:
   1. Start Date
   2. Due Date
   3. Assigned To
   4. % Complete
   5. Description
   6. Priority
   7. Task Status

7. Next, let’s rearrange the field order. To do this, drag and reorder the fields in the Data pane. Place them in the following order:
   1. Task Name
   2. Description
   3. Assigned To
   4. Priority
   5. Start Date
   6. Due Date
   7. % Complete
   8. Task Status
8. Your form should look like below:

9. You can make other changes to (as described in our previous article) but for now, let’s Save, Publish and Test our form.
10. Click on File > Save
11. Click on Publish to SharePoint > Publish to SharePoint
12. Go back to your Action Items list
13. Click on New
14. Fill out your form with some test data and click on Save

1. That’s it! You’ve now utilized PowerApps with the OOTB SharePoint lists.