RPA Desktop Design Studio user interface

Learn about the RPA Desktop Design Studio user interface.

RPA Desktop Design Studio home

With the RPA Desktop Design Studio home page, you can create and open your automation projects, review your work on these projects, and access resources that help you design automations. The default home page of the RPA Desktop Design Studio is shown in the following example.

Create automations, activities, and automation logic additions from text instructions and preview options using the Now Assist for RPA Hub. For more information, see Now Assist for RPA Hub.

When you launch the RPA Desktop Design Studio for the first time, you view a welcome screen to take a quick tour of the desktop studio and learn more about its features. To take a tour, select Next on the welcome screen. The guided tour helps you build your first automation. You can pick your preferred journey to create an automation. You can build an automation with a use case or without a use case. Select Start to begin the guided tour.

From the left navigation bar, which is shown in the following example, of the RPA Desktop Design Studio home page, you can do the following actions.

You can do the following actions from the area marked in red in the following example of the home page of RPA Desktop Design Studio.

• Automation projects- View the list of automation projects that you recently created by selecting the View all. View the recent automation projects in the Recents tab. Mark the required projects as favorites. View the favorite automation projects in the Favorites tab for quick access.

  In the automation card, view the type, name, and description of the automation along with the timestamp of when it was last opened. The automations created using Now Assist for RPA Hub have an AI icon (

• Sample automations- View the list of all sample automations by selecting View all.

  In the sample automation card, view the type, name, and description of the automation.

  For more information, see Use sample automations in RPA Desktop Design Studio.

• Resources- Learn more about RPA Desktop Design Studio documentation, release notes, and ServiceNow University courses. Select a card to navigate to the respective web page.

• What's New- View the new features RPA Desktop Design Studio. For example, you can build your first automation by starting a guided tour. Select Take tour to begin the guided tour.

Design surface

The area marked in red in the following example is the Design surface. You create automations by dragging the components from the Toolbox pane to the Design surface.

You can also create automations by dragging the activities and variables from the Project Explorer pane or by dragging methods and events from the Object Explorer pane.

Create automations, activities, and automation logic additions from text instructions and preview options using the Now Assist for RPA Hub. For more information, see Using Now Assist for RPA Hub.

The Start and End components are the default components in every activity. They’re the starting and ending point of an activity. You can't delete these components.

Enhance the automation logic with text instructions, either on the design surface or by selecting a component or by using the Now Assist for RPA Hub application. For more information, see Build an automation with Now Assist.

When you close this application, you’re logged out of the RPA Desktop Design Studio and the ServiceNow instance.

Here's a list of actions that you can do on the Design surface:

• Select multiple components

  To select multiple components, you can select one or more components by pressing and holding the Ctrl key and then selecting the title bar of the component.

  Alternatively, you can select the mouse device and drag it across the set of components that you want to select.

• Copy, paste, and cut components or methods

  You can copy or cut, and paste components or methods by using the keyboard shortcuts or the context menu.

  To use the keyboard shortcuts, do the following actions.

  • Select the components that you want to copy and press the Ctrl +C keys followed by the Ctrl + V keys.

  • Select the components that you want to cut and press the Ctrl +X keys followed by the Ctrl + V keys. To use the context menu, do the following actions.

  • Select the components that you want to copy or cut.

  • Right-click on the component bar of any of the components.
  • Select Cut or Copy.

To paste the components at the same position on the Design surface from where they’re copied, use the Ctrl + V shortcut.

You can also copy and paste components between different activities and instances of the RPA Desktop Design Studio.

Alternatively, after copying the components, you can right-click and select **Paste** to paste the components at the position that you choose.

• Delete components

  To delete components, select the components that you want to delete, right-click any of the selected components, and select Delete.

  Alternatively, after selecting the components, press the Delete key to delete the components. In the Confirmation dialog box, click Yes.

• Use the zoom settings

  On the Design surface, you can zoom in and zoom out to increase or decrease your view of a specific activity.

  The zoom settings are in the bottom-right corner of the Design surface as shown in the following example.

To zoom out, drag the bar to the left. To zoom in, drag the bar to the right.

Alternatively, you can also use the scroll up and down key with your mouse wheel or track pad while holding the **Ctrl** key to adjust the zoom settings.

• Scroll shortcut

  To scroll horizontally on the Design surface, press the Shift key and scroll using the mouse.

Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access Toolbar, which is shown in the following example, enables you to create, open, save, undo, and redo your automation projects. You can also minimize the ribbon or change the position of the ribbon by using the options that are provided in the toolbar.

Design tab

The Design tab provides you with options that enable you to execute an automation, configure the settings of the RPA Desktop Design Studio, help you with diagnostics, publish options, connect to a ServiceNow instance, and access some other resources such as launching recorder. The following example shows you the options that are displayed with the Design tab.

You can access the following sections by using the Design tab in RPA Desktop Design Studio:

View tab

The View tab, which is shown in the following example, enables you to view the Tool Windows when they’re closed, install extra plugins by using the plugin manager option, view the console log and execution log, find components, and find all references.

You can access the following sections when you use the View tab in RPA Desktop Design Studio:

Project Explorer pane

The area marked in red in the following example is the Project Explorer pane. You can see all the artifacts that are used in the current automation project in this pane. Artifacts include activities, plugins, user plugins, global objects, and forms (if you’re creating an attended automation project).

Toolbox pane

The area marked in red in the following example is the Toolbox pane. You can use this pane to see all the available components and connectors in the RPA Desktop Design Studio.

Components are listed under multiple categories. You can expand each component group to reveal individual components that can be used on the Design surface.

Search for the components that are available within the Toolbox by entering the text in the Filter by Name field.

Properties pane

The area marked in red in the following example is the Properties pane. Each component, connector, activity, or global object has multiple properties that appear in the Properties pane.

Properties help you fine-tune the functionality of the objects.

Object Explorer pane

The area marked in red in the following example is the Object Explorer pane. The methods and events that are associated with the objects in the Project Explorer pane appear in this pane.

Double-click the specific object in the Project Explorer pane to view its associated methods and events.

For example, you can click a List connector that you added in the Global Objects node to view the associated methods in the Object Explorer pane.

Global Objects is a section in the Project Explorer pane that is a placeholder for objects that are accessible across all activities like connectors and global variables. You can further organize the objects by creating folders within global objects.

RPA Desktop Design Studio keyboard shortcuts

You can use keyboard shortcuts to perform the following actions quickly in the RPA Desktop Design Studio.