How to Use Power Apps Grid Control in Model-Driven Apps for Inline Editing and Better UX

Hello developers! Gowtham here.

In today’s article, let’s talk about something that’s been making life a lot easier for us Power Platform folks—Power Apps Grid Control in Model-Driven Apps.

If you’ve ever struggled with customizing views, enabling inline editing, or giving users a better grid experience in your model-driven apps, then this control is definitely for you.

What is Power Apps Grid Control?

Power Apps Grid Control is a modern, flexible, and customizable read-only or editable grid that can be added to model-driven forms or views. It’s part of Microsoft’s effort to improve user experience in Dataverse-based apps.

Compared to the old-school read-only views, this control comes with,

• Inline editing
• Grouping
• Infinite scrolling
• Column customization
• Custom web resources
• Power Fx formatting

It’s like bringing the canvas-app-level flexibility into your model-driven world.

Why Should You Use It?

Let me give you a quick real-world scenario.

In one of our recent internal apps, our users (mostly sales folks) were complaining that they needed to edit multiple records quickly, without navigating into each one.

Guess what saved the day? Power Apps Grid Control.

Here are a few advantages we noticed.

Inline Editing

You can directly update fields like status, description, or estimated revenue without opening each record. Just click and edit.

Faster Navigation

With infinite scrolling and smooth data loading, large datasets don’t slow down your users anymore.

Custom Columns

You can bind Power Fx expressions to columns. For example, you can create a “Priority Label” column based on logic like.

If(EstimatedRevenue > 100000, "High", "Normal")

Better Role-Based Experience

You can show/hide columns or customize them based on security roles. So managers see more data than regular users.

How to Add Power Apps Grid to Your App?

Let’s go step by step.

Step 1. Enable Modern Controls.

Before anything, make sure modern controls are enabled in the Power Platform Admin Center.

• Go to: https://admin.powerplatform.microsoft.com/
  
• Click Environments > select your env > Settings.
  
• Under Product, go to Features.
  
• Turn on Advanced find options -Modern advanced find in model-driven apps (Modern controls and themes(legacy Admin center )
  

Note. It may take a few minutes for the changes to reflect.

Step 2. Edit the Form/View.

• Open your Model-Driven App in the Maker Portal. This is just a sample where we are going to add our grid control in later steps.
  
• Select the table (like Account, Contact, Custom Entity).
  
• Open the form or view where you want the grid.
  
• Go to Active Accounts View and click Component.
  
  
• Add component.
  
• Click Get More Components.
  
  

Step 3. Add the Grid Control.

• In the right panel, under Control, click Add Control.
  
• Choose Power Apps Grid.
  
• Configure settings: turn on for Web, Phone, and Tablet.

You can also enable editing, grouping, and filtering.

Step 4. Save & Publish.

Save the form/view and publish the app. Open it and test the user experience. You’ll be amazed.

Before

After editing the Grid,

Pro Tips

• If you're using lookup fields, Power Apps Grid gives you full flexibility—editing, displaying columns from related tables, etc.
• Use JavaScript or Power Fx expressions for conditional formatting and validations.
• When working with large datasets, the infinite scroll is a game-changer compared to paging.

Bonus: Want to See It in Action?

Also, refer to the official docs for advanced features: Microsoft Docs – Power Apps Grid Control

Final Thoughts

Power Apps Grid is no longer a luxury—it's a must-have for serious model-driven app development. Whether you’re building for internal teams or external clients, this control levels up your UI/UX and saves hours of manual clicking.

Have you already tried it? Let me know your experience in the comments below!

Till next time,

Happy Power Platforming!