Template Issues

How to Keep Blank Microsoft Forms Fields Empty in Word Documents

Phi Hung Vo Sep 30, 2026 870 views

Question details

The user needs to prevent dynamic content placeholders from appearing in a generated Word document when an optional Microsoft Forms field is left blank during a Power Automate flow.

How to Keep Blank Microsoft Forms Fields Empty in Word

Product: Microsoft Word
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Generating a Word document using a Power Automate flow that pulls responses from Microsoft Forms.
Observed behavior: When an optional form field is blank, the Word document displays the placeholder text of the content control instead of remaining completely empty.

Before you start

Ensure you have access to the original Microsoft Word document used as the template and verify that your Power Automate account has the premium license required for the 'Populate a Microsoft Word template' action.

Solution 1Recommended

Use Conditional Logic Expressions in Power Automate

By replacing the standard dynamic content block with an expression, you can force Power Automate to output an empty string when the Forms field is left blank.

When dynamic data from Microsoft Forms is missing, Word defaults to showing the content control's original placeholder. An expression intercepts this and sends a valid empty space instead.

Edit the Power Automate Flow

Open your flow in Power Automate and locate the 'Populate a Microsoft Word template' action.

Select the Target Field

Click inside the field corresponding to the optional Forms question. Delete the existing dynamic content token if one is present.

Insert an Expression

In the dynamic content pop-up menu, switch to the 'Expression' tab.

Apply the Coalesce or If-Empty Formula

Type an expression using the coalesce function to replace null values with a blank space, such as: coalesce(outputs('Get_response_details')?['body/YourFieldID'], ' '). Click OK to save.

Use Conditional Logic Expressions in Power Automate

Tip: Passing a single space (' ') instead of an entirely empty string ('') is often more effective at overriding the default Word placeholder text.

Solution 2

Remove Default Placeholder Text in the Word Template

Modify the Word template itself so that the content controls do not contain any visible placeholder text by default.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can I populate a Word template using Power Automate without a premium license?

The official 'Populate a Microsoft Word template' action requires a premium Power Automate license. If a premium license is unavailable, users often work around this by dynamically creating HTML files and converting them to PDFs using standard OneDrive actions.

How do I add content controls to my Word template?

To add content controls, you must enable the Developer tab in Word (via Options > Customize Ribbon). Once enabled, click 'Plain Text Content Control' from the Controls group to insert a field, then use 'Properties' to give it a specific Title and Tag so Power Automate can recognize it.

Why does Word display placeholders when my data is null?

When Power Automate passes a truly empty or null value to a Word content control, Word treats the field as unedited and reverts to displaying its default instructional text. Overriding this requires sending a space character via a flow expression or manually removing the instructional text in the template.

Document & File Issues