Send & Receive Issues

How to Preserve Line Breaks in Microsoft Forms Emails with Power Automate

Aamir Naveed Akram Sep 28, 2026 869 views

Question details

Users need to retain line breaks and paragraph formatting from Microsoft Forms submissions when emailing the data via Power Automate.

How to Preserve Line Breaks in Microsoft Forms Emails with Power Automate

Product: Microsoft Power Automate
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Sending an automated email containing user-submitted form data using the Send an email (V2) action.
Observed behavior: Multi-line text and numbered lists submitted in Forms are stripped of their spacing and combined into a single continuous line in the email output.

Before you start

Ensure you have edit access to your Power Automate flow and identify the exact dynamic content field name from your Microsoft Forms response that contains the multi-line text.

Solution 1Recommended

Use a Replace Expression to Convert Newline Characters to HTML Tags

Apply a Compose action with an inline expression in Power Automate to replace plain text newline characters with HTML line-break tags before sending the email.

Microsoft Forms outputs multi-line text with plain text newline characters. Because the 'Send an email (V2)' action renders content in HTML, it ignores plain text newlines, causing the text to run together.

By using a data operation expression, you can find the hidden newline characters (represented as URL-encoded %0A) and replace them with standard HTML break tags (<br>).

Open your Power Automate Flow

Log into Microsoft Power Automate, locate your flow, and click Edit to open the workflow designer.

Add a Compose Action

Click the '+' icon just above your 'Send an email (V2)' action, select 'Add an action', and search for 'Compose' (under Data Operations).

Insert the Replace Expression

Click into the Inputs field of the Compose action, switch to the 'Expression' tab in the dynamic content menu, and paste this formula: replace(outputs('Get_response_details')?['body/FieldName'], decodeUriComponent('%0A'), '<br>').

Update the Field Name

In the formula, replace 'FieldName' with the actual internal ID of your Forms question, or use the dynamic content menu to insert the question field directly into the first parameter of the replace function.

Update the Email Body

Open your 'Send an email (V2)' action, remove the original Forms dynamic content from the email body, and insert the 'Outputs' dynamic content from your new Compose action instead.

Use a Replace Expression to Convert Newline Characters to HTML Tags

Test the Flow Formatting: Submit a test response in your Microsoft Form containing multiple line breaks and a numbered list to ensure the email is generated with the correct formatting.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Power Automate remove line breaks from Microsoft Forms?

Microsoft Forms passes multi-line text as plain text containing hidden newline characters (\n). The Send an email (V2) action formats emails in HTML by default, which requires <br> tags for line breaks and ignores standard plain text newlines.

What does decodeUriComponent('%0A') do in the expression?

In Power Automate expressions, %0A is the URL-encoded representation of a newline character. The decodeUriComponent function converts it into an actual line break character that the replace function can target within the Forms text.

Does replacing newlines fix numbered lists submitted in Forms?

Yes. Replacing the newline characters with <br> tags will preserve the visual structure and spacing of numbered or bulleted lists in the email, although they will be rendered as formatted plain text rather than true HTML list elements (like <ul> or <ol>).

Can I use the replace expression directly inside the email body?

Yes, you can insert the replace expression directly into the dynamic content of the Send an email (V2) action body instead of creating a separate Compose action, which helps keep your flow concise.

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