Populate word template - can't find template elements

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Posted on by Denis1

Hello all,

I have an issue with the following action "Populate a microsoft word template".

I've done what's indicated here:

https://flow.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/generate-word-documents-in-your-flows/

And here:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Flows/Word-Online-Business-Connector-Populate-a-Microsoft-Word/td-p/206836

But I get the same strange error message when selecting the word file:

The selected file doesn't contain template elements.

clientRequestId: "............. "

It actually worked once with a simple test word file and only one control and then never again...

The file is stored on OneDrive (Business).

Thanks,

Denis

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Building flows

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v-yamao-msft Microsoft Employee on at

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Hi @Denis1,

Could you share a screenshot of your flow?

I have made some tests on my side, the issue could not be reproduced by me.

First, I added content control in Word document, insert multiple Plain Text content controls in the document.

Then started a flow likes below, which is working properly.

Could you please try again with it?

Please check the doc on how to add content controls for a reference:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/about-content-controls-283b1e29-0b77-4781-b236-2d02c1cce1c2

Best regards,

Mabel

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Denis1 25 on at

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Hello @v-yamao-msft,

the issue was that I was not using the plain text controller. thanks for this help !

Best,

Denis

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clinton 53 on at

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I was using rich text - this seems as though this is not supported yet.

plain text works.

haven't tried the other contoller types yet

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CU17101014-0 4 on at

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Same problem, but if you want insert <cr> the plain text control doesn't work

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clinton 53 on at

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You can create your template with plain text elements, then fomat the text in word - this seems to work

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UC-23071512-0 on at

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Thanks, but i think i don't understand your answer.
I haven't control on the text inserted, this means that i haven't idea how many CR are in the text
Could you please clarify.
Thanks a lot

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clinton 53 on at

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Ok I misunderstood your question, yeah passing cr into your plain text field won't work...
I suspect you would have to do this at tempalte level and have multiple elements for plain text

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danmitchell36 268 on at

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@Denis1 ,

You need to make sure to add the content controls in the document.

See this blog below:

https://www.dmcinfo.com/latest-thinking/blog/id/9838/overview-of-microsoft-flows-new-word-online-connectors

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Krs1 4 on at

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Even more frustratingly Microsoft doesn't appear to support adding plain content controls via Word for Mac. I cannot use this feature.

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Community Power Pla... Microsoft Employee on at

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After careful step by step analysis of what was causing the issue for me I discovered that hyperlinks in the text of the document were the cause. Apparently the parser used in PowerAutomate Flows cannot deal with hyperlinks anywhere in the document and crash causing the error. I remove the "link" in the link text and it read the file fine and found the text fields.

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