How to hide blank/empty content controls within repeating section content control in Word

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by Femke1

348

Hi everyone,

I have a Word document with a repeating section content control (rscc) in it. I populate the Word document using a Power Automate flow.

There is a content control within that section that sometimes is used/filled, sometimes not. How can I hide a row in this table/rscc when it has no value?

Help is much appreciated!

Thanks in advance,
Femke

This is what the rscc looks like in Word:

This is the dummy input I've set up in Power Automate for testing:
I have tried different values behind “Indicator3”, but this didn't work so far:
- like ‘null’ - with and without ''- this resulted in an empty row
- empty value like "" - this also resulted in an empty row
- and even without mentioning the property "Indicator3" at all - this still resulted in an empty row

This is the result after the flow has run with the above input:

My wish is that the orange highlighted row is hidden entirely when it is empty:

Categories:

Building flows

I have the same question (0)

All responses (3)

Answers (1)

David_MA 12,982 Super User 2025 Season 2 on at

Like (0)

Report

That is not something you can do through Power Automate (at least not that I am aware of). You would need to somehow figure that out in your Word template.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Femke1 348 on at

Like (0)

Report

Hi @David_MA

Thanks for your reply, hmmm, okay, that would be a bummer. Unless I can solve it there of course. Do you happen to have experience with this?

Or anybody else who knows how to fix this in my Word template?

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Verified answer

Femke1 348 on at

Like (1)

Report
I did ask the same question on the Microsoft Word Forum and it seems like there is no solution in Word for this ‘problem’.

For now, though, I think I’ve found a workable solution. Here’s what I came up with for a single instance:

This is my solution for a single instance
I created a table where each row has content controls, and each row is embedded within a Repeating Section Content Control. By doing this, I can hide individual rows by passing an empty array via Power Automate. This approach works well if I want something like this:

Row 1

Row 2

Row 5

Row 5

Row 5

This is my other solution
This setup allows for variations in repetition order, although the number of repetitions is somewhat limited. If, for instance, I want a pattern like this:

Row 1

Row 2

Row 5

Row 5

Row 1

Row 3

Row 5

…I would need to stack two similar tables, one beneath the other:

The downside to this approach is that I’m limited to, say, a maximum of 5–10 tables layered beneath each other. More than that, and the form might become a bit chaotic.

So, perhaps it’s worth revisiting the overall design to simplify things a bit more. But for now, I’m pleased with this solution!

Thanks again, David, for your time and effort. It’s greatly appreciated!

Best,
Femke

Was this reply helpful? Yes No