Populate a Word Template using data from an Excel Table

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Posted on by RS-20111456-0

You would think this is about as simple as it gets. I am able to drop the excel and word documents into M365 CoPilot and it generates a new word document with the desired outcome. when using the same files in Power Automate, I either get an error concerning hexadecimal value 0x03, is an invalid character or error that the Word document does not contain content controls. the Word document does contain content controls and the excel file is as basic as it gets.

I've tried Power Apps and Prompts to no avail as well.

I imagine the issue is basic but through all the forums, training modules, and CoPilot assistance I'm not finding a solution.

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Business Process Flows

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Tomac 3,181 Moderator on at

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Populate a Word Template using data from an Excel Table

Power Automate does not support Rich Text or Image content controls. Basically only Plain Text content controls.

Are you using the correct content controls in your template?

Please copy/paste screenshots of the errors you're getting into a comment here so we can better see what's happening. It will also help to see screenshots of the relevant actions in edit mode. Feel free to blank out any company information.

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RS-20111456-0 4 on at

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Populate a Word Template using data from an Excel Table

thank you for the response.

i've tried several flow options and here are two examples of the errors.

i am using Plain Text for the controls.

Screenshot 2025-1...

Screenshot 2025-1...

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Tomac 3,181 Moderator on at

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Populate a Word Template using data from an Excel Table

Thanks for those.

For the invalid character error, it looks like you're using a character that's outside of Word's default unicode support. From the official documentation:

This specific character appears to be an "end of text" control character. You can remove it from the string by using this expression:

replace(<your source string dynamic content>, decodeUriComponent('%03'), '')

As for the second error about no content controls, this looks like it's targeting a different Word file from the first. Without seeing that specific document I'll be unable to help further on that one.

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RS-20111456-0 4 on at

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Populate a Word Template using data from an Excel Table

thank you for the input. i'll try that update.

here is the Word doc I'm using for testing the flow.

Equipment II.docx

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Tomac 3,181 Moderator on at

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Populate a Word Template using data from an Excel Table

@RS-20111456-0

The doc looks good. I'd suggest uploading it to a different folder and changing the Populate action to target the newly uploaded document. If that doesn't work, remove the Populate action and add it in fresh.

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