Microsoft Forms into Flow - Paragraph formatting problem

[Anonymous]

My team has had great success with using Microsoft Forms and Flow to complete after-action reports for important meetings.  Many of my colleagues travel frequently and so it's a great way for them to keep the whole team updated on their follow-up needs while they're on the go.

We are in the process of updating our form and I am having trouble getting the long answer in a form to maintain its formatting when sending the email through the flow. 

For example, someone may write in a long answer text box:

The meeting was great.  Follow up items needed:

- Call John

- Schedule next dinner

And when the information gets populated/processed through the Flow email I have set up, it comes through like this:

The meeting was great.  Follow up items needed: -Call John - Schedule next dinner

The Flow email is set up as HTML and all of the template formatting is great, it's just off in the actual answers that are auto-populated through the Forms submissions.  Any suggestions for how to preserve this paragraph formatting?

Thank you!

[MattWeston365 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous , this took me a bit of working out but I got there eventually.

Step 1: Create a variable of type text, called "carriage return" as an example. Click into the value box, and press your return key. This is effectively storing the carriage return within the variable.

Step 2: When you're outputting the text from Forms into your email, use an expression to replace the carriage returns with the variable created in Step 1. My expression looks like this:

replace(body('Get_response_details')?['rf76100c2dda743e7bb971600eb7cd7f3'],variables('carriage return'),'<br>')

This will then output HTML into your email and so format correctly.

[Anonymous]

@MattWeston365  thank you so much - I'm encouraged to know there's a solution!  I will admit I'm a bit of a Flow newbie - which value box do I need to click in for Step 1? Step 2 I understand how to build that into the code so (I believe) am set there.

I so appreciate your help and guidance!!  This will make a huge difference for us once it's all said and done.

[MattWeston365]

Hi @Anonymous I'll make it as a video which will be easier to follow. I'll post a link shortly.

[MattWeston365 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous you'll now find the issue and resolution on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81RKtE9xS9k

[MattWeston365]

Hi @Anonymous did you manage to resolve your issue?

[Anonymous]

@MattWeston365 , I've just returned from a two-week vacation and am back online.  This is amazing!  Thank you so much. I'm going to test it on my end tomorrow and will let you know.  I'm truly grateful for your help in resolving this. 

[Anonymous]

@MattWeston365 , success!  I was able to test it just now.  This is an amazing help and will save our team so much time.  Thank you, thank you!!

[Anonymous]

Absolute legend! Thank you!

[maxneo0]

Hello @MattWeston365 

I tried the solution and is not working for me.  

See below of what I'm getting. 

Current

Project name Project Name

•   Project name Project Owner
•   maxneo0 Stakeholders

Dates

•   2023-05-31Risks

Sample of Risk Notes

Sample Notes

Instead

Project Name

Project Name Project Name

Project Owner Maxneo0

Dates 05-31-2023

Risks Project issues

Notes Client communication

[jwhitehill416]

That worked great and for the most fixed the issue I was having.  The format is like I copied from a PDF and pasted in a document meaning it goes to the next line even through there is enough space to complete the sentence?

[jwhitehill416]

Disregard, they copied from PDF and pasted with out updating the format. 

[PSetiawan]

@Matt You are a GENIOUS !!!!
I been busting my head trying to solve this.

Thank you very much !!