Word Table is a great way to keep spacing consistent in your documents and you can insert Advanced Document Automation fields into these tables.
In this example, we want 3 columns (children's name, date of birth, and age), and the number of rows depends on the number of children:
1: Create a "Number of Children" field and choose single-select as the field type
You can add as many options as you want in your dropdown based on how many children your clients usually have
2: Create all the corresponding fields in the template
Based on the maximum number you determined in your dropdown option, you can create now the corresponding fields, e.g. Child 1 Name, Child 1 DOB, Child 1 Age, Child 2 Name, Child 2 DOB, Child 2 Age, and so on.
(You can calculate age automatically based on DOB and learn how to do that here)
3: Create conditional fields
Naturally, you just want to insert all these fields into the Word document. However, if a field doesn't have a value at the time of drafting ( e.g. you inserted fields up to 5 children, but the client only has 1.) it will insert the field names instead of leaving it blank.
Instead of inserting all children-related fields one by one, you want to create conditional fields:
altogether 3 conditional fields: one for each column > name, date of birth, and age.
In your THEn statement, create a new row for each child's information (you need to use multi-line text in your conditional field THEN statement)
In your THEN statement, reference the existing field values
You need to create a condition for each scenario, e.g. what you want to see in the document if the "Number of children" equals 1, 2, and so on.
4: Create a table in your Word
Your table will have 3 columns and 2 rows (the first row is for the Column Header, and the second row will insert the children's information)
In Word click Insert > click the down arrow next to the Table icon and select 3 x2 Table
6: Name your Column Header and insert the conditional fields in your cells.
You can format your cells as any other Word document ( e.g. if you want the titles to be bold/ underlined)
It is normal that your conditional field inserts a blank placeholder since we haven't determined yet the "number of children" in this template ( so no conditions have been met yet)
7: Remove Table borders
Double-click the icon on the top left of the Table
Click the down arrow next to the "Borders" icon
Select "No Border"
8: Examples of how your document will look like, based on the "Number of Children" dropdown selection
Note: You cannot insert an entire table to your Word document with conditional fields, the table needs to exist in your Word document.
Sample Template
Download the sample template, and use the reuse field function to copy and paste these fields into your template, so you don't have to start from scratch!