In some cases, when automatically generating complex documents, your generated document may have unwanted empty lines or paragraphs. This can be avoided using the {{\dl}} command.
Empty variables and white spaces
When generating documents automatically, the content of the generated document is often dictated by end user input. Depending on this end user input, some variables to be inserted into the document might be empty, e.g., when end user answers suggest a clause is not to be included in the document. In this case, the generated document by default will contain white space that impacts on the readability.
In the example below, because the variable that populates the placeholders {{additional_clause_title}} and {{additional_clause_content}} is empty, the generated document contains excess white space.
💡 Note that a variable also is empty when its input node is optional and the end user decides not to answer this node.
The {{\dl}} tag
Adding the {{\dl}} tag after a placeholder will ensure that where a variable is empty, the line in the document that the variable would have occupied is removed.
In the example below, the {{\dl}} tag is added after the placeholder (like "{{additional_clause_title}}{{\dl}}") to ensure the white space is not displayed:
💡 The {{\dl}} tag has no impact where variables are populated — its impact is limited to empty variables only.
💡 Add {{\dl}} to the end of your placeholder name — do not include any spaces between the command and the placeholder name.