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Error calling merge service: Element does not contain the specified child element.

Example Error Message:
Error while creating new document. Error message: Error calling merge service. Error: Error: Exception: Element does not contain the specified child element. \tat MergeValuesService

-This error message can happen for one of the following reasons:
1) Need to make sure the child object related list item is merged into a table so the rows will be repeated.
2) Can happen when generating a document that does not contain the proper child relationship or you are trying to merge from mutliple child objects in one table:

  • You need to place different child object related list items in their own table which can still be inside the same table (just insert a table into the part of table the field already is then paste the merge field in it’s own small table). You can also white out the borders of that additional table so it doesn’t look like a separate table. Your other option would be to separate the child object related lists into their very own table separate from the other section where it is just merging fields directly from parent object.

3) If unable to resolve with above steps and you uploaded your google doc template from a word document, there may be some hidden formatting inside the template causing this error message. To test if issue with hidden formatting, you can create a fresh blank google doc and then recreate the table and insert related list merge fields from template builder. Then test if error happens with new template in same document action.