PDF Editor auto wrapping {if:...} shortcode with a tag - so I cannot exclude empty fields.

Unable to add a {if:...} shortcode properly in the PDF editor, because it auto-wraps it with a

tag. I tried a few suggested workarounds, and nothing is working. Do you have a way around to do this? I ned to customize our forms to be legal, and I do not want to include blank fields in the output. Please advise!