It is possible to get 'empty' controls to line up neatly as if they were designed to show up there. However, you have to hide all (except maybe the first if it cannot ever be null/empty) and loop through them in form open event. As each non-null control is found, its top and left position values are altered, taking into account the desired control spacing. If the controls are all the same height, not too bad. If not, it's more complicated. I once created a sub for this based on an answer (I think in this forum) quite some time ago. Worked well.
The more we hear silence, the more we begin to think about our value in this universe.
Paraphrase of Professor Brian Cox.