Ever wanted to programmatically insert something at the cursor in Google Docs (say, a “Sign Here” image) or read the user’s selection (maybe for an on-the-spot translation)? Starting today, you can.
Apps Scripts bound to Google Docs can now access the active user's Cursor and Selection by calling Document.getCursor() and Document.getSelection(), respectively. The returned objects provide useful information like the element the cursor is positioned in and an array of all of the elements contained in the selection.
Example #1: Selection Translator
This Google Doc contains a simple script that uses Apps Script’s Language Service to translate selected text from English to Spanish through a custom menu item.
Here, it uses the getSelectedElements()Selection class to get an array of selected elements:
var selection = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getSelection();
if (selection) {
var elements = selection.getSelectedElements();
Next, it loops through each element, performs the translation, and replaces the original text:
var translatedText = LanguageApp.translate(
element.asText().getText(), 'EN', 'ES');
element.asText().setText(translatedText);
Example #2: Bibliography App
At Google I/O this year , Apps Script engineer Jonathan Rascher demonstrated Bibstro, a bibliography sample app for Google Docs that inserts inline citations at the cursor. Today, we’re releasing the source code for Bibstro ; you can also try it out by making of copy of this Google Doc .
To insert text, the script calls the aptly named insertText()Cursor object:
var cursor = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getCursor();
if (cursor) {
// Determine the text of the new inline citation to insert.
var citation = bibStrategy.getInlineCitationText(...);
var surroundingText = cursor.getSurroundingText().getText();
var surroundingTextOffset = cursor.getSurroundingTextOffset();
if (surroundingTextOffset > 0 &&
surroundingText.charAt(surroundingTextOffset - 1) != ' ') {
// If the cursor follows a non-space character, insert a space
// and then the citation.
cursor.insertText(' ' + citation);
} else {
// Otherwise, just insert the citation.
cursor.insertText(citation);
}
}
You’ll also notice that the script uses the Cursor class’s getSurroundingText()
Example #3: Cursor Inspector
To help you become familiar with how cursor and selection work, we've also created a Cursor Inspector sample script. As you navigate through a document, the script displays up-to-date information about your cursor or selection in a custom sidebar. We’re also releasing the source code for Cursor Inspector on GitHub.
These new APIs are available immediately. We’re excited to see what kind of scripts you come up with!
Kalyan Reddy profile | Stack Overflow
1 comment :
Very exciting! This morning I built a custom menu that allows a user to insert special characters (mostly mathematical symbols).
I have an object that contains the descriptions of the special characters ("pi (π)", "plus or minus (±)", etc). The onOpen function uses that object to create menu items (for the function names, it replaces some characters so we get functions like insert_text_pi() and insert_text_plus_or_minus()).
Each of those functions is separately defined (it's how I get around the inability to pass arguments into the menu directly), and those each call a generic insert_text() function that takes whatever text is passed to it and inserts it at the cursor.
Works beautifully, even though it's a little messy on the backend.
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