I’m developing a Google Apps Script for Google Docs and need help with building a custom navigation sidebar. My goal is to scan through the entire document and locate all heading elements, then generate clickable links for each heading that users can access from a sidebar panel.
The functionality I’m aiming for is similar to the navigation pane feature found in Microsoft Word, but implemented within Google Docs environment. I specifically want to avoid using the built-in table of contents feature since I need more control over the layout and behavior.
What I need to accomplish:
- Extract all headings from the document along with their positions
- Generate interactive links that jump to specific headings when clicked
- Display these links in a custom sidebar interface
Could someone guide me on how to retrieve heading positions and create the navigation links programmatically? Any code examples or documentation references would be greatly appreciated.
use getChild() and getNumChildren() to walk through the doc structure recursively. check each element with getType() == DocumentApp.ElementType.PARAGRAPH, then use getHeading() to filter heading styles. for positioning, grab the element index with getChildIndex() - you can use this to scroll to headings later with custom javascript in your sidebar html.
I’ve built something like this before. DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getBody().findText() with regex patterns works great for finding headings, especially when you pair it with getParagraph() to grab the actual heading elements. I store the heading text and element indices in an array, then pass that data to the sidebar through google.script.run. For the sidebar HTML, I create anchor-like behavior by sending those stored indices back to the main script and using getChild(index) to jump around. Heads up though - heading detection gets wonky if users manually format text instead of using proper heading styles. I added validation with getAttributes() to check font size and weight as backups. The sidebar setup with HtmlService is pretty straightforward, just don’t forget error handling for when headings get moved or deleted between refreshes.
Google Docs doesn’t have built-in clickable navigation like Word, but I’ve got a workaround that’s worked on several projects. Use bookmarks with the insertBookmark() method at each heading, then create hyperlinks in your sidebar that point to these bookmarks. The tricky bit is keeping bookmark references intact when you change the document structure - I use the heading text as part of the bookmark ID to stay consistent. To grab headings, loop through document elements and check for heading styles with getType() and getHeading() methods. You’ll need HTML service for the sidebar interface plus message passing between sidebar and main script. One gotcha: bookmark links only work after the document’s saved, so build that into your workflow.