Hey everyone! I’m working on a Google Docs project and need some help. I want to find out which named range contains the current cursor position using Google Apps Script.
What I’m trying to do:
I have a document where I create named ranges to mark sections that need review. When someone places their cursor somewhere in the document, I want to check if that position is inside any named range. If it is, I can display a message showing there’s a review item in that area.
The problem:
I can’t figure out how to detect which named range (if any) contains the current cursor position. I’ve looked through the Apps Script documentation but haven’t found a clear solution.
Has anyone done something similar? Is there a method in the Google Apps Script API that can help me identify named ranges based on cursor position? Any code examples or guidance would be really helpful.
I hit this exact problem last year building a document review system. First, grab the cursor position with DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getCursor(), then check its element and offset against your named ranges. Here’s the tricky bit - you’ve got to loop through each named range and compare where the cursor sits with the range boundaries. Use getNamedRanges() to get the ranges, then getRangeElements() on each one to see if your cursor’s inside those bounds. Watch out for different element types within ranges - text elements act differently than paragraph elements when you’re checking positions. Also handle partial elements when the range doesn’t cover whole paragraphs. Performance gets sluggish with tons of named ranges, but it’s fine for normal document sizes.
There’s a better way than manually comparing offsets. Use RangeElement.isPartial() with getStartOffset() and getEndOffsetInclusive() - way more reliable.
Here’s what I do: grab your cursor position (element + offset), then loop through named ranges with getRange().getRangeElements(). For each range element, check if it matches your cursor’s element and if the offset falls within range boundaries.
Heads up though - cursor positions right at the start/end of ranges can act weird depending on how you created the range. I’d add some buffer logic just in case.
Also, if you’re checking cursor position a lot, cache those named ranges. getNamedRanges() gets painfully slow on big documents.
yep, it’s a bit of a hassle. you gotta use getCursor().getOffset() to find your offset and then check all the named ranges with getNamedRanges(). just loop through them to see if the cursor is in any range. not ideal but it gets the job done!