Hey everyone! I’m stuck on something and could really use some help.
I have a Google Docs file with multiple tabs and I need to grab content from just one specific tab. Then I want to turn that content into either a PDF or Blob file using Google Apps Script.
Right now I can pull all the content from the whole document using the Docs API, but I can’t figure out how to get just one tab’s content. I’ve been trying different approaches but nothing seems to work properly.
What I’ve done so far:
- Got the entire document content through Google Docs API
- Tried to filter out content from other tabs but got confused about the structure
I’m really hoping someone can help me with:
- How to find and grab content from only one tab
- How to save that tab content as PDF or Blob
Has anyone dealt with this before? I would really appreciate any code examples or tips you might have.
Thanks a lot!
skip the tab id stuff - there’s an easier way. use document.getTab() to grab tabs by name or index. once you’ve got the tab, call getBody() for that tab’s content. for pdf conversion, just use utilities.newblob() with the content and set the mimetype to ‘application/pdf’. this worked when i ran into the same thing last year.
Had this exact problem a few months ago on a document automation project. Google Docs tabs are basically separate documents in a shared container, so you can’t just filter content from the main doc - you need the tab ID. Here’s what worked for me: use DocumentApp.openById() with the specific tab’s document ID. First, iterate through your main document’s tabs collection to grab the tab IDs. Then you can use the standard PDF export - DriveApp.createFile() plus the document’s getBlob() method. The annoying part? Tabs aren’t always accessible through regular Docs API calls. You might need the Drive API to enumerate the tab structure first. I found checking the document’s metadata helped identify available tabs before trying to access their content.
Google Docs tabs don’t work like regular document sections - that’s your main problem. Use getTabs() on your document object, then grab each tab individually. Once you’ve got the specific tab, pull its content with getBody().getBlob(). For PDF conversion, I’ve had good luck with the Drive API export function. Here’s what works: grab your tab content, make a temp document with just that content, then use drive.files.export with mimeType ‘application/pdf’. The formatting transfer is where it gets tricky though. You’ll want to copy the paragraph styles along with the text or everything looks wrong. This method’s been solid for me across different document types.