Hey folks, I’m stuck on a Make automation and need some advice.
I’m trying to set up a system that makes Google Docs invoices with tables that update automatically. The data comes from Airtable. Here’s what I’ve got so far:
A button in Airtable starts everything
Make grabs the invoice details from Airtable
All the items get put into one big list
Make tries to put this info into a Google Docs template
The issue:
Google Docs only puts in the first item, not all of them. I’ve tried a bunch of things like:
Sending the whole list at once
Going through each item one by one
Turning the table into text
Using HTML
But nothing’s working right.
What I want:
I need Google Docs to make a new row for each item in my list. It should look like a proper invoice table with stuff like service, price, quantity, and total.
So, I’m wondering:
Has anyone gotten Google Docs to repeat table rows using Make?
Is there a trick to formatting the data so Google Docs gets it right?
I’ve faced this challenge before, and the solution that worked for me was using Google Apps Script. Instead of relying solely on Make, I created a custom script within Google Docs that interacts with the Airtable API directly. This approach allows for more flexibility in manipulating the document’s content.
The script fetches data from Airtable, then dynamically generates the table rows in the Google Doc. It’s a bit more technical, but it gives you full control over how the data is inserted and formatted. You’ll need to set up OAuth2 for the Airtable API calls, but once that’s done, you can trigger the script from Make or even directly from Airtable using a webhook.
This method might require a bit more initial setup, but it’s incredibly powerful and solves the issue of repeating table rows effectively.
I’ve encountered a similar issue before and found that using Google Sheets as an intermediary can really simplify the process. In my case, I configured Make to send the Airtable data to a Google Sheet first. Then, by leveraging the built-in query functions of Sheets, I was able to format the data into a proper table. Once the data was structured correctly, I pulled it into the Google Docs template. Although this method adds an extra step, it gives you more control over dynamic row creation, and it helped solve the problem of only one item appearing in the invoice.
hey man, ive had the same prob before. what worked for me was using zapier instead of make. it has better google docs integration and can handle repeating rows. you might wanna give it a shot. its a bit pricier but worth it for this kinda stuff. good luck!