I’m working on embedding Google Sheets into my web application using an iframe. The issue I’m facing is that the full Google Workspace navigation panel appears on the left side when the spreadsheet loads. This panel includes links to services like Gmail and Calendar.
In contrast, services like Dropbox Paper can completely hide these navigation elements, making the embedded document look much cleaner.
I’m looking for a way to add a toggle button to show or hide this sidebar navigation while users are interacting with the embedded spreadsheet. Since I’m creating this in a .NET environment, I want to know if there’s a specific Google Drive API endpoint or parameters that could help me manage this setting.
Has anyone managed to implement such functionality? Are there URL parameters or API settings available that can hide the Google Workspace navigation when embedding the documents?
if you wanna hide that sidebar, try adding ?usp=embed&widget=true&chrome=false at the end of your iframe URL. it worked for me last month, but no guarantees, ya know?
I’ve been fighting this same issue for months at work. Google hardcodes that sidebar into Workspace when you’re logged in - you can’t just strip it out with URL parameters. Here’s what actually worked for me: I used a CSS overlay on the parent page to mask the sidebar area. Detect when the iframe loads, then apply custom styles to hide those specific parts. The key is making your iframe bigger than the container and using overflow:hidden to crop out the nav stuff. This method works no matter what your Google account status is, unlike those URL tricks that Google keeps breaking. Just test it with both logged-in users and guests since the interface looks different for each.
Those parameters are hit-or-miss depending on what Google’s doing at the moment. I’ve dealt with this before - skip the regular sharing link and use the published one with /embed at the end instead. When you grab the shareable link from Google Sheets, just swap /edit for /embed. That’ll strip out most of Google’s interface stuff, including the sidebar. But here’s the thing - Google doesn’t officially let you customize the UI for embedded sheets, so there’s no reliable way to toggle the sidebar through their API. Best workaround I’ve found is wrapping your iframe in a custom container with your own controls, maybe add some overlay elements to hide whatever UI bits are still showing.