Mail Merge Google Sheets to Google Docs - No Addons - Apps Script Tutorial

[@RalfSiegesmund]

I have wanted to do this for over a year now and someone on twitter referred me here. I am really grateful for the approach you too, that we could run it ever so often to see what the script does up to this point. I needed quite some time to finish it, but I have procrastinated doing exactly what you are showing for more than a year. Hence again: Thank You!!!

[@jesse6327]

Wow, this is awesome. We are using Google Suite at work now, and several months back I told someone that there's no way to do a mail merge like function from Google Sheets to Docs. I am so glad I found this; now I can help them out, since they need to get out of their MS Office environment. Thank you!!

[@overnesss]

I'm following you for months now. Your channel helped me a lot, but this. This is just exactly what I was struggling with since last month. Thanks for your content.

[@TheKnightrunners]

Thanks. I lost MS office during an Apple upgrade. This is a big help for getting the Christmas mail out!

[@gorkasanz1617]

A five star tutorial. And, for non-english people very clear speech. And it have a lot of tips to learn coding in Google Apps

[@rachaellynn70]

Awesome tutorial. Love how you walk through your thinking process and the various iterations. Plus, I needed to do exactly this (without an add-one). Thanks!

[@mpolek]

Thank you so much! This worked perfectly for me to set up Christmas card envelopes. I love that you left in the "mistakes" so I could really learn how this was put together. So helpful!

[@philipmeese6501]

this was an awesome video. I've dabbled in AppScript but I learned so much in this video just by watching your approach to this problem. Thank You!

[@evacitti]

I needed to do something very similar and this was an AMAZING solution. Very well explained and easy to follow along. Thank you!

[@sangredecristoseminary]

This video helped me think differently about how to process donation statements posted in Google Sheets. Noting that the paragraph type is a concern I wondered about how images or drawings inserted into the template document would copy to the body of the document to be printed. I found this is a problem because images/drawings show as type "PARAGRAPH", and the results of the copy are not exactly as that shown in the template document. In my tests the template document has headers and footers with images (such as a logo), which I simply add to the document to be printed since they're static and used for each statement. I wonder if this would be a good addition to the mail merge tutorial, and a challenge for our excellent instructor? Would other subscribers like to see this?

[@restorationchurch1509]

You did an incredible job walking through that very complicated process. I have limited-to-no experience with Javascript, yet I was able to work through this tutorial and successfully create the mail merge I wanted for our fundraiser in Google Drive. I actually appreciated that you misspelled some of the titles because it helped me differentiate between what was a title I gave something and which was a command that I couldn't rename. (Again no experience). I even was able to successfully add an image to my final product with this tutorial base. Ready to laugh? My only problem: I refreshed my Google Sheet (with my source code editor open) because it is connected to a Google Form Survey. When I did, my editor closed, and I'm flummoxed for the moment on how to reopen the editor. Attempts to open the same way as the tutorial in the beginning gives me "Sorry" messages. Told you, no experience! I'll figure it out after awhile. It's saved and named somewhere. Great job! Excellent teacher.

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

script.google.com/home

[@allisonrosdahl]

thank you so much! this helped me not have to write out all of my christmas card addresses!

[@good3608]

yes thank you very much this is also what i needed. i am starting to understand what you are doing after 6 weeks of following your channel. I am building a database for the charity i work for and watching your channel and learning what to do in GS is very helpful.

[@santosahernandezmendoza7147]

A very ingenious way to pass google spreadsheet data to a document. Thank you because it motivates me to study more in depth the topic of Scripts.

[@glenntrewitt]

This worked well for me. Not for non-programmers, and my doc was simple.

[@BrookeAdamsnationwide]

What an excellent video! I had to stop and go back several times but this was extremely thorough! I appreciate the fact that you were testing the functions throughout to be sure that it was working properly. I'm not tech savvy at all but this really helped so much. Thanks!!

[@kamalhm-dev]

Your videos really improve my productivity and makes my life easier. I'm curious, how do you know so much about this? This is not a very popular topic, I wasn't even sure where to find the documentation

[@rafaelwendel1400]

You can actually find all these methods in Google Scripts Documentation (click on the help button on GS UI). I think you might find it surprising because you come from the spreadsheets world or something like that, but it's actually quite simple and popular to create these types of functions, just search for Google Scripts in StackOverflow

[@mohsenghafari7652]

same....

[@mohsenghafari7652]

@@rafaelwendel1400 please more explain . tanks

[@Korelucian]

How would you place an item where the table has some empty cells, e.g. if I am making a script from a cell where I have sales document, with the source worksheet i have columns named after a product and rows with different branches, some branches might not sell certain items from the table. how can I make the script to add on the mail merge with only the products that has sales value on it

[@kokomalt]

The tutorial was great and it can be followed easily, thank you for making it!

[@BillHeffelfinger]

Thank you! Super helpful. Two questions I hope you can help with: 1) If I have images in a cell in a sheet and want to merge them into the doc, how would I go about doing this? 2) I need to format dates that get merged into the doc from the spreadsheet. Any suggestions on how to do this? Thanks again!

[@XoBebeMore]

This was a very great video!! Took some time but I mastered it and saved my company some money!!!

[@emmaoben4436]

This is such a good instructional, thank you. Do you have a version which merges to Slides? Trying to adapt but not getting very far!

[@erinalilith7962]

Hi, thank you for this great video.. You basically saved me from a huge headache

[@adoleh]

Thank you for the tutorial, it was very helpful. I have a question. If the item I am trying to merge is a QR code, what would elType be and how would you code that? The QR codes would be generated in the spreadsheet using the google API. Thanks.

[@BAGITUTOR657]

Hi, please help. Action in google form checklist mail merge checkbox to google docs? I'm sorry. My leanguge difficult. I hope you understand

[@mhilmanad]

Thank you for being so helpful; the explanation is straightforward to understand. If I want to send Bulk emails with this pre-made template, how do I do that? Thank you

[@govtmiddleschoolbodla2535]

can we add images in cells and display in generated pdfs.?

[@sixzeroes5226]

Great tutorial - I was able free up time spent on a redundant task. Thanks!

[@ConstantDylan]

Dude, this is amazing and so helpful. You're a champ!

[@bassemkhalifa]

I am using a 40-col sheet with several hudred rows. I can't get far past 10 rows before the execution times out. A whopping 6 mins! Is there a way to do this so that replacetext isnt running a factorial search? Like hold body[i] on the side while iterating through data[i]. and then appending all the body[i]s to each other.

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

What's your code?

[@dianatriwulan9612]

I am sorry. Can i ask how to do this if the template is tables in google docs?

[@jesuseduardobittersuarez7517]

I have multiple rows for echa person, so I need to send a table must of the time to each one, can I do it?

[@muharmensuari1955]

why error when I add listittem Exception: The parameters (DocumentApp.ListItem) don't match the method signature for DocumentApp.Body.appendParagraph.

[@guruslakkimar12]

Yes - i am facing the same issue - did you rectification ! any solutions available ?

[@corvandooren2248]

@@guruslakkimar12 I have created a copy function which works: //copy doc function copyContentDoc(filename=null) { var sourceDoc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getBody(); if(filename === null){ filename = 'Kopie van_'+DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getName(); } var targetDoc = DocumentApp.create(filename); var totalElements = sourceDoc.getNumChildren(); for( var j = 0; j < totalElements; ++j ) { var targetBody = targetDoc.getBody(); var element = sourceDoc.getChild(j).copy(); var type = element.getType(); var attributes = element.getAttributes(); if( type == DocumentApp.ElementType.PARAGRAPH ){ targetBody.appendParagraph(element); } else if( type == DocumentApp.ElementType.TABLE){ targetBody.appendTable(element).setAttributes(attributes); } else if( type == DocumentApp.ElementType.LIST_ITEM){ targetBody.appendListItem(element).setAttributes(attributes); } else if( type == DocumentApp.ElementType.PAGE_BREAK){ targetBody.appendPageBreak(element).setAttributes(attributes); } else if( type == DocumentApp.ElementType.HEADER_SECTION){ targetDoc.addHeader().setText(element).setAttributes(attributes); } else if( type == DocumentApp.ElementType.FOOTER_SECTION){ targetDoc.addFooter().setText(element).setAttributes(attributes); } // ...add other conditions of DocumentApp.ElementType } targetDoc.saveAndClose(); return true; }

[@SiskOZ]

when i merge the docs that have an image i get CellImage instead of the image. what am i doing wrong?

[@rd2085]

Does this work with newer apps script in google? I keep getting a error. On the paragraphappend it says the list doesnt match the method. Ill paste the exact message.

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

Should work the same. You may have an object of a different type in the document that needs additional handling.

[@DR-gq2xs]

@@ExcelGoogleSheets I keep getting an error on the createmailmerge. It says the action is not allowed. I'm using the the same doc and formula I've used the last few years and this year is generating error. Do you know of a work around?

[@scottgraves5349]

Is there a way to format the text we are merging to an email? Example, I want a word to be blue and bold. Is there a way to add an attachment in the merge to email?

[@seattlebliss3178]

Thanks for this very helpful tutorial. Works beautifully for my application!

[@dylandrake887]

Any idea why it's creating an extra copy of the template along with the "merged" version?

[@justinwright7788]

Was this ever figured out?

[@templerodgers7687]

superb! just what I was looking for! Thank you

[@kimjacobs8387]

This is amazing....! Thank you, thank you...! I am a bit of a spelling nut so that did get me a little, but the way you explain concepts etc and the added pieces about how to see what arguments are available are *fantastic*. I'm hooked..

[@studentregistration9708]

This was awesome, thanks! How do I carry over a table, and could I instead of doing a page break do separate PDFs?

[@sarahjaeger1017]

HELP?! Everything worked until the final run. I am getting this message and I am not sure what to do with it. Thank you! 10:55:14 AM Error Too many changes applied before saving document. Please save changes in smaller batches using Document.saveAndClose(), then reopen the document with Document.openById().

[@pjotrpottervogel1990]

thank you very much, sir! your tutorial made it possible i can generate my 7d2d mod almost automatic WITHOUT TYPOS!!! hell, yeah! ^^

[@tonybell9201]

But what if you want to copy boxes and images as well? I get an error when it hit those.

[@TerriEynon]

Thank you for this excellent tutorial. You are a very patient teacher. Being able to stop and start umpteen times to see what you actually did was great. I managed to go, in one day, from being a complete Google Spreadsheets novice to the Team Geek able to turn shedloads of data into usable reports. One glitch I couldn't manage to solve: when putting the date '26/10/2021' from a spreadsheet via a template into a report, it comes out as 'Tue Oct 26 2021 00:00:00 GMT+0100 (British Summer Time)'. I've done all the obvious stuff like format the cells in the spreadsheet but it still comes over with the hours and all the unnecessary information. Is there something I should know or another tutorial I need to look at to sort this? Thanks.

[@goldenwilliams]

I'm having all kinds of problems with this...it says "Cannot find function forEach in object Document. (line 27, file "Code"). HELP! I'm following this as closely as I can.

[@mariop4211]

did you find a solution to this?

[@goldenwilliams]

@@mariop4211 not yet. I gave up and started using MSword for it

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

If it says there is no somevar.forEach that means you had a problem in the line before where you defined somevar.

[@mariop4211]

@@goldenwilliams the problem for me was ensuring that I told the function to include another r(i) value

[@mariop4211]

@@ExcelGoogleSheets First off thanks for the video! Secondly I inputed a table into my template Doc, and it doesn't show in the final Doc. Any advice?

[@izharjafri1197]

Hey just wondering if you can help me in getting input for row number through prompt box for a row record we want to merge in doc

[@sylvazhang9022]

Google Docs currently won't support envelope sizes, so I made a template in Presentations which is A7. Any way I could do a mail merge from Sheets to Presentations?

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

The short answer is Yes.

[@roycerowan9725]

How would I use this to update multiple documents at one time? Each row would be mapped to its own google doc. Thanks

[@tinman.12]

Can you tell me what the inside of { } is known as. I want my responses to be blue but do not know how to reference them in the code to ensure that all entries are blue instead of black (blue is for legal, black is for the dead, red is for the living and purple is Royalty)

[@phoenixfeather2053]

Thank you SO MUCH for your excellent video! I built a mail merge (based on your video) two years ago and it has been working spectacularly .... until yesterday. Now (suddenly) it is throwing an error message: " Error Service Documents failed while accessing document with id xxxxxxx..... " It does not indicate a line or any other information. I have tried running it from a different user - same. I have tried using a different doc with a different id - same. I do not understand why [suddenly] it would not work. Please advise if possible! Again, THANK YOU!!

[@TheOneLifeRider]

have you found a solution?

[@codobyte]

When I copy a multi-level list (LIST_ITEM's) and would like to add some level in the final doc, the formatting is lost. How can I copy a list AND keep the format in the final doc when the user edits the list?

[@mioked]

this is amazing...thank you very much for sharing! Is there a way to have it create a new doc each time for each row of data rather than page break on the same doc?

[@cleoharding]

does anyone know how to do this on ipad? with no tool bar at the top?

[@srilakshmi1163]

Hi , I receive a message " service invoked to many times" I just send 20 mails using mail merge. Could help me to send 100 per day?

[@leosumantra7476]

how if the templeate is a tabel and image???

[@mrskbela]

Excellent video! Very informative and easy to follow by someone who is learning about Apps Scripts. I found your video while looking for an example of how to merge a unique image into each document (similar to what someone might do to batch create employee ID badges or personalized labels). Do you have a video that explains merging unique images or could you point me to a good example and or documentation?

[@marcelcharest7662]

Your're the beat. Thanks from Montréal

[@GaryRowe63]

How can I get the script to add a new line and quoted text into the Doc?

[@angelobergomi5869]

Awesome ! Thanks a lot ! All positive thoughts about your work I would like to share has allready been written below...

[@Vladbaklava]

I’m merging dollar amounts into a letter. How do I get the 2 decimal places to stay for whole numbers? The worksheet has the decimal places but it’s only pasting the decimals when it’s not a whole number.

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

num.toFixed(2);

[@Vladbaklava]

Learn Google Spreadsheets , where would this be added? After the replaceText? And it’s also taking out the comma from the copied cell as well. Is there a way to copy the display value or to paste it as a currency value with the comma and 2 decimals? ($2,000.00)

[@Vladbaklava]

Learn Google Spreadsheets , Thanks!So I got the decimals to work by using: .replaceText(“{balance}”, balance.toFixed(2)) Now the only other question is how to get the commas to transfer over or add them back in(for thousands- $1,000.00).

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

Write a function or search for a function which I'm sure somebody already wrote online. JavaScript doesn't have native support for currency formatting.

[@jimmywebb7269]

Really enjoyed the tutorial; Help me tremedously

[@nwdani2195]

Your tutorial is awesome. Not only is clear but you also properly designed the steps to show its purpose, in a flow of show-problem and later show-solution. Now is there any technique for automatically populate the 'final doc' whenever new row got added to the 'spreadsheet' without having to manually run the scipt? Cheers

[@TheCsillag666]

Could you tell me whats happening if i put a table in the template? The script sees that as a paragraph too, so its not like at the ListItem. How can i make work this template with a table in the doc?

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

There is no one answer, it depends on what's in the table.

[@christiecheng187]

Encountered this error TypeError: Cannot read property 'getRange' of null on line 11.... anyone can help? thanks

[@arz7861]

I have a table template in google docs and i want to change the background colour of a cell according to a value. How can i do that?

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

google docs or google sheets?

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

if google sheets, search for "conditional formatting" videos on the channel

[@joelbournival762]

I'm having trouble removing the first newline after the copy over. Tried regex and replaceText(/ +$/, ""). Any advice?

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

I frankly don't remember what I did in this video at this point. Are you trying to remove the first line of your document?

[@joelbournival762]

@@ExcelGoogleSheets Yes, I believe that would work too.

[@joelbournival762]

@@ExcelGoogleSheets I've read some have reduced the line spacing and font size to minimum when copying tables, same looking issue. There has to be a better way?

[@adamscottmartin]

Hello, great tutorial but I am getting an error with larger dataset using this method. My dataset has 20 columns and around 800 rows. Other than adjusting my script/code to pull in more columns it should be the same as your tutorial. Around 150 rows it stops executing and it gives error "Too many changes applied before saving document. Please save changes in smaller batches using Document.saveAndClose(), then reopen the document with Document.openById()." I'm wondering if the forEach loop is not the most efficient way and wondering if you have any thoughts on this? Sorry I'm a script noob so hope this makes sense!

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

It seems like it wants you to close the document after certain number of changes. You could try to just insert the lines opening and closing of the document within the loop and that way it will open a new instance with every turn. Doesn't seem very efficient, but it might work

[@Gspuri555]

@@ExcelGoogleSheets Hello ! Adam, I faced the same problem. My data set had over 45 columns but the number of columns used for Mail Merge were only 12. I found a workaround, which you might try. From the main Data set create another tab and use a query to fetch only those columns which are used in the mail Merge if a certain column in the main Data set contains "Yes" and paste ID of this tab in the Apps script. This way you will get only those records which you want to mail merge. I hope this works for you. It actually worked for me.

[@kilespelz6068]

Hi, I currently have everything copied exactly as in the example (with the exception of the doc ID's) and I am getting an error code ReferenceError: "docFinal" is not defined. (line 12, file "Code")- what could I be doing wrong?

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

many things. to start with make sure the doc file exists, you have the right ID for it and you have permission to use the file.

[@krzysztofszeremeta2609]

Dear. What use this solution for use with postage stamp from pdf list file with image? Poland Post (Envelo)?

[@kacheongman2717]

love your video. Would you like to covered how to mail merge a table in template?

[@ErwinOpdenkamp]

This is great, I just have to ask if it is possible to get a separate final document for each line in the spreadsheet. Thanks

[@Riverwitxh]

Yes! Watch the video right through. There's a line of code he adds to create a page break in the function, so you get a separate document for each line of the spreadsheet.

[@davidaxelrad8684]

What is the easiest solution to run this script using the doc as a template and outputting a PDF for repetitive usage from a single line of code?

[@alexanderbtodorov]

Hello, thanks for the great lessons! Do you have a tutorial how to create invoices generated with data from a Google Sheet and based on Google Docs template, and after the generation in PDF to send the invoices directly to the customers?

[@amandawilliams3979]

I FREAKING LOVE YOU!!! THANK YOU!

[@richardsunshine8676]

Your videos are always great, and I use them extensively. How do you create individual Emails with the appropriate attachment for each recipient?

[@srangabayota]

how to insert image or replace text url to image?

[@fakhri0209]

How do I mail merge with table atribute? The result is only text and no table at all.

[@bellatraerealty7727]

I am getting the same error over and over TypeError: templateparagraphs.forEach is not a function

[@bellatraerealty7727]

can you take a look at the code I wrote so far function myfunction(){} var docTempleteID=""; var docFinalId=""; var wsId="" ; var docTemplete=DocumentApp.openById(docTempleteID); var docFinal=DocumentApp.openById(docFinalId); var ss = SpreadsheetApp.openById(wsId).getSheetByName("westhaven"); var data = ws.getRange (2,1,ws.getLastRow()-1,1.getValues(); var templateParagraphs=docTemplete.getBody().getParagraphs; { createMailMerge(first); createMailMerge(r[0],templateParagraphs, westhaven letter); function createMailMerge(){ templateparagraphs.forEach(function(p){ p .copy() .replaceText("{first}","first"){}

[@dboersma]

@@bellatraerealty7727 after the .getParagraphs you are missing a () change it to .getParagraphs();

[@migueldemaria3830]

That's a very helpful vid, thanks a lot!

[@ezequielpardo6217]

I used this method to mail merge a report that I am running daily. Is there a way to add a function that will duplicate the google, rename it and open the duplicated Doc?

[@classicguy7813]

Hi Guru and beyond of Apps Script guy! Sir how do we replace links with pictures and let the google do the backend job for pasting pictures to google docs

[@CHETANSOMASHEKAR]

How to put a table in google doc template and send data from google sheets to doc table?

[@mohsenghafari7652]

hi .. i have this error : Too many changes applied before saving document please help me

[@elsgrupovino7314]

Can you insert an image in this mail merge?

[@mohsenghafari7652]

Hi do you solved this problem?

[@joelsigue8399]

is it possible to insert a SQL query in the script and make use of "where" to filter? thank you for the very useful video.

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

No, but you can use JavaScript filter method kzbin.info/www/bejne/hoXChXeegs2Kqac

[@abdullahquhtani4247]

I hope you reply to this. Is it possible to do this with google forms so email will be sent right after submission. I’m sure many ppl need this as well as I do. I can pay you for modification that match my needs.

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/fmi6d56qa69nqNU

[@subhashshekhar240]

how if same person having multiple address & i want to to send both the address in samemail doc

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

I think if you separate those emails by comma or semicolon on the spreadsheet, it should work.

[@subhashshekhar240]

@@ExcelGoogleSheets I am really thankful to you for a reply. I am having data in Excel Name Ram ,Sham,Ram Amount 10, 20, 15 Note comma defined as different in different cell . I want to share doc to ram that he got 10 & 15 in a single. How can I do that, in your video names are unique values.

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

@@subhashshekhar240 You could do this all in code, but it would be quite complicated. What you could do instead is create a report from this data with unique names and their respective combined results using formulas and then use that data.

[@mikebeatonmusic]

Is there a way to do this but create separate google docs?

[@gogoulor]

Hi. Works perfect, very explicit method. Q: I have inserted an image in a cell, then, how could i do If i want that image in my final document ? Regards.

[@shinichi0noT]

Have you figured it out?

[@dfpdesignforpeace2945]

Thanks so much for this useful demo. It worked brilliantly! Is there a way to 'getTables' along with their contents? My Template document contains a table with a complex layout. Is that hard to handle?

[@sarfarazm5568]

Hi wonderful app , What do we do if we want to draft this drafts in gmail draft folder with the email and all the document

[@jakenaylor]

This is an amazing video. Keen to check out some more of your videos! Cheers. :D

[@Sunbyte-io4sh]

how can fetch table from google Doc Template?

[@ericaponte9878]

Help! I did the exact same thing as you (i think) but it shows action not allowed :(

[@jkevinAH]

my template has a letter on the 1st page only (the whole template has 2 pages), ive replicated your tutorial and it works but the header is not copied :( also ive noticed that for the numbered lists (instead of bullet points), my problem is the number lists continues from one copy to the next so my last copy has numbered lists starting from 50. instead of 1.

[@phoenixr5619]

Great Video!! How would I translate that into Labels? I get the {name}, Etc, Etc.... but how would I format that into the final spaced as labels? For instance, could I upload a label template (word) into google drive and use this to translate INTO the word doc??

[@michaelwood9967]

I had the same questions and after a lot of tinkering, got it to work. You need to append a Table to the final doc first and pass it to the mailMerge function. Then, inside the mailMerge function (before the forEach statement), you append a row to the table and set the row's minimum height to the height of your label. You also append a cell to the row. Then, inside the forEach statement, append the mail merge data (from this tutorial) to the cell. In my case, I wanted two columns of labels, so in the final doc, I manually set it to be two columns. I couldn't find a way do do that with Google Scripts, but fortunately, formatting it to two columns works just great. The table cell fills the entire width of the column (or document if you don't make columns). Finally, because a table has to have a paragraph before it, it seems to mess up the first column of labels on the first page. I was able to fix this by using google scripts to set the final document body font to size 1 and the document spacing to .06. You can't tell the paragraph is there and my labels work great! Lifesaver for my own project and this tutorial got me started! Thanks!

[@mohsenghafari7652]

Hi. I need to insert picture from google drive to my doc..i have picture linke to sheet ..how can I do it? Tanks

[@mr_k4tz]

Great tutorial. Is there a way to select from multiple of templates based on the contents of a cell? for example if a cell says "x" use template "x", but if a cell says "y" use template "y" etc?

[@rj.laluyan]

Create 2 templates, get the ID, set var for each of them. Use if condition in the script pointing to the template (x or y).

[@mirfanalfian8313]

Thank you very much for the video, it help me a lot for my work.

[@ExcelGoogleSheets]

Glad to hear that!