Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
42 lines (24 loc) · 2.86 KB

readme.md

File metadata and controls

42 lines (24 loc) · 2.86 KB

Document to PDF

This script takes an existing Google Docs file and converts it into a PDF. It can also optionally place it in a particular destination folder.

Background

When I wrote the original version of my submission-to-pdf script at the start of 2017, it was a little tricky for me to figure out how to actually convert the finished document to a PDF. Looking through the documentation, it seemed pretty obvious but for some reason, following it to the letter caused the resulting 'pdf' to become corrupted. Google Apps scripting can be quite glitchy sometimes for no clear reason. It is not uncommon for the most obvious solution to simply fail. Fortunately, there is often more than one way to do things and eventually, I found a solution that successfully converts a document to a PDF as intended.

The solution:

  • Open the document file using DocumentApp.
  • Retrieve it's contents as an application/pdf blob.
  • Then create the converted file as-is.
    • It may be tempting to use the other 'createFile' functions but the blob object contains both the original file name and the contents so this is not necessary.
    • Using the other functions will likely cause corruption errors.
  • Afterwards, use the output file as you would normally.

When I wrote the refined version of 'submission-to-pdf' for public release, It had been over two years since I worked with Google Drive scripting. I had forgotten this solution entirely and I had to figure it out all over again. That is why I decided to quickly write a stand-alone conversion script for future reference, and to show others how it is done.

Getting Started

To install this script, refer to these instructions.

After the script file has been saved, choose the executeDocumentToPDF function in order to execute the script. The settingsObject variable contains the script's settings, as outlined in the table below.

Settings

Program Setting Type Description Example
documentFileID string The ID of the Google Docs file to convert into a PDF. If it is invalid or missing, there will be an error. 6piTxNNopDGJlce5RMGMHS6ePKm1opb5
outputFolderID string The ID of the folder where the output PDF will be located. If it is invalid or missing, the file will be placed in the drive root by default. 51a9PDMC5LCQIXmcLBZ6qAFtdImPrHID

Refer to the following page for instructions on retrieving file and folder IDs.

Return to Home Page