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The user accesses a Spreadsheet and requests the application create a Proposal (which is a Google Slides app). The Spreadsheet performs this action using Google scripts. The user would like to immediately open and review the Proposal without closing out of the original Spreadsheet. I know I can ask the question of whether they would like to open the Proposal using a ui.alert. I kow how to open the new Proposal but I don't know how to give it focus on the screen or tranfser control to it.

Can anyone help?

Rubén
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Ira Kirschner
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1 Answers1

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To start a presentation, you have to make your script to open the presentaion in presentation mode. To do this first you have to build the URL:

  const presentation = SlidesApp.getActivePresentation();
  const url = `https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/${presentation.getId()}/present`;

Then you might open a dialog or sidebar including client side code to open the URL as is done with any URL. For this you might use the function openURL from the Stephen's answer to Google Apps Script to open a URL:

/**
 * Open a URL in a new tab.
 */
function openUrl( url ){
  var html = HtmlService.createHtmlOutput('<html><script>'
  +'window.close = function(){window.setTimeout(function(){google.script.host.close()},9)};'
  +'var a = document.createElement("a"); a.href="'+url+'"; a.target="_blank";'
  +'if(document.createEvent){'
  +'  var event=document.createEvent("MouseEvents");'
  +'  if(navigator.userAgent.toLowerCase().indexOf("firefox")>-1){window.document.body.append(a)}'                          
  +'  event.initEvent("click",true,true); a.dispatchEvent(event);'
  +'}else{ a.click() }'
  +'close();'
  +'</script>'
  // Offer URL as clickable link in case above code fails.
  +'<body style="word-break:break-word;font-family:sans-serif;">Failed to open automatically. <a href="'+url+'" target="_blank" onclick="window.close()">Click here to proceed</a>.</body>'
  +'<script>google.script.host.setHeight(40);google.script.host.setWidth(410)</script>'
  +'</html>')
  .setWidth( 90 ).setHeight( 1 );
  SpreadsheetApp.getUi().showModalDialog( html, "Opening ..." );
}
Rubén
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  • This is a great answer for a Windows based solution. I have two more requirements that need to be fulfilled: 1. Needs to work on Windows and MACs 2. Need to open the new presentation for update not just view only. Your help is truly appreciated. – Ira Kirschner May 05 '22 at 12:00
  • I have figured out to allow EDIT instead of view only, just change the value in 'const url' to have 'edit' instead of 'present' as per: const url = `https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/${presentation.getId()}/edit`; Now just have to figure out how to make this work on MACs and Windows PC!!! – Ira Kirschner May 06 '22 at 12:28
  • @IraKirschner I'm glad that you figured out one part of your query. Regarding the other part, I suggest you to post a new question including details of othe target web-browsers (name and version). – Rubén May 06 '22 at 13:27