Class TableOfContents

  • ATableOfContents element contains a table of contents, typically generated automatically by Google Docs, and can include ListItems, Paragraphs, and Tables.

  • TheTableOfContents element provides various methods for clearing, copying, editing as text, finding elements and text, retrieving attributes, children, siblings, and text content, and setting attributes and text alignment.

  • Several methods require specific authorization scopes, such ashttps://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly orhttps://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents, to be used in scripts.

  • Methods likefindElement andfindText allow searching within the TableOfContents element for specific types of elements or text patterns, supporting regular expressions with some limitations.

  • Utility methods are available for managing the element within its parent, such asremoveFromParent(), and for checking its position within the document.

TableOfContents

An element containing a table of contents. ATableOfContents may containListItem,Paragraph, andTable elements, although the contents of aTableOfContents are usually generated automatically by Google Docs. For more information ondocument structure, see theguide toextending Google Docs.

Methods

MethodReturn typeBrief description
clear()TableOfContentsClears the contents of the element.
copy()TableOfContentsReturns a detached, deep copy of the current element.
editAsText()TextObtains aText version of the current element, for editing.
findElement(elementType)RangeElement|nullSearches the contents of the element for a descendant of the specified type.
findElement(elementType, from)RangeElement|nullSearches the contents of the element for a descendant of the specified type, starting from thespecifiedRangeElement.
findText(searchPattern)RangeElement|nullSearches the contents of the element for the specified text pattern using regular expressions.
findText(searchPattern, from)RangeElement|nullSearches the contents of the element for the specified text pattern, starting from a givensearch result.
getAttributes()ObjectRetrieves the element's attributes.
getChild(childIndex)ElementRetrieves the child element at the specified child index.
getChildIndex(child)IntegerRetrieves the child index for the specified child element.
getLinkUrl()String|nullRetrieves the link url.
getNextSibling()Element|nullRetrieves the element's next sibling element.
getNumChildren()IntegerRetrieves the number of children.
getParent()ContainerElement|nullRetrieves the element's parent element.
getPreviousSibling()Element|nullRetrieves the element's previous sibling element.
getText()StringRetrieves the contents of the element as a text string.
getTextAlignment()TextAlignment|nullGets the text alignment.
getType()ElementTypeRetrieves the element'sElementType.
isAtDocumentEnd()BooleanDetermines whether the element is at the end of theDocument.
removeFromParent()TableOfContents|nullRemoves the element from its parent.
replaceText(searchPattern, replacement)ElementReplaces all occurrences of a given text pattern with a given replacement string, using regularexpressions.
setAttributes(attributes)TableOfContentsSets the element's attributes.
setLinkUrl(url)TableOfContentsSets the link url.
setTextAlignment(textAlignment)TableOfContentsSets the text alignment.

Detailed documentation

clear()

Clears the contents of the element.

Return

TableOfContents — The current element.


copy()

Returns a detached, deep copy of the current element.

Any child elements present in the element are also copied. The new element doesn't have aparent.

Return

TableOfContents — The new copy.

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

editAsText()

Obtains aText version of the current element, for editing.

UseeditAsText for manipulating the elements contents as rich text. TheeditAsText mode ignores non-text elements (such asInlineImage andHorizontalRule).

Child elements fully contained within a deleted text range are removed from the element.

constbody=DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getActiveTab().asDocumentTab().getBody();// Insert two paragraphs separated by a paragraph containing an// horizontal rule.body.insertParagraph(0,'An editAsText sample.');body.insertHorizontalRule(0);body.insertParagraph(0,'An example.');// Delete " sample.\n\n An" removing the horizontal rule in the process.body.editAsText().deleteText(14,25);

Return

Text — a text version of the current element


findElement(elementType)

Searches the contents of the element for a descendant of the specified type.

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
elementTypeElementTypeThe type of element to search for.

Return

RangeElement|null — A search result indicating the position of the search element.

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

findElement(elementType, from)

Searches the contents of the element for a descendant of the specified type, starting from thespecifiedRangeElement.

constbody=DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getActiveTab().asDocumentTab().getBody();// Define the search parameters.letsearchResult=null;// Search until the paragraph is found.while((searchResult=body.findElement(DocumentApp.ElementType.PARAGRAPH,searchResult,))){constpar=searchResult.getElement().asParagraph();if(par.getHeading()===DocumentApp.ParagraphHeading.HEADING1){// Found one, update and stop.par.setText('This is the first header.');break;}}

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
elementTypeElementTypeThe type of element to search for.
fromRangeElementThe search result to search from.

Return

RangeElement|null — A search result indicating the next position of the search element.

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

findText(searchPattern)

Searches the contents of the element for the specified text pattern using regular expressions.

A subset of the JavaScript regular expression features are not fully supported, such ascapture groups and mode modifiers.

The provided regular expression pattern is independently matched against each text blockcontained in the current element.

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
searchPatternStringthe pattern to search for

Return

RangeElement|null — a search result indicating the position of the search text, or null if there is no match

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

findText(searchPattern, from)

Searches the contents of the element for the specified text pattern, starting from a givensearch result.

A subset of the JavaScript regular expression features are not fully supported, such ascapture groups and mode modifiers.

The provided regular expression pattern is independently matched against each text blockcontained in the current element.

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
searchPatternStringthe pattern to search for
fromRangeElementthe search result to search from

Return

RangeElement|null — a search result indicating the next position of the search text, or null if there is no match

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

getAttributes()

Retrieves the element's attributes.

The result is an object containing a property for each valid element attribute where eachproperty name corresponds to an item in theDocumentApp.Attribute enumeration.

constdoc=DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();constdocumentTab=doc.getActiveTab().asDocumentTab();constbody=documentTab.getBody();// Append a styled paragraph.constpar=body.appendParagraph('A bold, italicized paragraph.');par.setBold(true);par.setItalic(true);// Retrieve the paragraph's attributes.constatts=par.getAttributes();// Log the paragraph attributes.for(constattinatts){Logger.log(`${att}:${atts[att]}`);}

Return

Object — The element's attributes.

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

getChild(childIndex)

Retrieves the child element at the specified child index.

constbody=DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getActiveTab().asDocumentTab().getBody();// Obtain the first element in the tab.constfirstChild=body.getChild(0);// If it's a paragraph, set its contents.if(firstChild.getType()===DocumentApp.ElementType.PARAGRAPH){firstChild.asParagraph().setText('This is the first paragraph.');}

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
childIndexIntegerThe index of the child element to retrieve.

Return

Element — The child element at the specified index.

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

getChildIndex(child)

Retrieves the child index for the specified child element.

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
childElementThe child element for which to retrieve the index.

Return

Integer — The child index.

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

getLinkUrl()

Retrieves the link url.

Return

String|null — the link url, or null if the element contains multiple values for this attribute

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

getNextSibling()

Retrieves the element's next sibling element.

The next sibling has the same parent and follows the current element.

Return

Element|null — The next sibling element.

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

getNumChildren()

Retrieves the number of children.

constbody=DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getActiveTab().asDocumentTab().getBody();// Log the number of elements in the tab.Logger.log(`There are${body.getNumChildren()} elements in the tab's body.`);

Return

Integer — The number of children.

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

getParent()

Retrieves the element's parent element.

The parent element contains the current element.

Return

ContainerElement|null — The parent element.

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

getPreviousSibling()

Retrieves the element's previous sibling element.

The previous sibling has the same parent and precedes the current element.

Return

Element|null — The previous sibling element.

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

getText()

Retrieves the contents of the element as a text string.

Return

String — the contents of the element as text string

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

getTextAlignment()

Gets the text alignment. The available types of alignment areDocumentApp.TextAlignment.NORMAL,DocumentApp.TextAlignment.SUBSCRIPT, andDocumentApp.TextAlignment.SUPERSCRIPT.

Return

TextAlignment|null — the type of text alignment, ornull if the text contains multiple types of text alignments or if the text alignment has never been set

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

getType()

Retrieves the element'sElementType.

UsegetType() to determine the exact type of a given element.

constdoc=DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();constdocumentTab=doc.getActiveTab().asDocumentTab();constbody=documentTab.getBody();// Obtain the first element in the active tab's body.constfirstChild=body.getChild(0);// Use getType() to determine the element's type.if(firstChild.getType()===DocumentApp.ElementType.PARAGRAPH){Logger.log('The first element is a paragraph.');}else{Logger.log('The first element is not a paragraph.');}

Return

ElementType — The element type.

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

isAtDocumentEnd()

Determines whether the element is at the end of theDocument.

Return

Boolean — Whether the element is at the end of the tab.

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

removeFromParent()

Removes the element from its parent.

constdoc=DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();constdocumentTab=doc.getActiveTab().asDocumentTab();constbody=documentTab.getBody();// Remove all images in the active tab's body.constimgs=body.getImages();for(leti=0;i <imgs.length;i++){imgs[i].removeFromParent();}

Return

TableOfContents|null — The removed element.

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

replaceText(searchPattern, replacement)

Replaces all occurrences of a given text pattern with a given replacement string, using regularexpressions.

The search pattern is passed as a string, not a JavaScript regular expression object.Because of this you'll need to escape any backslashes in the pattern.

This methods uses Google'sRE2 regularexpression library, which limits thesupported syntax.

The provided regular expression pattern is independently matched against each text blockcontained in the current element.

constbody=DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getActiveTab().asDocumentTab().getBody();// Clear the text surrounding "Apps Script", with or without text.body.replaceText('^.*Apps ?Script.*$','Apps Script');

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
searchPatternStringthe regex pattern to search for
replacementStringthe text to use as replacement

Return

Element — the current element

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

setAttributes(attributes)

Sets the element's attributes.

The specified attributes parameter must be an object where each property name is an item intheDocumentApp.Attribute enumeration and each property value is the new value to beapplied.

constdoc=DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();constdocumentTab=doc.getActiveTab().asDocumentTab();constbody=documentTab.getBody();// Define a custom paragraph style.conststyle={};style[DocumentApp.Attribute.HORIZONTAL_ALIGNMENT]=DocumentApp.HorizontalAlignment.RIGHT;style[DocumentApp.Attribute.FONT_FAMILY]='Calibri';style[DocumentApp.Attribute.FONT_SIZE]=18;style[DocumentApp.Attribute.BOLD]=true;// Append a plain paragraph.constpar=body.appendParagraph('A paragraph with custom style.');// Apply the custom style.par.setAttributes(style);

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
attributesObjectThe element's attributes.

Return

TableOfContents — The current element.

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

setLinkUrl(url)

Sets the link url.

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
urlStringthe link url

Return

TableOfContents — the current element

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

setTextAlignment(textAlignment)

Sets the text alignment. The available types of alignment areDocumentApp.TextAlignment.NORMAL,DocumentApp.TextAlignment.SUBSCRIPT, andDocumentApp.TextAlignment.SUPERSCRIPT.

// Make the entire first paragraph in the active tab be superscript.constdocumentTab=DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getActiveTab().asDocumentTab();consttext=documentTab.getBody().getParagraphs()[0].editAsText();text.setTextAlignment(DocumentApp.TextAlignment.SUPERSCRIPT);

Parameters

NameTypeDescription
textAlignmentTextAlignmentthe type of text alignment to apply

Return

TableOfContents — the current element

Authorization

Scripts that use this method require authorization with one or more of the followingscopes:

  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents.currentonly
  • https://www.googleapis.com/auth/documents

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Last updated 2025-12-11 UTC.