I have a Google Apps Script that selects a range:

    const editingRange = body.findText(needle);
    if (editingRange) {
        const range = doc.newRange();
        range.addElement(editingRange.getElement().asText(),
                         editingRange.getStartOffset(),
                         editingRange.getEndOffsetInclusive())
        doc.setSelection(range.build())
    }

This works fine.

Now I'd like to select nothing (as if the user had just clicked somewhere in the document).

How do I do that?

Things I have tried

doc.setSelection(null);

gives an error saying argument range cannot be null.

doc.setSelection(doc.newRange().build());

gives

Exception: Invalid argument: range at clearSelection7(argh:473:9)

I have scoured the docs without finding anything.

(I see getSelection returns null if there is no selection, you'd think setSelection would then accept null to select nothing, but no.)

I have a Google Apps Script that selects a range:

    const editingRange = body.findText(needle);
    if (editingRange) {
        const range = doc.newRange();
        range.addElement(editingRange.getElement().asText(),
                         editingRange.getStartOffset(),
                         editingRange.getEndOffsetInclusive())
        doc.setSelection(range.build())
    }

This works fine.

Now I'd like to select nothing (as if the user had just clicked somewhere in the document).

How do I do that?

Things I have tried

doc.setSelection(null);

gives an error saying argument range cannot be null.

doc.setSelection(doc.newRange().build());

gives

Exception: Invalid argument: range at clearSelection7(argh:473:9)

I have scoured the docs https://developers.google.com/apps-script/reference/document/document without finding anything.

(I see getSelection returns null if there is no selection, you'd think setSelection would then accept null to select nothing, but no.)

• google-apps-script
• google-docs

2 Answers 2

On a whim I tried setting the cursor, and it worked! This seems to do the equivalent of a "select none":

export function clearHighlight() {
    const doc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
    const paragraphs = doc.getBody().getParagraphs();
    if(paragraphs) {
        // just pick a position at the first element of the document
        const pos = doc.newPosition(paragraphs[0].getChild(0), 0); 
        doc.setCursor(pos);
    }
}

On the downside, even though this function seems to do nearly nothing, the script.google.com Executions log says it often takes over a second :(

Here is a simple example of getting the cursor location. From that you can build whatever edit or reformat you like.

function getCursor() {
  try {
    let doc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument();
    let cursor = doc.getCursor();
    let ui = DocumentApp.getUi();
    let text = cursor.getSurroundingText().getText();
    let offset = cursor.getOffset();
    ui.alert("the cursor is in the following text: ["+text+"] at offset: "+offset);
  }
  catch(err) {
    console.log("Error in getCursor: "+err);
  }
}

Reference:

• Document.getCursor()