Grab this automated ConvertKit Report in Google Sheets to monitor your email list growth and use it to project your future list growth.
Ben Collins shares the solution he uses to produce a daily ‘ConvertKit’ PDF report. Even if you don’t use ConvertKit this post is still worth a read as the basic model of getting data from a third party API into Google Sheets and sending a PDF summary could come in handy. Perhaps not surprising given this post comes from Ben it includes some clever Google Sheet functions to prepare and shape data.
A framework for thinking about whether you should automate a repeatable task in Google Sheets with scripts or not
Ben Collins provides some great advice on when you should think about automating tasks in Google Sheets. Click through the source link at the bottom for the full post for some great tips.
A graphic that stood out for me was the XKCD comic strip below.
… the math didn’t quite add up in my head so I double checked
With Apps Script, you can do cool stuff like automating repetitive tasks, creating documents, emailing people automatically and connecting your Google Sheets to other services you use.
This Google Apps Script introductory post from Ben Collins has been around for a while, but worth keeping in the old link locker as it summarises lots of useful information and links. Click through to the source for more details.
Learn how the Google Tables Apps Script Bot works and see an example of data enrichment using the Mattermark API.
In this post, I’ll show you how to use the new Google Tables Apps Script Bot. When something happens in your Google Table – a new row, or a value changes – a bot can be set to trigger an Apps Script function. It opens up a world of new possibilities.
While the Tables beta has been announced as joining Google Cloud it is still limited to US users. In the meantime for those outside the US we are limited to watching from the sidelines. Fortunately we can watch through the expert eyes of community members, in this case the esteemed Ben Collins. In this post Ben highlights how the experimental Tables Apps Script integration can be used to develop bots.
If you have a Nest thermostat at home, you can access it from your Google Sheet by using Apps Script to connect to the Smart Device Management API. It means you can do some cool stuff like build a virtual, working Nest thermostat in your Google Sheet
Explore the fantastic new Google Apps Script IDE and see features that will make your life easier, whether you’re a beginner or pro developer.
Ben Collins can never be accused of slacking off and this post is the perfect example. As announced on Totally Unscripted the new Apps Script IDE is rolling out and Ben lists 135 features for developers to look out for. View the source post for these features plus a video of Ben highlighting his favorites.
Learn how to merge cells in Google Sheets, when to use them and when to avoid them [and] finding merged cells in your Google Sheet using Apps Script
Some very useful guidance from Ben Collins on merged cells within Google Sheets. As well as how to merge/unmerge cells Ben also highlights some of the pitfalls when merging cells. The post also includes a very useful snippet for detecting merged cells using .getMergedRanges().
Tutorial on how to build an Alexa Rank tracker in Google Sheets, using the powerful IMPORTDATA and REGEXEXTRACT functions and Apps Script.
Clever post from Ben Collins highlighting how Google Sheets functions can be used to scrape Alexa tracking data. As a bonus Ben includes a little snippet of Google Apps Script to let you archive data over time.
Learn how to use Google Cloud’s Natural Language API to do sentiment analysis on tickets submitted to a Google Tables Support Issue Tracker. We’ll use Google Tables as the platform for our Support Tracker and Apps Script to connect to the Cloud Natural Language API.
Great example from Ben Collins building on the work of Alicia Williams which shows how you can interact with your Google Tables with Google Apps Script. As part of this solution Ben uses the new Tables Service, which is the latest Advanced Service to hit Google Apps Script, connecting to the Google Cloud Natural Language API. Click through to the source for all the details you need to get started.
Note: Google Tables beta is currently only available in the U.S.
Learn how to use modern JavaScript features in your Apps Script code with the release of the Apps Script V8 runtime engine.
Somehow we missed this post from Ben Collins when it was originally published in February, 2020, but it is well worth visiting and adding to our V8 collection of posts. For those still catching up V8 is the new runtime for Google Apps Script which enables modern JavaScript syntax to be used in your code. Ben covers some of the basic differences now possible with V8, with lots of examples.
