Google Docs – Replace Sequence of Placeholder Images

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I have a Google Doc document featuring a series of placeholder images. I need to replace each image with a series of images from a local folder. In theory, this is a meaningless task, but so far, my efforts have been fruitless. I have looked through a few documents, including a few 'tips for google docs' styled blog posts; but nothing seems to cover my explicit requirements.

I have 160+ images, and thus I would prefer an automated method rather than manually replacing each image separately. Is there a way to automate this process?

Best Answer

After some great amount of research and observation of other Google Docs practices, I have come to the realisation that you simply can not.

As a pseudo fix, I docked the window next to the folder containing these images. While slightly tedious, the manual automation of this task did not nearly take as long as I had of predicted, and I was able to complete it thoughtlessly, while watching some Doctor Who.

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Google-docs – How to use text from capturing groups in Google Docs regex replace

Little hacky, but it doesn't require an extra add on script and will likely cover 99% of your use cases. You can still use capture groups with RegexReplace and reference in the replace text with $1 or $2. Just split up your regex into two capture groups and concatenate with a random (infrequently used) character like ~. Then you can take the entire returned value from that and replace ~ with a newline:

=SUBSTITUTE(REGEXREPLACE(A1,"(#\d{1,2}[^.]*\.)(\s*)","$1~$2"),"~",CHAR(10))

screenshot

For more info on the regex syntax used in google sheets, see the re2 spec

Google-docs – Find and Replace Hyperlinks in Google Document

There is no way to do it natively in Google Docs. Maybe you should use a Docs add-on that could do it.

This add-on allows you to do it (Link URL and Set Link URL) but it is not free, though it is only $5: Advanced Find & Replace

Best Answer

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