Google Scripts API. Make cell background transparent

Question

I have a Google document with a table. Table cells are, say, black and white. Goal: remove cell background (make all cells background transparent) by using Google Scripts API.

Is there a way to do so? I tried Cell.setBackgroundColor(color) in various ways (by using "none", "null", "transparent", "", etc. as input) but this doesn't work.

Making all cells white is not an acceptable workaround.

Thanks, Alex

Answer 1

Hm. Just tried the following code. It works as expected - changes the 'D10:E20' range colored background to white and the cells A1 and A2 contain the text

• #980000
• none

i.e. the range background is 'none' and not white. The function is

function myFunction() {
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getActiveSheet();
  var range = sheet.getRange('D10:E20');
  sheet.getRange('A1').setValue(range.getBackgroundColor());
  range.setBackground('none');
  sheet.getRange('A2').setValue(range.getBackgroundColor());
}

Edit 00: I am sorry, I misunderstood you. Fixing my fault, I created a text document and a small script (see bellow). In the document, I created a new table and, without any further modifications, I started the script. The results are

• The cell[0, 0] contains the Background is null text and the code throws the We're sorry, a server error occurred. Please wait a bit and try again. (line 14) exception in the cell00.setBackgroundColor(bg00); line. Wrong.

In the document editor I changed the cell[0, 0] background, by the Table->Table properties dialog, to the yellow. The results are

• The cell[0, 0] text is #ffff00. No errors. Correct.

I changed the cell background to None. The results are

• The cell[0, 0] contains the Background is empty text and the code throws the Invalid color value. (line 14) exception in the cell00.setBackgroundColor(bg00); line. Wrong.

My opinion is that the points marked as Wrong is a bug. You have to file an issue to the issue tracker. For sure, you can use my code and this text to describe the problem.

function testDoc() {
  var doc = DocumentApp.openById('the-text-document-id');
  var cell00 = doc.getTables()[0].getCell(0, 0);
  var bg00 = cell00.getBackgroundColor();
  if (bg00 == null) {
    cell00.setText('Background is null');
  }
  else if (bg00 == '') {
    cell00.setText('Background is empty');
  }
  else {
    cell00.setText(bg00);
  }
  cell00.setBackgroundColor(bg00);
}