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Hi,

I create a daily agenda Google Doc every day using a template and I’d like to automate that. I found a tutorial that mentions populating Google Docs using calendar event info but I haven’t found any details to actually do this.

I have the zap template to create a daily google doc, but I can’t figure out:

  • How to create a google doc template that will use calendar data
  • How to add that step to the zap that creates my daily agenda

Is this actually possible?

Hi @mmorrissey 

Here’s an article about creating a GDoc template: https://zapier.com/blog/create-autopopulate-google-docs-template/

 

You may need a few different Zaps to achieve the desired results.

 

You may want to try this GDoc action in your Zap:

 

Some other options to try are to use these apps:

  1. GCal
  2. Digest by Zapier: https://zapier.com/apps/digest/help

 

Trigger: GCal - Event Start

Action: Digest - Append Entry

Action: Digest - Release Digest


That was a good start, thanks - I reviewed that article before posting. How do I get the zap to use my calendar events to populate the template? I wasn’t able to figure that out using the available help documentation. 

So far, I can get the document created every day, but I can’t get the calendar info populated. 

I need it to go into this document - digest, unfortunately, won’t work for this use case. I also need this to happen every morning, not when the event starts. I use this to manage my day and add my notes to the entries.


@mmorrissey 

One thing you’ll have to solve for is how to retrieve the GCal Events for a given day.

Note: The GCal Find Event only returns 1 record at a time.

Perhaps you consider logging your GCal Events in a GSheet or Airtable as well.

GSheets has 2 searches that can return multiple results.

Most Zaps work on a per record basis, and to retrieve multiple records generally involves using an app’s API via a Webhooks app step in the Zap which is more advanced and technical approach.

 


Hi @mmorrissey, following up on this thread, did the last suggestion help with your question?


Hi Paolo,

It inspired a new idea - To get my agenda created, I added the “email daily agenda” option in gmail and used a parsing step in my zap to pull what I need out of that email, before inserting it into the top of my document. That creates a daily agenda with my schedule at the top. Then I manually pull from the top of the document and fill in my template fields below.

Thanks for your help!


Hey @mmorrissey! Thanks for sharing that with us. I used it as inspiration for today’s Workflow Wednesday post (I gave you credit there):

For anyone who’s looking for a bit more detail, feel free to check out that article :)