Plotline Google Docs Editor Add-on

Summary

Track your writing productivity in Google Docs™ with visualizations. See your word count progress over time with interactive charts to understand habits, set goals, and stay motivated.

Description

Support your writing process with Plotline, a free Google Docs™ add-on for tracking and visualizing your word count progress. Built to help writers, students, and professionals meet their goals, this tool provides powerful insights into your writing habits directly within your document.

This add-on runs securely on Google's own Apps Script servers, ensuring your documents remain safe and private.

Features

1. Granular Word Counting: View your word count for the entire document or break it down by section and chapter. By design, only the first Document Tab is counted, allowing you to freely store notes, drafts, and edits in separate tabs without skewing your primary statistics.
2. Goal Tracking: Set an optional word count goal to stay motivated and monitor your progress. Your target is automatically and evenly distributed across your document's chapters and sections to help you stay on track.
3. Interactive Progress Timelines: Visualize your writing journey with dynamic, interactive charts that illustrate how your word count evolves over time.
4. Writing Trends: Monitor your average writing speed and get an estimated completion time for your word count goal, helping you plan your writing sessions effectively.

Usage

1. Install the "Plotline" add-on from the Google Workspace Marketplace.
2. Open a Google Doc and activate the add-on from the "Extensions" menu.
3. The sidebar will instantly display your writing statistics.
4. Take control of your writing and hit your targets with Plotline.

Development

The repository is structured as an Apps Script project. You can manage it with clasp or directly from the Apps Script editor:

1. Install clasp and authenticate (clasp login).
2. Run clasp create --type docs --title "Plotline" or clone an existing script if configured.
3. Push the local files with clasp push, then open the script in the online editor (clasp open).
4. Use onOpen to add the menu and showSidebar to preview the sidebar UI.
5. Real API implementations live in Data.gs.
6. Use clasp push --watch --force when making changes to automatically push local changes (including those to the manifest).

Limitations

1. The add-on is not able to fetch the word count for the very first revision of a document.
2. The add-on is only able to fetch the word count by section for the current document. Past revisions are only able to fetch the total word count.
3. Revision history is not reliable. For example, after 3 months Google Drive can merge previous revisions. Unless they are named.

TODO

1. Add fail handler and error page for all methods. https://developers.google.com/apps-script/guides/html/reference/run#withFailureHandler(Function)
2. Adjust UTC time for local timezone so changes appear on the correct date.
3. Add word count goal and display progress towards goal. Divide goal by the number of chapters/headings to determine per-chapter progress.
4. Add tests to ensure user has enabled the appropriate scope. If not, display a description error message on the sidebar. Using error cards https://developers.google.com/workspace/add-ons/guides/workspace-best-practices#_use_error_cards .
5. The timeline view only shows past revisions and does not show the current word count as of the current document.
6. Add streaks feature to motivate writers. Show current streak, longest streak, and potentially a calendar with a heatmap of the days and the amount written.
7. Add creation date of the document to the stats. As well as last modified date. Could use this to display an estimate of how long the user has been working on the document.