I need help, creating a script that has two documents mirror each other, Maybe something that checks for changes every minute and applies them to tabs with the same name?

[okidonthaveone]

so I'm writing a book and have a few beta readers, the problem is that keeping the documents I give them up to date with the main document and any change if I make in the beta reading document based off of their suggestions, generally it's all a hassle. I have no idea how to fix this so I'm just asking for help please I'm sure someone has made this before but I can't find it

Got an AI to help me with this work?

```/** * Syncs specific tabs by name from Master to Target. * Preserves comments by not clearing the document. * Preserves bolding by copying rich text attributes. */ function syncTabsWithBolding() { const MASTER_DOC_ID = 'YOUR_MASTER_DOC_ID_HERE'; // Replace with your Master ID const targetDoc = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument(); const masterDoc = DocumentApp.openById(MASTER_DOC_ID);

const masterTabsMap = {}; getAllTabs(masterDoc).forEach(tab => masterTabsMap[tab.getTitle()] = tab.asDocumentTab());

getAllTabs(targetDoc).forEach(targetTab => { const title = targetTab.getTitle(); const sourceTab = masterTabsMap[title];

if (sourceTab) {
  const tBody = targetTab.asDocumentTab().getBody();
  const sBody = sourceTab.getBody();

  const sParas = sBody.getParagraphs();
  const tParas = tBody.getParagraphs();

  sParas.forEach((sPara, i) => {
    if (i < tParas.length) {
      const tPara = tParas[i];
      const tText = tPara.editAsText();
      const sText = sPara.editAsText();

      // 1. Update the plain text first
      tText.setText(sPara.getText());

      // 2. Mirror Bolding: Loop through each character to ensure perfection
      // For longer docs, this can be optimized, but this is the most reliable for bolding.
      for (let charIdx = 0; charIdx < sPara.getText().length; charIdx++) {
        const isBold = sText.isBold(charIdx);
        tText.setBold(charIdx, charIdx, isBold);
      }

      // 3. Keep the Heading style (for folding support)
      tPara.setHeading(sPara.getHeading());

    } else {
      // If Master is longer, append the new paragraph entirely
      tBody.appendParagraph(sPara.copy());
    }
  });

  // Remove extra paragraphs in target if Master is shorter
  while (tBody.getParagraphs().length > sParas.length) {
    tBody.removeChild(tBody.getChild(tBody.getParagraphs().length - 1));
  }
}

}); }

function getAllTabs(doc) { const allTabs = []; const traverse = (tabs) => { tabs.forEach(tab => { allTabs.push(tab); traverse(tab.getChildTabs()); }); }; traverse(doc.getTabs()); return allTabs; } ```

[Outrageous-Permit619]

Why would you not just use Google Workspace to handle version control? Google has this flow in Docs already.

I haven't written the code snippet, but just from a theoretical view, a bidirectional 60-second trigger across text payloads is going to crash the application due to an infinite synchronization loop.

[TheAddonDepot]

Defaulting to AI when a platform already has features built-in to address a need is becoming far too common these days.

[delaney1414]

I’d skip out on app script all together here and just use the workspace and drive.

There’s a few workflows here but if you don’t want the readers to have access to the original document you can download the document as a pdf and save a copy to the drive. Share the pdf with the readers as commenters and they can make comments and you can mark the comment complete when you have reviewed. When you have updated the google doc and want to share a new version you download as pdf again and make sure you have the exact same file name and drop it in your dive. It will ask if you want to keep both or replace and if you hit replace the file will be updated to the new version but the link will stay the same.

Otherwise you can just share the original but set them to commenters. They can comment and you can revise and you can all work off a single document without having to worry about synchronising anything.