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After searching, the closest information I've found is this question. However, that answer covers just creating a Google Drive file, period. I would like to find out how to make that file get created in a specific folder.

Is this possible?

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3

I watched what happens when Google Docs creates a new document in a folder. The browser briefly goes to a create url. To make the url, you need to know your folder's id. If you navigate to the folder in a browser, its id is at the end of the url:

https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/[string_of_characters_is_the_folder_id]

Copy the id, open a new browser tab, and paste the id onto the end of the create url, like so:

https://docs.google.com/document/create?usp=drive_web&folder=[string_of_characters_is_the_folder_id]

Press Enter, and the browser will go to your new document created in the folder identified in the url.

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  • 1
    Next step in this journey is to create a file FROM A TEMPLATE and have it created INSIDE OF A SPECIFIC FOLDER... once that is complete I will attain cosmic awareness... lol. Thank you so much... – randomblink Jan 24 '16 at 16:52
  • Is it fair to say that a document using a template is essentially a copy of a certain document? I mean I don't see a difference between a template-based document and a copy-based document. – jaycer Jan 26 '16 at 14:52
  • Mind. Blown. Of course. Thank you. Now I can generate templated work forms for my co-workers and provide links from Trello that will generate copies in the folders where they need to go... this is perfection. – randomblink Jan 26 '16 at 18:02
  • randomblink, I want what you describe, but I can't make the leap from jaycer's hint to your insight. How do you construct a URL that creates a new copy-based document that goes to a particular folder? – jml Apr 4 '17 at 10:48
  • Agreed, has anyone managed to figure out what the command is? – midasmax Oct 13 '17 at 10:03
1

I know this thread has been quiet for a while, but it helped me.

I was able to accomplish this by:

  1. getting the URL of the destination folder https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/[Folder ID]

  2. taking the file's url

  3. replacing /edit with /copy
  4. adding the copyDestination param to the end

Original URL:

https://docs.google.com/[specific file URL]/edit

Final result would look like this:

https://docs.google.com/[specific file URL]/copy?copyDestination=[Folder ID]

I hope this helps!

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