Google Sheets custom menu script builder

Name your menu, list its items and pick what each one does; get the Apps Script, ready to paste. Most custom-menu examples stop at the menu and leave the functions to you. This one writes both, with every item's name matched to its function — the mismatch that makes a menu item say Script function not found.

The menu Menu name Your table's last column Header rows

Item 1 Label What it does Column (sort, mark, clear) Word to write (mark only) Function name (optional)

Item 2 (optional) Label What it does Column (sort, mark, clear) Word to write (mark only) Function name (optional)

Item 3 (optional) Label What it does Column (sort, mark, clear) Word to write (mark only) Function name (optional)

Item 4 (optional) Label What it does Column (sort, mark, clear) Word to write (mark only) Function name (optional)

Item 5 (optional) Label What it does Column (sort, mark, clear) Word to write (mark only) Function name (optional)

The script, with the example menu composed on the page, no account, nothing stored

function onOpen() {
  SpreadsheetApp.getUi()
    .createMenu('Tasks')
    .addItem('Sort by due date', 'sortByDue')
    .addItem('Mark as done', 'markDone')
    .addToUi();
}

function sortByDue() {
  SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet().getRange('A2:C').sort(3);
}

function markDone() {
  const row = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveRange().getRow();
  SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSheet().getRange(row, 2).setValue('Done');
}

noteThe menu is built when the file opens, so a change to the script needs a save and a reload before the menu shows it.

noteSorting moves whole rows from column A to column C. Anything to the right of C stays where it is and no longer lines up — set the last column to the table's real last column.

noteMark writes into whichever row the cursor is in, header row included. Undo (Ctrl+Z) reverses it like any edit.

Your menu, item by item

Tasks →	Runs	Does
Sort by due date	`sortByDue`	Sorts rows 2 and down by column C, A→Z / oldest first. Each row moves as a whole, A to C.
Mark as done	`markDone`	Writes “Done” in column B of the row the cursor is in.

Where it goes

Open the spreadsheet and click Extensions, then Apps Script. It opens the sheet's own script project in a new tab.
Delete the starter code and paste the script in.
Save the project (the disk icon, or Ctrl+S).
Go back to the sheet and reload the page. Saving does not run onOpen — the Tasks menu appears a few seconds after the reload, after Help.
Click an item. The first time, Google asks for permission and warns the app isn't verified: Review permissions → Advanced → Go to the project (unsafe) → Select all → Continue. You wrote it; that warning is what every personal script gets.

How the menu is built

A function called onOpen runs by itself when someone who can edit the spreadsheet opens it. Inside it, createMenu names the menu, each addItem adds one line — the words you see, then the name of the function that line runs — and addToUi puts the menu in the menu bar, after Help.

That is also why a new menu doesn't appear when you save: nothing has opened the file yet. Reload the page and it shows up a few seconds after the grid. The first click on an item asks for permission, because the item runs code that edits your sheet; onOpen on its own needs none.

Seeing it done

The channel builds one on camera in How to Create a Custom Menu in Google Sheets.