Easter break is about to start. Most of you will be scheduling your vacation programs during this time. If you want to go to a movie with your friends, here is something interesting for you to try out – a script that allows you to plan and schedule for a good movie that most of your friends like.

This edition of techblog is all about this simple tool.

How to install the script?

This step is very simple. Go to your Google docs home page and create a new spreadsheet. Now give a name for your new spreadsheet and save it. In order to install the movie script, go to Insert –> Script (see the menu bar in the picture given below)

A new window will popup and enter “Movie night” in the text box and click search:

Now click on the ‘install button’. The script will be installed in a fraction of second. That’s it

How to use the movie script?

If you go back to the spreadsheet and refresh the page, you can see that a new menu item (‘Movies’) has been added to your menu bar. If you click on that item you can see a couple of options :

Now click on ‘List local movies’ (please note that Google will ask you to authorise the use of data by the script and you need to allow the script to access the data) and enter your zip code (postal code):

The script will automatically add the list of movies (along with other details like plot summary, relevant URLs etc ) that are running in the local theatres.

Go to the end of the generated movie list and add two more items (‘friends’ and ‘email addresses’)  in the next row as shown below:

You can either enter the name and email addresses of your friends or ask the script to import it from the Google contact list. Please note that if you choose the later, then the list will be very large. So it is recommended that you enter the details manually (as the list will be small in most cases).

Now choose ‘Invite’ friends the menu bar:

An invitation will be sent to all your friends in the ‘list’.

Here is a sample email sent by the system:

As you can see in the picture, your friends will be able to choose their favourite movie and vote for the same by clicking on the submit button:

Once your friends submit the form, the results will start appearing in your spreadsheet:

This helps you to decide which movie you want to go with your friends. Have fun!

Bugs

Oops…. Unfortunately,  this script is not very stable. It may throw an error while using some of the functions and you may have to restart the browser. Another issue is that sometimes the movie list is generated right away.