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Subject:Re: Tips to convert Google Docs into clean HTML? From:Geoff Mann <geoff -dot- mann -at- uxwordsense -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Fri, 17 Apr 2020 15:05:56 -0400
Hey folks. Just following up in case anyone else needs to do this. Here's
the best method that I've come up with to convert one doc at a time.
1. Copy content from a Google Doc and paste it into TextEdit (on Mac).
TextEdit strips most of the HTML noise behind the scenes and retains
essential formatting (e.g., headings, paragraphs, bolding, lists, and
links). I'm guessing some other text editors may work as well.
2. Copy content from TextEdit and paste it into a doc tool's WYSIWYG
editor. My current project is in Document360, but I don't know why it
wouldn't work with others.
3. View the pasted content in the doc tool's HTML editor and tweak
remaining HTML, which is significantly cleaner than any other solutions
I've tested. In my case, cleanup primarily consists of adjusting nested
list tags so they don't close too soon.
Hope that helps someone.
On Tue, Feb 4, 2020 at 12:23 PM Geoff Mann <geoff -dot- mann -at- uxwordsense -dot- com>
wrote:
> Just to elaborate a bit, the key conversion issue I run into with various
> methods is that ordered lists break when they contain nested items such as
> paragraphs and other lists.
>
> There is a script out there (thanks, Keith) --
>http://jimbir.ch/blog/clean-google-docs-html-programmatically -- that is
> a few steps in the right direction for individual files, but it doesn't
> solve the list numbering issue. Plus, the process isn't ideal for a large
> number of files primarily because it outputs to email, which adds steps to
> the overall process.
>
> There are also a couple online HTML generators such as
>https://html-online.com/editor/ and https://htmlg.com/html-editor/, but
> again they don't handle nested lists well and are limited to one file at a
> time. That said, any one-file-at-a-time solution is workable considering
> that's all I have now.
>
> Cheers!
>
> On Mon, Feb 3, 2020 at 10:34 PM Geoff Mann <geoff -dot- mann -at- uxwordsense -dot- com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hey folks,
>>
>> I hope to speed up my manual process for converting Google Docs into
>> clean HTML, which currently consists of copying G Doc content into a CMS's
>> WYSIWYG and cleaning up the HTML with a few search-and-replaces a couple
>> manual tweaks. I'm sure there isn't a magic one-click solution that will
>> convert the full range of formatting options that a tech writer utilizes
>> (e.g., in-list indentations and nested lists), but does anyone happen to
>> use a Chrome plugin or script that can export clean(er) HTML? Bonus points
>> for a solution that can handle a batch of Google Doc files as once.
>>
>> Thanks for pondering.
>>
>> --
>> Geoff
>>
>
>
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