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Subject:RE: Tips to convert Google Docs into clean HTML? From:Lin Laurie <linlaurie1 -at- hotmail -dot- com> To:Geoff Mann <geoff -dot- mann -at- uxwordsense -dot- com>, "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 17 Apr 2020 20:17:56 +0000
Last year, I had a huge project that they wanted written in Google docs (some of their existing docs were already in there and they wanted to move the topics into SalesForce. I kept asking to work on a PC but they wanted me to work on a Chromebook. There doesn't seem to be a way to take Google Docs and transfer them into HTML in a clean way.
The process they came up with was horrible and involved having to add code to share the files on the server or some such stuff. If you just copying and pasted the HTML into SF the links would break to images so we had to save them and the share them. It was truly the most convoluted process I ever saw.
IN the end, they had the PM take it over so I could just develop the documentation so I wrote for 6 mos and at the end of the project, they had 6 mos of Google Docs but no workable process to get them into SF. Then they laid off all the people on the project (bad sales figures) and never did get all the documentation I wrote into their new implementation. I felt so sick about it. It was such a waste of money and all it would have taken to make it work was a PC... One of the funny things was that after I was there a month, they started to allow PCs in the company, but not to me on that project.
I did enjoy the job and have great references and some good friends from working there, but what a sad story.
LMK if anyone finds a good process to convert from GD to HTML. I'd love to pass it on.
Lin Laurie
206.900.1861
www.linlaurie.com
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+linlaurie1=hotmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com <techwr-l-bounces+linlaurie1=hotmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> On Behalf Of Geoff Mann
Sent: Friday, April 17, 2020 12:06 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Tips to convert Google Docs into clean HTML?
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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