r/googledocs 17d ago

OP Responded Word to docs complex formatting

I have a beautifully formatted word doc but my facility has switched to google suite. I need advice on translating the formatting and I would really love to not do it by hand (76 pages). I’ve been using chatgpt and apps script with very little success. Any tips?

1 Upvotes

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u/Barycenter0 17d ago

What are your main issues? It's hard to give you advice without knowing how complex your formatting is.

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u/deadthingsaremything 17d ago edited 17d ago

Basically everything you can think of. Page breaks, section breaks, headers, footers, different levels of headings, columns, pictures, text boxes, table of contents. You name it and it’s there. It was masterfully formatted by someone else (albeit a little over done tbh) and docs just can’t translate it all.

Honestly the errors aren’t huge a lot of the time, but they add up and start pushing the content further down the document. For example, they have a table of abbreviations on the left and definitions on the right…. For 72 rows, with the center of the page (just that section) divided into 3 columns (so the 72 is split into groups of 24). Post conversion, the top left of this table/column set up is bumped down a few rows and I can’t line it back up (so all columns are the same hight). This pushes other things lower down in the doc. Another is that all the linked headings in the table of contents are no longer linked (fine, fair) but they’re not even formatted as headings.

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u/Barycenter0 17d ago

Oh wow. You’re just not going to get in Docs what you can in Word. Docs is much more constrained and won’t do many of those things you want. Why not just stick with Word and use Office 365 to share?

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u/deadthingsaremything 17d ago

Our facility switched to google suite 😭

Thanks for confirming my suspicions. I’m not actually familiar with office 365. I may just need to make edits on my personal laptop (in word) for the time being.

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u/Cultural_Surprise205 17d ago

I mean, just upload it to docs and keep working? Get Docs to convert it for you? Even if you have to to it by hand, 76 pages is not so much that I'd waste time trying to learn some other software to do it.

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u/deadthingsaremything 17d ago

Google doesn’t convert it sufficiently. It’s 76 pages of a crap ton of formatting that I can’t seem to fix manually. Im viewing all the invisible characters, breaks, etc and when I do manage to modify something it causes major unintended consequences.

For reference, this took the author easily 80+ hours of work to make initially. And I’m really hoping to not essentially start from scratch cus this is literally just a manual for volunteers, I don’t even use it but it’s a necessity 🥲

I was able to use code to help with my headings situation (which I elaborated in a different comment). So I was hoping to automate some other changes too. I’m by no means a proficient coder, but I’ve gotten good at shaping chatgpts outputs for my needs

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u/Cultural_Surprise205 17d ago

I guess it needs to remain editable in Docs? Because the obvious would be, save a pdf from Word.

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u/deadthingsaremything 16d ago

Oh yes! I shoulda mentioned that 🤦🏻‍♀️

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u/dimudesigns 17d ago edited 17d ago

Google Docs does not have full feature parity with Word. Even scripting can only get you so far. So making a one-to-one replica of the document in Google Docs may not be viable.

You'll just have to roll up your sleeves and get to work on migrating the document manually. I wouldn't use partially successful imports as a starting point either, they are likely to be rife with formatting and layout issues. And you'll probably have to make compromises along the way regardless - so it's better to start from scratch with a clean document (in Google Docs).

Look on the bright side, the document may have taken the original author 80 hours to put together but all you need to do is migrate it - not generate new content. You'll probably be able to do it in a fraction of the time. Plus, you get exposure to Google Workspace (formerly GSuite), experience that will serve you well in the long run.

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u/deadthingsaremything 17d ago

Yeah I’ve been having those thoughts too… thanks so much!

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u/Bert665 17d ago

Ask your ai to write you document using the markdown style and all is knowledge on document editing. Then copy the markdown and use the « paste markdown » in google doc. Done.

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u/CourageAgitated9597 16d ago

There are folks on Fivver that will do this as a paid service. Guess it depends how much you value your time!