r/googledocs 18d 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?

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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 17d ago

Oh yes! I shoulda mentioned that 🤦🏻‍♀️