How to Publish to WordPress Using Google Doc / WordPress

Google Docs is go-to document creation tool for both groups and individuals. It offers advanced editing and collaboration tools for free without any limitations. However, when transferring documents from Google Docs to your WordPress site, it doesn’t play very well. You will lose all images and formatting in the process. No more.

Automattic recently released a Google Docs add-on that lets you directly save Google Docs documents as drafts on your WordPress site.

In this post, I will show you how you can use this add-on to save documents in wordpress.com or your self-hosted wordpress.org site.

Prerequisites

Here are some requirements for the extension to work.

For wordpress.com sites

• Google account to create the document and connect it to the wordpress.com website.
• Any browser.
• The wordpress.com site has admin access (i.e. a wordpress.com account).

For self-hosted wordpress.org sites

• Google account to create the document and connect it to the wordpress.org website.
• Any browser.
• Admin access is required to the self-hosted wordpress.org site (i.e. only the owner can connect the add-on).
• The Jetpack plugin must be installed and working in the wordpress.org site. Required to implement add-ons on self-hosted sites.

Before following the instructions below, make sure you meet all the above requirements depending on your website type.

Install add-ons

Before using the add-on, you have to install it and connect it to your WordPress website. To get started, open the WordPress.com plugin for Google Docs page and click “FREE OF CHARGE” to install add-ons. The Google Docs document will open in a new window and you will be asked to provide the necessary permissions. Just click “Continue” And after that “Allow“to provide permissions and install add-ons.

Connect your WordPress site

After installing the utility, you need to connect your required site. To do so, click “Add-ons“in Google Docs and select”Open” in “WordPress.com for Google Docs” added.

This will open widget in right sidebar. Click “Authority“The button is here to start the authorization process.

A new tab will open where you are going required to login with your wordpress.com account (if not logged in). You will be asked to choose your site from a drop-down menu that lists all the websites connected to your wordpress.com account. Just select the required website and click “Approve” button allows it.

The window will close and you will see authorized website in the Google Docs sidebar. If you want to authorize more sites, then click “Add WordPress Site” button at the bottom of the sidebar and authorize it. You can repeat the process to add as many sites as you want.

The the authorization process for a self-hosted site is the same. Just make sure the Jetpack plugin is installed and activated, then authorize it using the instructions above.

Save Google Docs Document in WordPress

that is it’s very easy to save your document in WordPress as a draft. When you’re done editing your document, click “Save Draft” in the bar next to the site name. The The document will be sent to your WordPress site and saved as “Draft”.

If you need to update your draft, simply edit the Google Docs document and click “Draft Update” button in the sidebar.

The add-on will make sure most formats and all images are the same switched to WordPress site editor so you don’t have to make any changes. Of course, the add-on is still not perfect and may omit some advanced formatting (like design). However, most popular formats are still intact.

For testing purposes, I created a Google Docs document with dummy text and a few pictures. I also applied most of the popular formats to see how they turned out, include headings, bullet points, bold, italic, and underlineetc.

When I opened the draft in the WordPress editor, almost all the formatting was moved perfectly except for the text that I colored. The images are also perfectly aligned.

I also checked the post’s HTML code and it’s perfectly fine without any items. You can see it in the screenshot below.

Troubleshoot

WordPress.com sites have no problem getting authorized. However, many users have encountered problems while trying to connect their self-hosted wordpress.org site with Jetpack installed. The supplement is still new and full of bugsand it also depends on “Jet plane” plugin now.

Many users will facing issue based on their site configuration, Jetpack plugin configuration, and other reasons. Below I will mention some common solutions worked for most users to fix authorization errors problem. You can refer to them if you face the same problem.

• Make sure the site you are testing is at least 3 days (72 hours). Jetpack plugin facing recently registered domain name authorization issue.
• Confirm that latest version of Jetpack plugin installed.
• Disable all other plugins except Jetpack and try. You can re-enable them if it works.
• Disable Cloudflare security if you are using it. You can reactivate it later.
• Change your theme to WordPress default (if possible) and see if it fixes. It could be a problem with the theme.
• The security solution is known to cause authorization issues. Try disabling your security solutions temporarily and try enabling.
• Below is a list of errors related to the Jetpack plugin. If you face any, just follow the instructions provided to fix it.
• Contact Jetpack support If you still can’t solve the problem.
• You may even have to contact your hosting service to make sure there are no problems at their end. However, I would recommend contacting Jetpack support first and get their advice.

Summary

The WordPress.com Add-on for Google Docs is definitely a breakthrough in the WordPress community. You no longer have to spend extra time formatting documents in WordPress or mess up the HTML code.

Although I still recommend double-checking the imported document to see if everything is moving correctly. The add-in is new and it can make some mistakes. However, this won’t put you off, the add-on will continue to improve and will be available to all users soon.