Are you a freelance web editor and like me, you write for different clients? You are a heavy user of the Google suite with Docs, Sheets, Slides or and you would like to be able to import Google Docs into WordPress. Today, what are you doing? Writing directly in the WordPress editor? Do you write in Google Docs and copy/paste? What a waste of time and other inconveniences that we will detail. I offer you today a complete tutorial to discover and install the WordPress.com to Google Docs Chrome extension. Word processing is yours which integrates into your WordPress editor in 1 click! This article will be a live lab article of the procedure, so follow the guide!
Why copying and pasting causes problems
To begin with, I want to draw your attention to the issues with handling copy-paste from Word or Google Docs into your WordPress editor.
- The font is not uniform: imagine that you are ebook writers for hire for your client and that one uses the Arial font and another Times New Roman. By copying and pasting in your client’s WordPress, if the theme (design) of the site allows complete freedom over fonts, then you will have articles in Arial and others in Times New Roman. This looks unprofessional and disrupts the user experience;
- Unnecessary line breaks: the copy-paste operation inserts lines in your text on WordPress that you do not have in your document. You then waste a lot of time deleting them to find your original text;
- Images do not paste when copying and pasting.
- The HTML code is completely messed up and that’s not a good thing for your site. Even if you don’t touch the code or don’t know anything about it, as a writer you should at least know that it is in the text tab of the WordPress editor. You also need to know the HTML markup that is part of the code.
This is what we find when we copy and paste:
Now, let’s see how to get rid of these problems and integrate Google Docs directly into the WordPress editor.
Have a WordPress.com account and install Jetpack
Even if you host your site with WordPress.org (which I recommend), I suggest you open a WordPress.com account if you haven’t already.
This account allows you to manage your subscriptions to different sites that you follow. It also allows you to easily create your Grava tar to integrate your bios on the sites to which you contribute. The mobile app also lets you see your stats, comments and respond to them, and even write articles (I haven’t tried it on mobile, but it’s possible). And it will allow you to import your Google Docs texts into WordPress!
To do this, the free Jetpack extension must be installed and activated on the site you are writing for. Shares, security, statistics, anti-spam with Ask met (included), Jetpack is a widespread and heavily used extension. If you have a site or a blog, do not hesitate to install it, the extension is free.
Have a Gmail account
Since the beginning of this article, I have been talking to you about writing in Google Docs. To have access to Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive and other forms which are free applications from Google when you have a Google account.
Having a Google account means having an email address monmail@gmail.com. Today, these accounts are indispensable. Yes, “these” because as it’s free, I advise you not to mix your different professional and personal activities. Of course, managing 15 mailboxes is complicated but 2 or 3 mailboxes are not too hard to follow.
Installer WordPress.com for Google Docs
Do you have a Gmail account connected, a WordPress.com account and Jetpack installed on your site?
Parfait!
WordPress.com for Google Docs is a free Chrome (Google Chrome) extension. Thanks to this extension, you will be able to easily import your Google Docs into WordPress.
Simply, open a new document and go to the Add-ons menu.
1 – Open a Google Docs
Either by the shortcut of your favorites or from Google applications with direct access from the Google Chrome home page.
2 – Download the WordPress.com to Google Docs extension
Go to the add-ons menu:
Enter the name of the extension in the search bar:
Select extension:
Select the Gmail account you want to connect:
Allow WordPress.com to access your Google Account:
The extension is installed, ready to be connected to your site:
Connect one or more sites
To start, to be able to connect a site you must have an administrator profile on the site in question. For a multi-author site on which you are not an administrator, ask your client for admin access for a few minutes while you do the manipulation. Once the WordPress site is connected even with your author profile, it works as you will see for the addition of Web.
This is where the WordPress.com account comes in. To complete this procedure, first log into the WordPress dashboard of the site you want to connect and leave the tab open.
Start by opening the module as shown in the last image above. A dialog box opens to the right of your document and click Add WordPress Site:
You can see that my blog is already connected. So I add here Web. If contributing to multiple sites connected to WordPress and Jetpack, click the arrow to see the site choices appear:
If you only connect one site, I advise you to connect with your WordPress account. If you are connecting multiple sites, I suggest using the 2nd option, “connect with username and password”:
For Web, I therefore choose my personal identifiers so as not to confuse the bios between my blog Mamtrepreneure.com and Web. Thus on a multi-author space, each profile can connect:
And, dear…! Web is connected to your Google account!
This procedure is only done once per Google account (unless you delete the extension). You can therefore close the extension or leave your document without any problem to come back to it later.
Write and import Google Docs into WordPress
From here, nothing could be simpler. You write your SEO-optimized texts in your Google Docs. Use the “Style” menu to insert your HTML tags (button to the left of the choice of font). You find the H1, H2, H3, etc.
Strong, bold tags, bulleted lists, internal or external links, all the techniques of a good SEO web editor are applicable.
Now proceed to Import into WordPress. Enable the extension if it is not. I’ll remind you: menu Add-ons => WordPress.com to Google Docs => Open. It opens on the right side of your screen. And, the sites you are connected to appear automatically.
A little tip for sites that have several categories: click on the small arrow to the right of the “SAVE” button on the site and choose the category in which your article should appear. Also add tags or labels if you wish.
When everything is ready to be imported into WordPress, just click on “SAVE”.
You can look in the articles of your WordPress interface and you will find the one you just imported in the drafts. It’s up to you to define an image to highlight. Check the code in the text tab, no unnecessary line breaks, no font set and no cumbersome pieces of codes.
If you need to update your text, as long as it is not published, you can do it in Google Docs and click on “UPDATE”. Updating is automatic in WordPress.
Benefits of WordPress.com to Google Docs
As you will have understood, importing Google Docs into WordPress is simple and this makes the extension really useful.
You can keep track of your texts. This is handy if you’re posting on a site you don’t own.
Your texts are in your Drive or your computer, if your site crashes or you are hacked.
Undeniable advantage, it is free and accessible.
Impeccable code with the transfer of HTML tags, category, etc.
What you can’t do with this extension
You can insert images into your text on Google Docs. Even if they are correctly named in your file, upon transfer to WordPress, they lose their title. It’s really a shame because for an article like this with a lot of screenshots inserted in the body of the text, I had to manually upload them to the media library to insert them in the right place in the text one by one.
Tips if you can’t connect the extension
Like everything technical, we are not immune to it not working the first time. I’m not a great technician, but I’m curious and I like to test. So I was able to see that the rare times I failed to connect the extension were due to 3 criteria:
- The site I want to upload my article to is not open in my browser. Login to your WordPress admin panel and leave it open to import;
- Jetpack is misconfigured. Jetpack requires enabling the JSON API key in the settings. This option is normally enabled by default. You will find the possibility to check the activation in the Jetpack dashboard, at the bottom of the page by clicking on the ” debug” link;
- You are an administrator on the site you want to connect as I mentioned above.
What should be remembered?
A little technique for a lot of ease. Are you ready to import your Google Docs into WordPress with this plugin? You save time and protect your writings. I use this application for my blogs and I am very happy with it. Only downside, the photos are integrated, but without their titles. Otherwise, this tool is really great. You have questions? Let me know in the comments. The article has you more? Share it on social networks and with your friends.
