lmmx / gdocs2md-html

Convert a Google Drive Document to a markdown.

gdocs2md-html

A simple Google Apps script to convert a properly formatted Google Drive Document to the markdown (.md) format.

Brief installation

• Adding this script to your doc (once per doc):
  • Open your Google Drive document (http://drive.google.com)
  • Tools -> Script Editor > Create script for blank project
  • Clear the default Code.gs file and paste the contents of exportmd.gs into the code editor
  • File -> Save (or Ctrl/⌘ + S)
  • When prompted enter new project name for 'Untitled project', e.g. 'gdocs2md'

Note: now needs advanced Drive API enabling in Script Editor on first use (just a few clicks from the menu).

• Resources menu ⇢ Advanced Google Services, enable the Drive API by clicking the switch next to its name
• The link below the API list to the dev console project page for the script you're editing will become clickable
  • At the link, again click the on/off switch on the advanced Drive API setting
• If the script doesn't refresh automatically at this point, hit Ctrl/Cmd + S to save it, select onInstall from the functions dropdown menu at the top of the page and to the left of that click the play icon to run.
• If you go back to your document a Markdown menu will be sitting there, with a dropdown to Export markdown > View in browser

Menu added to Google Docs. Note: customisation/comments features work in progress, see script

When you finish writing, the markdown (via the View in browser button) can be pasted straight into a suitable publisher.

• HTML tags are supported in markdown, but feel free to add your own hooks in the source code, or modify the existing ones.
• Feel free to change the hooks yourself - e.g. the --- src ... --- fences could demarcate <blockquote> / </blockquote> tags - you're free to edit the script when installing.

Related tips/tricks:

• devnotes: Custom application to open .gdoc extensions (unix)

• devnotes: Google drive gdoc download conversion workaround

  • Running the script:
    • Select setupScript from the script editor's dropdown menu and the play symbol button (on the left of the dropdown) to run it
    • Likewise for the convertSingleDoc function, or for batch processing on a folder use the convertFolder function.
    • The first run will require you to authorize the app.
    • Converted doc will be saved in the Markdown sub-directory, images below that (/assets/images).

Interpreted formats

• Text:
  • paragraphs are separated by two newlines
  • text styled as heading 1, 2, 3, etc is converted to Markdown heading: #, ##, ###, etc
  • text formatted with Courier New is backquoted: text
  • links are converted to MD format: [anchortext](url)
  • indented paragraphs are rendered as > (blockquote) blocks
  • sub- and superscript text is tagged appropriately (<sup>/<sub>)
• Lists:
  • Numbered lists are converted correctly, including nested lists
  • bullet lists are converted to "*" Markdown format appropriately, including nested lists
• Images:
  • images are correctly extracted and sent as attachments
• Blocks:
  • Table of contents is replaced by [[TOC]]
  • blocks of text delimited by "--- class whateverclassnameyouwant" and "---" are converted to <pre class="whateverclassnameyouwant"></pre>
  • Source code:
    • UPDATED: blocks of text delimited by "--- source code" or "--- src" and "---" are converted to <pre></pre>
    • NEW: blocks of text delimited by "--- source pretty" or "--- srcp" and "---" are converted to <pre class="prettyprint"></pre>
    • NEW: blocks of text delimited by "--- gloss" and "---" are converted to <pre class="glossary"></pre>
    • NEW: blocks of text delimited by "--- fig-cap" and "---" are converted to <pre class="fig-cap"></pre> (figure captions)
    • (feel free to change these for your own needs)
  • Tables:
    • NEW: Simple <table> processing
• "--- jsperf <testID>" is replaced by an iframe that shows an interactive chart of a JSPerf test. The <testID> is the last part of the URL of the Browserscope anchor in your JSPerf test. Something like "agt1YS1wcm9maWxlcnINCxIEVGVzdBjlm_EQDA" in the URL http://www.browserscope.org/user/tests/table/agt1YS1wcm9maWxlcnINCxIEVGVzdBjlm_EQDA

CONTRIBUTORS

• Renato Mangini - G+ - Github
• Ed Bacher - G+ - Github
• Chris Clearfield - Github
• Louis Maddox - G+ - GitHub

LICENSE

Use this script at your will, on any document you want and for any purpose, commercial or not. The MarkDown files generated by this script are not considered derivative work and don't require any attribution to the owners of this script.

If you want to modify and redistribute the script (not the converted documents - those are yours), just keep a reference to this repo or to the license info below:

Copyright 2013 Google Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at

    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.

gdocs2md-html's Issues

Global install or per document?

So to clarify does this script need to be set up for ever gdoc or can it be installed once and used on any google doc? I seem to have to run the setupScript function every time I reopen the same doc and I cannot get it to work on any doc other than the one I initially set it up on. Thanks!

Paragraph 23 of type PARAGRAPH has an unsupported child: INLINE_DRAWING index=23 (line 155, file "Code")

I have this error while running the script:

Paragraph 23 of type PARAGRAPH has an unsupported child: INLINE_DRAWING index=23 (line 155, file "Code")

This line: "throw "Paragraph "+index+" of type "+element.getType()+" has an unsupported child: ""

There is no "View in browser" as well.

TypeError: Cannot find function getIndentFirstLine in object Table

TypeError: Cannot find function getIndentFirstLine in object Table

export -> markdown/view in browser missing

The README shows a submenu of export -> markdown called "view in browser" but that is not in the code on the master branch. Is there a branch you've perhaps neglected to push to github and/or merge into master?

Thanks.

Add equations parsing

Developer docs page: Equation

An Equation may contain EquationFunction, EquationSymbol, and Text elements.

• Very basic, smaller than MathJax's vocabulary, doesn't even support bold typefaces
• Unclear what the output format is. Symbols not given as any sort of enum on developer site, nor in TypeScript docs
  • if not exposed to API (like e.g. kix comment anchors weren't) then waste of time developing for it
• There's a symbol conversion table to LaTeX here

	\alpha
	\beta
	\gamma
	\delta
	\epsilon
	\varepsilon
	\zeta
	\eta
	\theta
	\vartheta
	\iota
	\kappa
	\lambda
	\mu
	\nu
	\xi
	\pi
	\varpi
	\rho
	\varrho
	\sigma
	\varsigma
	\tau
	\upsilon
	\phi
	\varphi
	\chi
	\psi
	\omega
	\Gamma
	\Delta
	\Theta
	\Lambda
	\Xi
	\Pi
	\Sigma
	\Upsilon
	\Phi
	\Psi
	\Omega

	\times
	\div
	\cdot
	\pm
	\mp
	\ast
	\star
	\circ
	\bullet
	\oplus
	\ominus
	\oslash
	\otimes
	\odot
	\dagger
	\ddagger
	\vee
	\wedge
	\cap
	\cup
	\aleph
	\Re
	\Im
	\top
	\bot
	\infty
	\partial
	\forall
	\exists
	\neg
	\angle
	\triangle
	\diamond

	\leq
	\geq
	\prec
	\succ
	\preceq
	\succeq
	\ll
	\gg
	\equiv
	\sim
	\simeq
	\asymp
	\approx
	\ne
	\subset
	\supset
	\subseteq
	\supseteq
	\in
	\ni
	\notin

	\frac
	\sum
	\sqrt
	\rootof
	\subsuperscript
	\subscript
	\superscript
	\abs
	\overline
	\widehat
	\tilde
	\bigcap
	\bigcup
	\prod
	\coprod
	\int
	\oint

	\leftarrow
	\rightarrow
	\leftrightarrow
	\Leftarrow
	\Rightarrow
	\Leftrightarrow
	\uparrow
	\downarrow
	\updownarrow
	\Uparrow
	\Downarrow
	\Updownarrow

Lists items should not be indented

This turns my list items into > <sub>* a list item. I can't dedent my lists any further in Google Docs. I would expect list items to be just * a list item.

TypeError: Cannot call method "getActiveSection" of undefined. (line 616, file "Code")

TypeError: Cannot call method "getActiveSection" of undefined. (line 616, file "Code") keeps popping up. I am new to javascript/gs, and I do not understand why. Please help!

Getting an error in running the latest version of the script.

Hi
Trying out the script for a document filled with Tables and images and got the following error.

Unfortunately it is not saying which line is at fault in the document for me to fix it or temporarily comment/remove it out.

Thanks
Srihari

Message details
TypeError: Cannot find function getIndentFirstLine in object Table

Tried to install, but got an error

Access Not Configured. The API (Drive API) is not enabled for your project. Please use the Google Developers 

There's a message when you add the service for google drive

These services must also be enabled in the Google Developers Console.

But it's not clear where you do that.

I also have multiple google accounts, one personal, and one google apps.

Thanks for any assistance!

IMG references have an extra /images/ in the URL

When rendering a gdoc with embedded images, the created Google Drive folder structure is:

Markdown/<docname>.md
Markdown/<docname>_images/image_0.png
...

but the image refs in <docname>.md are of the form:

![](/images/<docname>_images/image_0.png)

With an extra _/images/_ prefix. Workaround is just to make an images folder (after downloading and unzipping the gdrive Markdown folder) and moving the <docname>_images into it.

Happy to fix myself and submit a pull request if that will help. Will take me a bit of time to figure out how;-)

Thanks for this cool tool.

Illegal character line 879 error

Deleting the # fixed it.

Setup Error

gdocs2md-html/exportmd.gs

Line 879 in 3981abe

# var indent_alt_prefix = '> <sub>';

ReferenceError

When I try installing I get an error:

ReferenceError: "Drive" is not defined. (line 74, file "")

Install issue

While starting the install script, is get a typeError cannot use property getId of null, line 81:

var doc_id = DocumentApp.getActiveDocument().getId();