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Import and Export Markdown in Google Docs

workspaceupdates.googleblog.com

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Re: Import and Export Markdown in Google Docs

#121

Post by davecahill »

tomeraberbach wrote: post #39

Hey folks, I'm the engineer who implemented the new feature. Just clearing up some confusion. A lot of you are noticing the preexisting automatic detection feature from 2022 [1], which I also worked on. That's NOT what this newly announced feature is. The new feature supports full import/export, but it's still rolling out so you're likely not seeing it yet! Hope you like it once it reaches you :) [1] https://workspac…

The announcement of the new feature (which I don't have just yet) made me realize that the automatic detection feature existed, and I love it. :)

Re: Import and Export Markdown in Google Docs

#122

Post by phil294 »

tomeraberbach wrote: post #96
andybak wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The main effect of slow rollouts on me is that I never use the feature. It goes like this. 1. There's a service I use sporadically or used to use 2. They announce a new feature that might potentially mean I'll start using it again/more 3. I read the post, log in and realise I don't have access yet 4. I completely forget this ever happened. Surely all the effort that goes into announcing these things is a bit wasted ?…

I can't speak to the reasoning for announcing before 100% rollout, but I can say that the slow rollout is for safety. That way if there's a severe bug, then we can catch it while it affects a small number of users, instead of all users. Labs is more for experimental features that needs more beta testing before rolling out to everyone, rather than being the "first stage" of slow rollout.

That doesn't contradict the parent comment though. Engaged users should have an option somewhere to enable it, barely affecting the overall rollout.

Re: Import and Export Markdown in Google Docs

#123

Post by flakiness »

guytv wrote: post #102
EE84M3i wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> trivial features Four features were announced: 1. Convert Markdown to Docs content on paste 2. Copy Docs content as Markdown 3. Export a Doc as Markdown (from File > Download) 4. Import Markdown as a Doc (from File > Open or "Open with Google Docs" from Drive) Which of these do you see as trivial? These all seem quite complex to me with many edge cases , incompatibilities and ambiguities, especially if there's an e…

All of them. It should have been implemented years ago. Using GDocs after using notion for a few weeks feels like going back in time.

Notion is one of the best things that happened to Google Docs. It creates competition and Google Docs has get better since.

Even though Notion is now better on many fronts as you said, people who have to stick to Google Docs benefit from Notion's existence in that way.

Re: Import and Export Markdown in Google Docs

#125

Post by freedomben »

tomeraberbach wrote: post #39

Hey folks, I'm the engineer who implemented the new feature. Just clearing up some confusion. A lot of you are noticing the preexisting automatic detection feature from 2022 [1], which I also worked on. That's NOT what this newly announced feature is. The new feature supports full import/export, but it's still rolling out so you're likely not seeing it yet! Hope you like it once it reaches you :) [1] https://workspac…

I just wanted to say, it took me a while to discover it (it happened by accident), but the preexisting feature from 2022 was a joy to discover! I didn't know you obviously, but I praised the kind anonymous soul out there who did that. I discovered it about 6 months ago, and I use it all the time now. I'm super excited to see it progress!

Re: Import and Export Markdown in Google Docs

#126

Post by freedomben »

Whoa, this is a huge, huge deal for me. This is going to make Google Docs incredibly more useful, and will provide some functionality that I've currently been working around using vim block editing and macros (hey now, vim mode is a great next project for google docs :-D). Ability to import/export as markdown will also be a game changer for less technical people who want to contribute to technical documentation. I strongly prefer technical docs to be in markdown and under version control, and that makes it hard for people. This doesn't solve the git learning curve of course, but that part is pretty manageable.

Thank you to the people who made this happen! May you continue your great work for a long time to come!

Re: Import and Export Markdown in Google Docs

#127

Post by tomeraberbach »

lewisjoe wrote: post #116
tomeraberbach wrote: post #39

Hey folks, I'm the engineer who implemented the new feature. Just clearing up some confusion. A lot of you are noticing the preexisting automatic detection feature from 2022 [1], which I also worked on. That's NOT what this newly announced feature is. The new feature supports full import/export, but it's still rolling out so you're likely not seeing it yet! Hope you like it once it reaches you :) [1] https://workspac…

Hi, thanks for this amazing work. Just curious: Google docs supports a lot more than what Markdown has syntaxes for - how do you deal with this when exporting to markdown?

We export to the closest available thing (e.g. file chips become links, people chips become mailto links, etc.) or drop the content entirely if there's truly nothing it can be converted to (rare case)

Re: Import and Export Markdown in Google Docs

#128

Post by tomeraberbach »

jez wrote: post #100
tomeraberbach wrote: post #39

Hey folks, I'm the engineer who implemented the new feature. Just clearing up some confusion. A lot of you are noticing the preexisting automatic detection feature from 2022 [1], which I also worked on. That's NOT what this newly announced feature is. The new feature supports full import/export, but it's still rolling out so you're likely not seeing it yet! Hope you like it once it reaches you :) [1] https://workspac…

How does it handle images in the imports and exports?

Import supports links via upload

Export outputs base64 encoded image URLs. We use Markdown reference links to place the large URLs out of the way of reading at the bottom of the file

Re: Import and Export Markdown in Google Docs

#129

Post by chrisfinazzo »

tomeraberbach wrote: post #82
chrisfinazzo wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would have expected this to export CommonMark, but it seems like it's not quite up to that yet. Is that on the board for a future release? This isn't to say I prefer CM -- because Markdown came into being from Gruber's script. In a literal sense, "Markdown" is defined as whatever `markdown.pl` is, warts and all -- however, contact with the outside world forced things to move in a direction that is (so to speak) mor…

The export part of the feature does support everything that CommonMark does! Curious what gave you the impression that it doesn't?

Admittedly, I didn't spend more than 5-10 minutes looking through the specs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The existence of comments about how certain elements were rendered on export made me think that something was missing when compared with CM.

Re: Import and Export Markdown in Google Docs

#130

Post by chrisfinazzo »

Symbiote wrote: post #95
chrisfinazzo wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stick downdoc on the end of that pipeline and you're done -- unless you prefer working in AsciiDoc, I guess. Not my thing, but you do you... https://github.com/opendevise/downdoc

Asciidoctor has been much better received by my colleagues, primarily for the built-in support of a few technical writing features — admonitions, non-trivial tables, crossreferences, etc.

Multimarkdown has similar features so far as I know, but it has the same problem as Markdown.pl: written by one person, with a bunch of spot fixes and so isn't really reproducible or extendible by anyone else without running into bugs.
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