Google Docs import steps

[Kurt Hohmann]

I'm doing most of my drafting and editing in Google Docs and then importing the scenes into yWriter for organization. That method just works best in allowing me to write on my very portable Chromebook. 

My import method feels a bit clunky, and I'm wondering if there's a better way that I haven't discovered. My steps are:

1. Write a chapter in a Google Docs file

2. On my Windows box, download the file as a local .rtf

3. Import the downloaded file into yWriter as a scene

4. Copy a subset of the text from the imported file

5. Create a new scene in yWriter and paste in the copied text

6. Repeat for other scenes within the chapter

7. Delete the imported file scene

I can't copy scene text from the Google Doc and paste it into yWriter without losing italics (or other text formatting).

I'm psyched to hear that development is underway on the Android version of yWriter  - and that may obviate much of this process - but in the meantime I still wonder if I could be doing things more efficiently. Granted, these extra steps do provide me with additional excuses not to be writing... 

Thanks,

Kurt

[Simon Haynes]

That's strange that copy/paste doesn't preserve italics/bold. It certainly should.

Re the RTF file, I'm pretty sure you can drag/drop it straight onto the scene list.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "yWriter" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ywriter+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ywriter/938eac59-e609-4f98-8252-f3adcd70f2dcn%40googlegroups.com.

--

--
Visit Spacejock Software, the home of yWriter, FCharts and more

Visit spacejock.com.au for my articles on writing and publishing novels.

[Kurt Hohmann]

Curious. I've tried it now a few more times with some standard font formatting - bold, italic, underline, different fonts, different sizes - if I copy/paste from a Google Doc to a local LibreOffice doc, text formatting is maintained. Same if I copy/paste from a LibreOffice file into yWriter. But if I copy/paste from a Google Doc directly to a yWriter scene, it acts the same as if I pasted into a simple text editor - all the formatting is gone. 

The same happens in reverse - formatting is maintained on a copy/paste from yWriter to LibreOffice and from LibreOffice to Google Docs, but not from yWriter to Google Docs.

I assume it has something to do with how GoogleDocs formats clipboard input? 

Regardless, thanks for the tip on drag and drop onto the scene list - that feature was not something I was aware of.

Thanks,

Kurt

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ywriter/CAN0R%3DkSxZmYK7UEOZnUKYyunM%2BVQ_JtOhSWt1jNbXYvDHfJ-gw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Peter T.]

It looks like Google Docs doesn't support the rtf format.
I uploaded and downloaded a "proofread" document in odt format with chapter and scene markers to Google Docs and imported it back to yWriter, it works fine.
If yWriter could output the "chapters for proof reading" in docx format, editing the entire yWriter project with Google Docs would be perfectly possible.

[Peter T.]

Well, Google Docs cannot import rtf, but it can provide rtf as a download.

I propose this workflow for editing a yWriter project with Google Docs:

1. Select all chapters, then invoke Chapter > Proofing > Export selected chapter(s) for proofing
2. Open the document Proofing Chapters.rtf with WordPad (or any word processor), and save it as .docx.
3. Drag  Proofing Chapters.docx onto the Upload selection field of Google docs, and import it.
4. Edit it with Google docs. Be sure not to change or delete the chapter and scene markers geneated by yWriter.
5. Download it as .rtf.
6. In yWriter, import the downloaded file  Proofing Chapters.docx.rtf  with  Chapter > Proofing > Import proofed chapter(s)

To write new scenes with Google Docs, add empty ones with yWriter in advance, or extend existing ones and split them with yWriter afterwards.

[Simon Haynes]

Docx is a future plan.  I have downloaded and installed the API to import and export it, but when I started looking at the complexities I set it aside.

ODT would also be nice, import and export.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ywriter/296605f0-1dd8-42d7-8c1a-c1a46997c4cbn%40googlegroups.com.

[Peter T.]

I have programmed yWriter converters for .odt and .docx, among others. 

Anyone who masters HTML should also be able to understand the ODF XML dialects. 

The .docx OXML format, on the other hand, is rather complicated and cluttered. 
But both are better than rtf. One of the advantages is that they have heading formats so that word processors can recognize the document structure.

By the way, the RTF export of Google Docs is not very nice. An .rtf file exported by yWriter with about 12 kilobytes is almost 700 kliobytes after downloading from Google Docs. Every single word gets three lines of RTF markup. 

[Simon Haynes]

Yep I know I can do it, but my primary job is to write novels ;-)

I never use the RTF import or export in yWriter, so it's just there for other people. I don't write in Word or OO either.

If yWriter was a commercial project they'd be in there, but there you go. I tend to work most on what I need (which is export to ebooks with complex variables and includes, etc)

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ywriter/8c974098-9b52-46d5-b89b-2f5ab54a40b5n%40googlegroups.com.

[Peter T.]

On Wednesday, January 4, 2023 at 9:39:29 AM UTC+1 Simon Haynes wrote:

Yep I know I can do it, but my primary job is to write novels ;-)

I never use the RTF import or export in yWriter, so it's just there for other people. I don't write in Word or OO either.

If yWriter was a commercial project they'd be in there, but there you go. I tend to work most on what I need (which is export to ebooks with complex variables and includes, etc)

I understand that, and I think it's perfectly fine.

 
LibreOffice users already have extensive support for yWriter import and export with my yw-cnv extension. With other extensions you get typographic quotes etc., also stylesheet changers. Even documents with the "proofread marks" can be imported and exported. If you use this in combination with Google Docs, the workflow suggested above even gets accelerated.

A relatively new feature, by the way, is support for text that is marked as foreign for spell checking, or that is excluded from spell checking. My converter creates a project variable-based markup for this, which is fully compatible with yWriter.

 

[Simon Haynes]

Nice work!  I do appreciate your continual development, and I'm sure the users do too.

--

You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "yWriter" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ywriter+u...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ywriter/2386415a-6e8d-4928-ae1a-38ea730c0fa0n%40googlegroups.com.

[Peter T.]

Thank you. However, it also degenerates into procrastination for me -- I should devote more time to my novel projects. 

[Kurt Hohmann]

I for one appreciate all of the development time you both spend on this project. Also the fast turn-around on my question and the enlightening dialog that followed. I have gained a few new ways to experiment at making my writing life more efficient - and in the process likely provided all of us yet another reason for delaying our writing projects a few extra minutes. Is there any other creative pursuit that opens so many paths to procrastination? :)

Thanks,

Kurt 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ywriter/6bf701b1-809d-413d-96e2-de6adb96846cn%40googlegroups.com.

[Clifford Farris]

We all owe Simon great praise for his work. Thank you, friend. 

I have a gentle suggestion that our goal is to write novels. Nuances of software can too easily become a distraction or even a goal. I work hard to resist temptation. 

[Peter T.]

On Tuesday, January 3, 2023 at 4:23:54 PM UTC+1 kurt.h wrote:

I'm doing most of my drafting and editing in Google Docs and then importing the scenes into yWriter for organization.

(...)

 I'm wondering if there's a better way that I haven't discovered. 

This works for me for editing a yWriter project with Google Docs, using LibreOffice with the yw-cnv extension:

1. Close yWriter and open LibreOffice. 
2. Import your project with yWriter import/export > Import from yWriter for proof reading .
3. Transfer the whole thing (*) via the clipboard to a new Google docs document. 

1. Edit it with Google docs. Be sure not to change or delete the chapter and scene markers geneated by yWriter.

1. Replace the contents of your LibreOffice proofing document with the edited contents via the clipboard.
2. Write back your  your project with yWriter import/export > Export to yWriter.
3. Close LibreOffice and open your project with yWriter. 

Transferring a large amount of text to Google Docs via the clipboard can take a good while. However, it works for me.

Compared to the RTF export, this method has the advantage that an outline can be seen in the left pane of Google Docs, which makes it easy to navigate, just like with the LibreOffice Navigator.

To write new chapters and scenes with Google Docs, just insert second-level headings or scene splitting markers into an existing scene. For more information about this topic, please see the yw-cnv help. If you aren't sure, just try it out with a small test project.

(*) Once you understand how the system of chapter and scene markers is set up in the proofread document, you can also transfer individual scenes via the clipboard and write them back to yWriter via LibreOffice.  

[Peter T.]

I think the problem will be solved once yWriter can write and read its proofread documents in docx format. Until then, I can offer a solution that works via the ODT format, but no longer requires a LibreOffice installation. The workflow is quite simple and smooth. For me it works fine with GoogleDocs:

[Simon Haynes]

The beta already allows docx export and import for proofing (although the default is rtf)

On Fri, 18 Aug 2023 at 17:27, Peter T. <peter.pape...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think the problem will be solved once yWriter can write and read its proofread documents in docx format. Until then, I can offer a solution that works via the ODT format, but no longer requires a LibreOffice installation. The workflow is quite simple and smooth. For me it works fine with GoogleDocs:

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "yWriter" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ywriter+u...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ywriter/0bdfcc8d-52be-4be5-9f4e-902d3d441066n%40googlegroups.com.

[Peter T.]

On Sunday, August 20, 2023 at 10:27:17 AM UTC+2 Simon Haynes wrote:

The beta already allows docx export and import for proofing (although the default is rtf)

Good news, Simon. I just installed yWriter v1.7.3.8 and tested it with the yWriter 5 sample project. 

When using MS Word 2007 or LibreOffice 7 with the docx "proofing chapters", the proof reading round trip works quite well. However, when using Google docs, the formatting  is not correct after re-importing. It looks like Google Docs saves extra markup that is not processed the right way. As a side note, I also had to do some extra work with my ODT parser for ODT documents that are saved with MS Word.

That being said, I'm having trouble opening the scene editor with the latest beta version. In some scenes there is no reaction to a double click, in others it takes several attempts.

Cheers, 

Peter

[Simon Haynes]

Yep it seems to be waiting to interpret the first click a bit too long before registering the second.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "yWriter" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ywriter+u...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ywriter/fdb942c1-e3dc-4c02-8b3e-2c0ea7c163ffn%40googlegroups.com.