Google Docs is the go-to document creation tool that offers advanced editing and collaboration tools for free. It works without any limitation for both teams and individuals. However, any web developers or web bloggers who have been familiar with Google docs and WordPress may notice that Google Docs doesn’t play very well when it moves the document to your WordPress website. In fact, all the images and formatting will be lost in the process, but, don’t worry, because we have the solutions for you!
Recently, A Google Docs add-on has been released. This add-on will directly save Google Docs documents as drafts on your WordPress website. In this article, we will show you how to use this add-on to save documents in your wordpress.com or your self-hosted wordpress.org website.
Prerequisites
There are some requirements for the add-on to work. Here they are:
For wordpress.com websites
- A Google account to create documents and connect it with the wordpress.com website.
- Any browser
- A wordpress.com website with administrator access (i.e. wordpress.com account).
For self-hosted wordpress.org websites
- A Google account to create documents and connect it with the wordpress.org website.
- Any browser.
- Administrator access to the self-hosted wordpress.org website (i.e. only the owner can connect the add-on).
- Installing Jetpack plugin and active in the wordpress.org website. It’s compulsory to make the add-on work on self-hosted websites.
The requirements are important as your website types will demand different requirements.
Install the Add-On
First you have to install it and connect it with your WordPress website before using the add-on. Then, open the WordPress.com for Google Docs add-on page and click on “FREE” to install the add-on. Google Docs document will open up in a new window and you will be asked to provide the required permissions. All you have to do is simply click on “Continue” and then “Allow” to install the add-on.
Connect Your WordPress Website
You need to connect your required website by clicking on the “Add-ons” menu in Google Docs. Then, select “Open” in “WordPress.com for Google Docs” add-on.
After opening the add-on, you can click on “Authorize” button to start the authorization process.
To login with your wordpress.com account, a new tab will be opened up. Moreover, you will be asked to select all the websites that are connected to your wordpress.com account. You can do it from a drop-down menu listing. Select the required website and click on “Approve” button to authorize it.
After the window is closed; you will see the authorized website in the Google Docs sidebar. Click on the “Add WordPress Site” button at the bottom of the sidebar to authorize more websites. To add as many websites as you like, you only need to repeat the process.
Troubleshooting Problems
Even though WordPress.com has fewer problems, it doesn’t mean that it has no problem at all. In fact, many users have encountered problems while trying to connect to their self-hosted wordpress.org website with Jetpack installed. This is because the add-on is still new and has many bugs. Besides, it also depends on the “Jetpack” plugin for now.
Website configuration and Jetpack plugin configuration are the most common problems that many users have to face, but, as we have stated above; we provide the solution that will work for most users to fix the authorization problem, as follows:
- The website you are testing on should be at least 3 days (72 hours) old. Jetpack plugin faces problem authorizing domain names that are recently registered.
- Confirm that the latest version of Jetpack plugin is installed.
- Disable all the other plugins except for Jetpack and try. You can re-enable them if it works.
- Disable Cloudflare security if you are using it, you can always enable it again.
- Since your theme can also cause any problem, changing your theme into WordPress default can be a good deal.
- Try disabling your security solutions temporarily and try authorizing.
That’s what you need to know before publishing to WordPress! Using Google Docs, it will get easier for you once you know the right thing to do.