I keep running into this weird problem and I’m not sure what’s causing it. Every time I try to move my fanfiction from Google Docs over to Archive of Our Own’s rich text editor, I get some kind of warning message popping up. It’s really frustrating because I can’t tell if this is something wrong with AO3’s system or if Google Docs is doing something weird with the formatting. Has anyone else experienced this same issue when uploading their stories? I’m worried about losing my formatting or having other problems. The warning doesn’t really explain what’s wrong, so I’m stuck trying to figure out if I should just ignore it or if there’s a better way to transfer my work. Any advice would be really helpful since I post pretty regularly and this is becoming a real headache.
i totally get it! transferring between those platforms can be super annoying. what I do is paste my text in Notepad first to strip any weird formatting. seems to help a lot!
Indeed, Google Docs can introduce hidden HTML formatting that interferes with AO3’s text editor. I’ve encountered this issue frequently myself. A solid approach is to paste your text into a simple editor like TextEdit or Notepad++ to eliminate any problematic formatting before transferring it to AO3. The warnings generally arise from unusual formatting or characters that AO3 cannot process effectively. You might also consider using AO3’s HTML editor for better management of your content. Don’t let the warnings concern you too much; they won’t compromise your work. However, addressing the formatting beforehand will save you time in the long run.
Google Docs uses proprietary formatting codes that mess with AO3’s system. I’ve dealt with this for years - copying straight from Google Docs almost always triggers those warnings. Use ‘Paste as plain text’ in AO3’s rich text editor instead of regular paste. Right-click in the text box or hit Ctrl+Shift+V. This keeps basic formatting like italics and bold but strips out the problematic code causing the warnings. You can also export your story as a .txt file from Google Docs first, then copy from there. The warnings won’t hurt anything, but fixing the root cause makes everything smoother.
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