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I would like to open this page (with its images) from a URL and edit a copy in Google Docs. The URL does not require authentication. How do I do this?

  • Saving it creates an HTML file plus a folder, which cannot be uploaded as such to Google Docs
  • Saving it as mhtml bundles all files, buא this cannot be read by Google Docs. I tried some online mhtml converters but they lose the images.
  • LibreOffice cannot directly open a URL. It can open the HTML from the disk, with the images, but this cannot be saved as ODT, DOCX, or some other format that could be read into Google Docs, just as HTML.
  • Copy-Paste of the whole file to Google Docs or LibreOffice loses the images.
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  • Maybe the webpage that you want to "open" is not a simple HTML/CSS page. In other words, it's using features that aren't supported by Google Docs/LibreOffice. Please add more details about that web page and if you already looked into its source code. Commented Feb 23, 2020 at 20:22
  • I'm able to save it to disk, and then open it in libreoffice, including images. So it's ordinary enough in that way
    – Joshua Fox
    Commented Feb 23, 2020 at 20:29
  • "...but this cannot be saved as ODT, DOCX,..." this make think that it isn't. Commented Feb 23, 2020 at 20:32
  • Following our comments with Rubén please let us know if and how the editing worked for you. It would be interesting. Commented Feb 23, 2020 at 23:07

2 Answers 2

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Try Save to Google Drive Chrome extension. More details in Save web content to Google Drive

NOTE: The above extension works with the page referred by the OP.


From the corresponding Chrome Store listing (emphasis mine)

This extension allow you to save web content directly to Google Drive through a browser action or context menu. You can save documents, images, and HTML5 audio and video all by right clicking and selecting 'Save to Google Drive'. You can save the currently viewed page using the 'Save to Google Drive' browser action. The directory location and format of saved HTML pages can be controlled with the extension's options page (Choice of Entire image (default), Visible image, Raw HTML, MHTML, or Google Doc). You can automatically convert Microsoft Office files or comma separated files to Google Docs format.


NOTES: Bear in mind that Google Docs is primarily a text processor for documents to be printed so it doesn't support several things that can be done in webpages like using web browser plugins like Shockwave, Flash, Silverlight among others plugins and features.

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  • As mentioned in the question: _"I would like to open a page (with its images) from a URL and edit a copy in Google Docs"_How would the extension you mention help on editing the HTML file in Google Docs after saving it with it? Have you ever tried it? What were the results? Commented Feb 23, 2020 at 22:46
  • @marikamitsos The question also mention several things that the OP tried that aren't ways to technically speaking "open a URL". I could add more details if the OP add enough details to try to reproduce their case. Commented Feb 23, 2020 at 22:55
  • I understand that. Still. I was referring to the editing part? Have you tried it? I would be very interested to know the results. Commented Feb 23, 2020 at 22:57
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    @JoshuaFox Please read the extension listing in the Chrome web store. Commented Feb 24, 2020 at 12:54
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    Thank you, I had to change this to save as Google Doc rather than as image. SO, this works.
    – Joshua Fox
    Commented Feb 24, 2020 at 13:39
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Unfortunately you cannot.

Google Docs is just not build to edit HTML files. Even if you were to find some way it would leave behind so many entities that would be impractical to clean up the file.

You could probably uploaded to your drive and use an extension to edit it there. Still (from what I heard) these extensions are not that reliable.

You could though (as the correct way to do it) downloaded it to your drive and edit it with some other application/program that can be quite rich in features or really stripped down to basics (as simple as just your Notepad or Textedit).

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  • As a workaround, I tried to load the webpage into LibreOffice, save as ODT, and then import to Google Docs. Or else to use an online conversion tool to convert mhtml to DOCX. That did not work either, as described. Is some other workaround possible?
    – Joshua Fox
    Commented Feb 23, 2020 at 18:46
  • Why do you insist on editing the file using a Word processor -like the ones you mention- that is not build for code editing when there are others designed for this job. As mentioned before, I think you will have better luck using one of the very humble TextPad, NotePad or any other. Please have a look at your choices and just pick one. Commented Feb 23, 2020 at 23:15
  • I can edit HTML with a text editor but the goal is to have an editable richtext document,images and all.
    – Joshua Fox
    Commented Feb 24, 2020 at 6:47

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