Can I copy or download a Google Doc if I have only its 'Publish to the web' link?

Question

If a Google Doc has been published to the Web, the published version is not a Google document but an HTML webpage.

To copy or download the document I can save it as a webpage or PDF, but that screws up the layout and formatting relative to the published document.

Is there a way to copy or download the source Google document to my Drive using information contained in the web-published link?

I would be fine with any document format that maintained the original document layout and format (Google Doc, Acrobat PDF, MS Word Doc, etc.).

Example web-published Doc link:

 https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vTka35LEjmhp_0Fa8hUkWJazZSkGG5tO0phXt9lKrFdeh0nbPv-YyVjhsZGgGmdWWXELA9yl-ZXCesU/pub

Answer 1

Unfortunately a Google document's 'Publish to the web' URL can't be used to copy or download the corresponding document.

You would need view or edit permission for the source document.

Perhaps if you contact the document owner they might be willing to share it with you.

Resources

• Publish a document, spreadsheet, presentation, or drawing - Google Docs editors Help

Answer 2

You can download the document as a PDF by printing it, and then choose "download as PDF". If you want to fix the formatting issues (for example, on my saved PDF version the text was all centered really narrow in the middle and I wanted it to extend to the left and right of the page), you can edit the html to take the padding off the main div before you do this.