Depends on what you want to do, if you want to keep your google doc formatting (including which lines are title, bulleted lists, links, etc.) then your result will probably look weird and ugly on lesswrong.
The best would be to copy-paste from google doc but to paste with Ctrl-shift-V (or equivalent), which in most browsers pastes the raw text, and then redoing the necessary formatting in the LW article editor. This will be a bit of a pain for links, bolded/italics parts, quotes, etc. since you’ll have to redo them (so it’s best not to do them in the first place in google docs).
As long as you’re familiar with Markdown, you’re probably better off running it through a plaintext editor first to eliminate any possibility of formatting errors.
To what degree can I copy/paste from Google Docs when creating an article?
Edit: Google Docs → article is sketchy, though not impossible if you’re willing to put in time reformatting.
Followup: are articles usually written in the editor that comes up when you click “create a new article”?
Depends on what you want to do, if you want to keep your google doc formatting (including which lines are title, bulleted lists, links, etc.) then your result will probably look weird and ugly on lesswrong.
The best would be to copy-paste from google doc but to paste with Ctrl-shift-V (or equivalent), which in most browsers pastes the raw text, and then redoing the necessary formatting in the LW article editor. This will be a bit of a pain for links, bolded/italics parts, quotes, etc. since you’ll have to redo them (so it’s best not to do them in the first place in google docs).
Is that where those weirdly-formatted articles are coming from?
When I want to copy and paste without accidentally keeping the formatting, I paste it into a text editor and copy it again from there.
What are the problems that motivate you to ask this question? Formatting errors? Repetitive strain injury from clicking?
No problems. I just have a strong preference for composing in Google Docs, but I’m unsure how well it’s going to transfer.
Also, because Google Docs lends itself to collaboration exceptionally well, being able to go Google Docs → LW article smoothly has implications.
As long as you’re familiar with Markdown, you’re probably better off running it through a plaintext editor first to eliminate any possibility of formatting errors.
LW comments are in markdown but discussion and main posts are in some form of html.