Formatting changes between MS Word and GoogleDocs

Question

Formatting a document in MS Word using the "Style" section. If I upload the document to GoogleDocs and open it, the formatting is changes. If I download the same document back to MS 365 Word app, the formatting is still different from the original. formatting. Is this normal or am I doing something incorrectly? This happens whether I am using a Mac or Windows system.

Answer 1

Hi Ed G,

I am an independent advisor, trying to help other users in the Community with my experience in Microsoft products. Please note that I am a user like you and don't work directly for Microsoft.

There are a few options that may resolve the issue.

Word and Google Docs use different underlying technologies for rendering and formatting documents. When you upload a Word document to Google Docs, the conversion process attempts to maintain formatting, but it may not always be perfect. Similarly, when you download a Google Docs file back to Word, some formatting adjustments might occur.

Preserving Formatting: To minimize formatting discrepancies, follow these steps: a. From Google Docs to Word: - Open the document in Google Docs. - Click File -> Download -> Microsoft Word (.docx). - Save the downloaded file. - Open it in Microsoft Word to check if the formatting aligns with your original Word document. b. From Word to Google Docs: - Open the Word document. - Customize the formatting (font, line spacing, etc.) as desired. - Highlight the text with the new formatting. - Click Format -> Paragraph Styles -> Normal Text -> Update ‘Normal Text’ to Match. - Save this style as your default. - Similarly, customize and save the default heading style.

Offline Mode (Google Docs): Enabling offline mode in Google Docs ensures that your work remains in the original file format (e.g., DOCX) rather than converting it to a Google Doc. To enable offline mode: Open Google Docs while online. Click Menu -> Settings. Toggle Offline and ensure Sync Google Docs, Sheets, Slides & Drawings files to this computer is checked.

I would appreciate your feedback.

Kindly note that this is a user-to-user forum, we are users helping other users, we aren't Microsoft employees and neither are we Microsoft agents.

Best regards, Amadeusz

Answer 2

As Amadeus pointed out, any time you convert files from one file format to another there will be differences.

Often these will not be apparent but will show up when you try to edit.

The suggestion to keep the document in .docx format should help.

Whenever a Word document is opened, even in the desktop application, on another computer, there is a likelihood that the appearance will be different.

• Why has my page layout changed when I open my document on a different machine? by Suzanne Barnhill, MVP
• Archive What happens when I send my document to someone else? Will Word mess up my formatting? | ShaunaKelly.com

Answer 3

Amadeusz, Charles,

Thank you both for your prompt responses. I have been very busy with a medical issue, hence my late response. To me it appears there are 3 possible approaches to my problem. I separated it to share with some of our team members who also use GoogleDocs. I have copied and pasted what I sent to them.

There appears to be 3 modes for using GoogleDocs and MS Word.  The first one works well when going from GoogleDocs to Word.  I tried this on both my Mac and my windows laptop,

The 2nd instruction is hard to get working using the path you provide below. Neither my iMac (MS Word) or my Windows based laptop have the exact path available (paragraph & Style are each an independent selection)

Format -> Paragraph Styles -> Normal Text -> Update ‘Normal Text’ to Match.

Isn’t the same on my Mac.  Paragraph and Styles ae two separate selection under Format, so that makes the rest of the path non-existent.  See if you can get it to work. The 3rd instructions seem to work as advertised and is probably the default way we can edit directly from GoogleDocs to Word.  If you set up GoogleDocs to “Offline” in settings, it seems to work nicely,

I'd like to thank both of you for your responses and guidance, I learned a considerable amount about GoogleDocs. Primarily, don't interact with GoogleDocs and MS Word if you don't need too.

Best Regards,

Ed Golfer

Answer 4

Charles,

I included you in my response to Amadeusz, I hope you can see hos response, if not I'll copy and paste it to you.

Thank you for your insight and expertise.

Best Regards

Ed Golfer

Answer 5

In the Windows version, if you are in the Modify Style dialog, you can click on the Format button and get to the Font or Paragraph formatting for the style. I suspect there is something similar on the Mac.

Modify a Style by Suzanne Barnhill, MVP