Google Docs to Obsidian
Pasting a Google Doc straight into an Obsidian note can drag along stray formatting, Google redirect links and broken nesting. Converting through RichMarkdown first gives you a clean .md file you can drop into your vault.
One document
- In Google Docs press
Ctrl + AthenCtrl + C(⌘on Mac). - In RichMarkdown click New and paste with
Ctrl + V. - Check the Export checklist — each format you used should have a green tick.
- Click View Markdown, switch the style to Obsidian, then Download .md.
- Move the file into your vault folder. Obsidian picks it up straight away.
Many documents
Paste each document into its own note (New each time). When you're done, open Notes → Download all (.zip), unzip it and copy the files into your vault. File names come from each note's title.
What arrives in Obsidian
| Google Docs | In your vault |
|---|---|
| Headings 1–3 | #, ##, ### |
| Bold, italic, strikethrough | **bold**, *italic*, ~~struck~~ |
| Checklists | - [ ] / - [x] tasks |
| Bullets and numbering, nested | - and 1. lists |
| Links | Real URLs (Google's google.com/url?q= wrapper removed) |
| Tables | Markdown tables (no merged cells) |
| Highlighted text you mark in RichMarkdown | ==highlight== |
| Comments, suggestions, fonts, colours | Removed |
Images
Images copied from Google Docs point at temporary googleusercontent.com addresses that stop working after a while. For anything you want to keep, download the images, put them in your vault's attachments folder and replace the link with ![[image.png]].
Coming from Microsoft Word instead? The same steps work — see Word to Markdown.
FAQ
Does Obsidian need a plugin for this?
No. You end up with plain .md files, which Obsidian reads natively.
Is my document uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion runs in your browser and nothing is sent to a server.