How To Convert Google Docs To Libre Office Files On Linux
Google Docs is popular productivity suite that stands out from Microsoft’s Office and Apple’s iWork apps because it is basically a set of online apps. Both Microsoft and Apple have online versions of their productivity suites but Google Docs beats them easily. That said, if you’re an open source fan looking to avoid Gdocs, it’s a good idea to take all of your existing files and convert them to the standard open source format. One of the quickest ways to convert Google Docs to Libre Office file formats is to connect Libre Office directly to Google Drive
All released versions of Libre Office on Linux can connect directly to Google. However, if you’re running version 5 and not the latest release, there may be a bug that prevents you from using this feature. To ensure that everything works out well, we highly recommend following our guide to upgrading Libre Office to the absolute latest version of the software.
When you’ve upgraded Libre Office to version 6, the next step is to connect Libre Office to your Google account. To learn how to access your Google account in Libre Office, follow our tutorial on it. When you’ve successfully logged into Google in Libre Office, it’ll be possible to convert Gdoc files to the Open Document format on Linux.
Export Document As ODT
Now that Libre Office has a direct connection to your Google account and Google Drive files, it’s easy to start the conversion. The first step in this process is to directly load a Google Doc file from your account, remotely. Keep in mind that this file is being directly accessed via the Google API, and isn’t saved on your Linux PC.
Google Docs supports multiple types of files. For example, if you’re looking to convert a Google Docs text document, you should start off by opening Libre Office Writer. Need to save a Google Docs spreadsheet file as ODT? Open Libre Office Calc instead, etc. With the correct Libre Office program opened, select “open remote” and go through the process of directly accessing the Google Doc file inside of Libre Office.
When the file is imported, keep an eye on the formatting. If things look out of place, you may want to try to import it again or at the very least, modify the format and fix it up a little bit if things went wrong during the import process. If everything looks good, exporting as ODT is ready to go.
To export the remote Google Docs file, click the “File” menu, and look for the save button. While looking for the “Save” option, it’s imperative that you do not select “Save Remote,” or “Save.” Clicking either of these options will save the file to Google Drive, and not be helpful for what we are trying to do.
Instead, inside the “File” menu, click on the “Save As” option. Selecting “Save As” brings up a dialog box that lets the user choose where to put the new file. In the “Save As” dialog box, you’ll need to click the “Home” icon first, as Libre Office will try to access Google by default.
When you’ve made it to the correct folder, look at the bottom of the save dialog box for a drop-down menu. By default, it says “All Formats.” Click the menu to open the chooser and change it to ODT.
After changing the file type, write in a new file name. Changing the file name is vital, as the Google naming scheme doesn’t work so well outside of Google Docs.
If everything looks good, click “save” and the Google Docs file will export to /home/username/ as a native, Libre Office compatible ODT document!
Other ways To cConvert Google Docs To Libre Office
Find it tedious to connect your Google account directly to Libre Office to export your Gdoc files to the Open Document Format? If so, consider trying this alternative. The great thing about this method is that it’s easy to do, even if the “remote” Libre Office feature doesn’t work.
Start off by logging into your Google Drive account. From there, locate the file you’re looking to convert. Please note that GDoc files can’t convert in batches. You’ll need to repeat this process for each document.
Highlight a Gdoc document and click “Download.” It’ll convert the file to a Microsoft Office compatible file. For example, if you download a Gdoc text document, it’ll export as DOCX. Excel downloads as MS Office compatible file, etc.
Open your file manager and click on “Downloads.” In the “Downloads” folder, locate the newly converted document folder you got from Google Drive and double-click on it to open it in Libre Office. Libre Office has top notch Microsoft Office compatibility, so your downloaded file should import fine.
Click “File”, then “Save As” to open up the save menu. Change “All formats” to “ODT” and export the file.
When Libre Office finishes saving the file, it will be successfully converted to the Open Document Format!
