Takshashila Institution | QMD Converter

Convert a Google Doc to Quarto Markdown (.qmd) and a rendered PDF — ready to upload.

1 Document Type

📖 How it works & Google Docs conventions

Workflow

  1. Write your paper or blog post in Google Docs using normal heading styles, Google footnotes, and optionally [aside] / [/aside] tags for sidenotes.
  2. Set share permissions to Anyone with the link can view (Share → Change → Anyone with the link).
  3. Paste the URL into this converter, fill in the metadata form, and click Convert.
  4. Download the .zip containing:
    • {filename}.qmd — ready to upload to the publications repo
    • assets/{filename}.pdf — the rendered PDF Paper only
    • images/ — all extracted images

Google Docs conventions

FeatureHow to write it
HeadingsUse Google Docs heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3)
Bold / ItalicNormal Google Docs bold / italic
LinksNormal hyperlinks
FootnotesInsert → Footnote in Google Docs
Sidenotes / asidesWrap text in [aside] and [/aside] on their own lines
ImagesInsert normally; add a short caption as the paragraph immediately after
Quarto power usersCan write :::{.aside}, [^N], etc. directly — these are passed through unchanged

2 Google Doc URL

The document must be shared as Anyone with the link can view (Share → Change → Anyone with the link).

3 Metadata

These fields populate the YAML frontmatter of the .qmd file.

4 Output Settings

.qmd / .pdf

Use the format ShortTitle-DDMMYYYY. No spaces.

Aside / Sidenote Guide

To mark a sidenote in your Google Doc, wrap the text with [aside] and [/aside] on their own lines (or at the start/end of a paragraph):

[aside]
Bond Credit Ratings such as AAA (highest)…
[/aside]

Power users can also write :::{.aside} … ::: directly — it will be passed through unchanged.