Illustrated guide to installing and using the Better Document Importer · 10:02pm Feb 12th, 2017
You know what I should be doing? Writing. But I’ve been noticing a lot of people having trouble with the new Google Documents importer created by TigeR, and I suspect a lot more people aren’t even using it at all. It’s a wonderful tool which fixes the problems of the regular ‘Import from Gdocs’ button, as well as adds new features. So, since so many people are having difficulties with it, I decided to throw together an illustrated guide on how to install, update, and generally use it. I procrastinate because I care 
And if you used the Better Document Importer and found it has weird indentations and/or spacing issues, this guide fixes that problem too 
Installing Tempermonkey
First thing to understand is that this is not a standalone program, it’s a userscript. A userscript is coding created to augment an existing website. Fimfiction, in this case. Because it’s not a standalone program, it requires an add on to your browser to run. There are various options out there, but I’ll be using one called Tempermonkey.
1. Go to Tempermonkey’s homepage, located here.
2. Select your browser from the list. For example, I’m using Chrome, so I click that.
3. Click download. If there are multiple options, the basic one is ideal (it’ll be the first in the list.)
And here we see an example of my amazing artistic abilities
4. Click ‘Add extension’ on the box that pops up.
Congrats, Tempermonkey is installed. Easy. I don’t know if things change at all on step four for other browsers, but I can hardly imagine it would be.
Installing Better Document Importer
The thing we actually came here for. Not any harder than Tempermonkey.
1. Follow this link to get to the download page for the Better Document Importer.
2. Click install.
3. Click install again.
That’s it. Hell, that was slightly easier than Tempermonkey 
Updating
If you just installed Better Document Importer while reading this guide, then you won’t need to do this. But if you already had it installed before Sunday, you’ll definitely want to follow this step. Also, keep in mind that as new features are added to the userscript, you’ll need to update it to use them, so even if you just installed it’s worth taking a look at this.
1. Click the Tempermonkey icon, located near the URL bar.
2. Click ‘Check for Userscript updates.
3. Click ‘Update’
Done. You’re now completely up to date with Better Document Importer.
Using Better Document Importer
One of the biggest problems that people are having with the importer is that it does weird things with the indentations and/or spacing when they import their chapters. This is actually a feature for weirdos like me that format their Gdocs differently than they format their Fimfiction chapters. But if you’re one of them normal people that I keep hearing about and just want it to look the same, then just follow these instructions to get it to import exactly what’s on the in the Gdoc.
1. Go to the settings page on Fimfiction.
2. Set both ‘Paragraph indentation’ and ‘Paragraph spacing’ to ‘Import as-is’
3. Click save settings.
For those of you curious, I have indentations to ‘Import as-is’ and paragraph spacing to ‘web style’ because, again, I’m strange and want my Gdocs and my chapters to look different.
Now you’re all set to actually use this thing, which is a pretty straight forward process. But since I’ve already explained everything else, fuck it, I’ll explain that too. And I’ll even use this blog post as the screenshot example, since the Better Document Importer adds an import Gdoc option to blog posts
1. Navigate to the chapter/blog post you want to import to.
2. Click ‘Import Gdoc’
I forgot to circle the button, but I trust your ability to find it
3. Click the ‘Documents’ tab
4. Select the file you want
Done. Note that all images, links, and text formating in this blog post are wholly unchanged from how I typed it in Google Docs. The only thing I did manually was the ponymotes (yes I have them memorized and typed them out 
) and the page break for the ‘Continue reading’ button. So it preserved all my paragraph spacing, italics, bold, font size, links, and images. For good measure, here’s some underlined text, followed by some strikethrough text.
In conclusion
If you’re still having trouble installing the guide let me know, and I’ll try to help. If you experience any bugs with the script itself, let TigeR know over in this thread. Additionally, if you find the Better Document Importer helpful, go give TigeR your thanks 
Here’s a link to the original Google doc of this blog post, if y’all want to compare and contrast with what I typed vs. what got imported.
Alternatively, you could just add the bbcode converter to gdocs and copy and paste
I use LibreOffice for my writing (my internet is not the best, and Gdocs HATES big files), and use a logitech "gaming keyboard" to have programmable keys. Guess what those keys are programmed to be? Yup, open and close italics/bold/quote, as well as a nice and neat line break, and an em-dash.
4419630
That's a good solution if you don't format heavily with indentations, text size, centered text, and images. Probably some other things that aren't carried over. This document importer converts everything exactly as it appears in the doc.
4419641
) but I'm jealous of your keyboard if only for the dashes.
Yeah, I feel you on the internet thing. Having the tags in my doc itself would drive me crazy, personally (I am quite picky about these things
Thanks for the detailed tutorial! Well done. Sorry I'm just now taking a look at it, I was a bit preoccupied with work
If you don't mind, I'll link this in the first post in the Writer's Group's thread in the hope more people see this
Aaaaaaah! Thank you so much!
4422155
I have friends that I knew I'd have to walk through using this, so I figured making a tutorial would save time in the long run
And of course I don't mind, I'm happy to be helpful wherever possible
4422158
You're welcome
Nope. I have Tamper and the script installed, I set the settings on FiMfiction like you suggested, I checked to make sure it's enabled in my extensions (running ME), it is, everything is set up as instructed. I go to make a new chapter, click Import GDoc, get the menu to pop up just like you showed, select the document I want, confirm, and then nothing changes. Absolutely nothing appeards, the chapter stays blank.
halp pls.
4430133
Since it's popping up with your docs, it sounds like you've done everything correctly. Could be a comparability issue with your internet browser, depending on what you're running. It was originally tested on Chrome and Firefox before release, and later someone in the forum confirmed it works on Opera. While all other browsers that can run Tampermonkey should work, no one's confirmed that they do yet (at least not insofar as I'm aware).
That is quite bizarre
In any case, it sounds like it's the more technical side of the doc importer itself giving you trouble, in which case your best bet is to bring it TigeR's attention over in this forum. He's been pretty on top of fixing all kinds of issues that people have been having.
4430180 Yeah, I'm running Microsoft Edge (ME), which I notice you didn't include in the "Tested" browsers... not a good sign.
Anyways, thanks anyways, and anyways, once I stop saying anyways, I'll go ask TigeR.
Thanks for the guide, I love this new importer.
4436410
No problem
And yeah, I'm also totes loving this importer
I'm having trouble. Every time I try to install it, it says that too many people are trying to do the same.
4481979
I heard someone else had the same problem. Might just be a thing with the OpenUserJS site to limit their bandwidth costs by limiting how many people can install a script at one time. I haven't encountered that problem myself, so unfortunately I don't know a workaround, but it could possibly fix itself if you just try again in a bit (assuming that you just got unlucky when you tried to install it). If it's still giving you trouble, I'd recommend asking TigeR about it over in this forum thread. I don't really have a lot of technical knowledge, but TigeR would probably know what's up. I'm just somebunny good with words who made this guide so I didn't have to explain to every one of my friends individually how to set this thing up lol
Ah, the google doc importer button is not working for me now that I installed it. Don't know what happened.
4552384
Strange. I just tested, and it's still working for me. It could be that your web browser isn't compatible with the script, although theoretically anything that supports Tampermonkey ought to work (insofar as I know, Chrome, Firefox, and Opera have all been confirmed to work. Unsure about anything else). There was a problem when the script first came out where Chrome users were clicking the "Import Gdoc" button and nothing at all happened, but that was fixed ages ago.
Sounds like your best bet is to go to the main thread and flag TigeR about it, letting him know what you're experiencing in detail (like what happens when you click the button and what not). Unfortunately, my skillset is mostly doing things with words, so the technical aspect of the script not working is beyond me