How can I include formatted HTML in the body of a Google Doc using n8n?

Based on the current functionality provided by the Google Docs node, n8n only supports adding HTML—that is, formatted content—when the document is created. If you try to update an existing document’s body with HTML via the Insert operation, the node will only copy the source code rather than rendering it as formatted content.

Here are a couple of workarounds you might consider:

1. Recreate the Document:
   Since HTML formatting is only applied during document creation, one option is to create a new Google Doc each time you need to update the content. You can generate the HTML (using the HTML node, for example) and then pass it as part of the creation parameters. This means that instead of updating an existing doc, you’d be replacing it with a new one that contains the correctly rendered HTML.

2. Use an HTTP Request Node:
   If recreating the document isn’t practical, you could bypass the limitations of the built-in Google Docs node by directly calling the Google Docs API. The API may offer more granular control over document content formatting. This approach would involve:

   • Managing the OAuth2 authentication yourself (or using n8n’s credentials with the HTTP Request node).
   • Crafting the request to update the document using the API endpoints that support inserting formatted content (if available).

Keep in mind that both approaches come with trade-offs. Recreating the document helps you maintain formatting, but it might not be ideal if you need to preserve history or a document ID. On the other hand, using the HTTP Request node means managing more of the logic and error handling yourself.

As of now, there isn’t an out-of-the-box solution within n8n’s Google Docs node that fully addresses formatted HTML updates to an existing document, so you’ll need to choose the workaround that best fits your workflow.