{"id":23217,"date":"2023-07-21T00:20:52","date_gmt":"2023-07-21T00:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/?p=23217"},"modified":"2026-02-13T19:17:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T19:17:27","slug":"google-sheets-formatting-html","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gmass.co\/blog\/google-sheets-formatting-html\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Turn Google Sheets Formatting into HTML (Then Mail Merge with GMass)"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you didn\u2019t know, Google Sheets allows you to format pieces of text inside a cell.<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/a><\/figure>\n

However, that formatting is trapped inside Google Sheets. It might work if you copy and paste it some places, but most of the time, you\u2019ll get plain text.<\/p>\n

And if you do a straight up mail merge in GMass\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Trying<\/a><\/figure>\n

\u2026you\u2019ll get the text from the cell but you won\u2019t get the formatting.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n

But GMass <\/strong>is<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0absolutely capable of using rich formatting with mail merge<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 as long as that rich formatting comes in the form of HTML tags.<\/p>\n

So if you want to merge in some bolded text, it will need to be wrapped in <b><\/b><\/code> tags or <strong><\/strong><\/code> tags.<\/p>\n

And I\u2019d never make you do that manually.<\/p>\n

Google Sheets doesn\u2019t have a native function to detect the formatting in a cell and convert it to HTML.<\/strong>\u00a0But with a Google Apps Script<\/a>, you can.<\/p>\n

In this guide, I\u2019ll walk you through setting up a Google Apps Script that will automatically convert your formatted Google Sheets content into HTML<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 which you can then use in Gmail mail merge<\/a>\u00a0campaigns with GMass.<\/p>\n

Google Sheets Formatting to HTML: Table of Contents<\/h2>\n
    \n
  • Step 1: Prepping Your Google Sheet<\/a><\/li>\n
  • Step 2: Adding the Google Apps Script<\/a><\/li>\n
  • Step 3: Using Your Formatted Text in a GMass Campaign<\/a><\/li>\n
  • Getting Started with GMass<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Step 1: Prepping Your Google Sheet<\/h2>\n

    The first step in this process is making sure you have a Google Sheet that\u2019s ready for a GMass campaign and prepped for you to convert its formatting to HTML.<\/p>\n

    That means:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • You have a column of email addresses<\/strong>\u00a0somewhere in the Google Sheet<\/li>\n
    • You have an empty column next to your column of formatted text<\/strong>. If you don\u2019t want to have to edit the Google Apps Script I\u2019ve shared later in this article, call your column with the formatted text in it RichText<\/strong>\u00a0and the empty column HTMLText<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
      \"Create<\/a><\/figure>\n

      What formatting can you use?<\/h3>\n

      The Google Apps Script\u00a0I wrote can detect the following formatting<\/strong>\u00a0on text in a cell:<\/p>\n

        \n
      • Bold, italics, strikethrough, underline<\/li>\n
      • Text color<\/li>\n
      • Line breaks<\/li>\n
      • Text size<\/li>\n
      • Hyperlinks<\/li>\n
      • Ordered lists (lines that start with a number, followed by a period, followed by a space)<\/li>\n
      • Unordered lists (lines that start with a hyphen followed by a space)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

        The script will not detect the following<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

          \n
        • Font, since using fonts in HTML emails is a whole thing<\/em><\/li>\n
        • Background color, since it applies to the whole cell and not individual pieces of text<\/li>\n
        • Text alignment (centering, et. al.)<\/li>\n
        • Indenting<\/li>\n
        • Cut-and-pasted images, since without the URLs of the images it gets messy to import them into emails; use traditional personalized image embedding<\/a>\u00a0instead<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

          Now we\u2019ll use our Google Apps Script to process your formatting and turn it into HTML.<\/p>\n

          Step 2: Adding the Google Apps Script<\/h2>\n

          To use a Google Apps Script, go to Extensions > Apps Script<\/strong>\u00a0in your Google Sheet.<\/p>\n

          \"Choose<\/a><\/figure>\n

          In the Apps Script window, you can change the name of the project and code file<\/strong>. Both are optional, but can be good as a reminder when you reference this script sometime in the future.<\/p>\n

          \"You<\/a><\/figure>\n

          Now delete function myFunction() { }<\/code> and paste in this entire script.<\/p>\n

          See the Pen
          \nTurn Google Sheets formatting into HTML<\/a> by Sam G (          @samgmass1<\/a>)
          \non           CodePen<\/a>.<\/p>\n