Common Problems with Google Docs

Written by Owner

Updated at August 20th, 2025

+ More

Table of Contents

My settings in Google Docs are not being respected when using the Create Document actions My template fields aren't appearing in Zapier or they all have generic names Remove any HTML formatting Manually enter the template field Check your template field formatting My template doesn't appear in the Create Document from Template Action step

My settings in Google Docs are not being respected when using the Create Document actions

The Google Docs API does not respect any settings you have configured in the Google Docs app settings in regards to defaults for documents created by Zapier.

My template fields aren't appearing in Zapier or they all have generic names

This may be due to your template format. Remove any HTML formatting, and check your template field formatting.

Remove any HTML formatting

If you copy and pasted fields in your template, they may contain HTML formatting. The HTML formatting won't be visible in your Google Doc, but you will need to remove it before using your Doc in Zapier.

There are two ways to delete the HTML in your Google Docs template:

Manually enter the template field

Delete the template field and the text around the template field
Manually type in the template field and the text around it.

Remove formatting

Highlight the template fields.
In the top menu, click Format.
Select Clear formatting.

If you already selected the template in your Zap, click Refresh fields at the bottom of your Google Docs step. This will reload your template and display your template fields.

Check your template field formatting

To correctly format your template fields in Google Docs:

Template fields must be wrapped in double curly braces.
Remove any spaces.
Remove any special characters like punctuation marks.

Example

Here’s an example of a properly formatted template field: {{MyTemplateField}}.

Learn more about how to create and autopopulate a Google Docs template.

My template doesn't appear in the Create Document from Template Action step

The Create Document from Template Action will only display templates that you created in Google Docs. It won't display existing templates created by Google Docs. Learn more about each template type.