Word to Markdown

Converting a Word document to Markdown usually means installing Pandoc and running a command. If you only need the text and structure, copy-and-paste is faster.

Step by step

1. Open the document in Microsoft Word (desktop or Word on the web) and press Ctrl + A, then Ctrl + C.
2. Open the RichMarkdown editor, click New, click into the page and paste with Ctrl + V.
3. Review the document. Word's fonts, sizes and colours are stripped; headings, bold, italic, lists, links and tables are kept.
4. Click Export .md to download the Markdown file.

Tips for a clean result

• Use Word's heading styles. Markdown headings come from Heading 1, Heading 2 and so on. Text that is just big and bold stays a paragraph.
• Use real lists. Bullets typed by hand (a "•" character followed by text) stay as text.
• Simple tables convert best. Markdown tables can't merge cells, and a cell can't hold a list.
• Images: images pasted straight out of Word desktop often don't come through. Upload them somewhere and insert them with the Image button using their URL.

RichMarkdown or Pandoc?

For one document at a time, paste-and-export is quicker. For hundreds of files or academic documents with footnotes, use Pandoc.

FAQ