DOCX to Markdown Converter
Drop a Word .docx file to get clean Markdown, with headings, lists, tables, links, footnotes and images. Converted in your browser.
Converted on your device: your document is never uploaded.
How the conversion works
The converter reads the meaning of your document rather than its appearance. A paragraph styled as Heading 2 in Word becomes a ## heading; a Word list becomes a Markdown list; a table becomes a pipe table. It uses the open-source Mammoth library to read the .docx and Turndown to write Markdown, with extra rules for tables, strikethrough, code and footnotes.
What is kept
| In Word | In the Markdown |
|---|---|
| Heading 1–6 styles, and the Title style | # to ###### headings |
| Bold, italic, strikethrough | **bold**, *italic*, ~~strike~~ |
| Superscript and subscript | <sup> and <sub> tags |
| Bulleted and numbered lists, nested | - and 1. lists |
| Tables | GitHub-Flavored Markdown pipe tables (first row as the header) |
| Hyperlinks, and links to headings | [text](url), and [text](#heading) |
| Footnotes and endnotes | [^1] references with the notes at the end |
| Images |  plus the image files |
| Quote and code styles (such as “Quote” or “Code Block”) | Blockquotes and fenced code blocks |
What is left out
- Visual formatting such as fonts, colors, highlighting, alignment and spacing, because Markdown can’t express it.
- Page features such as headers, footers, page numbers, columns and text boxes. Text inside a text box is kept as a separate paragraph.
- Table layout. Merged cells aren’t preserved, and a cell’s paragraphs are joined with
<br>, because a Markdown table cell holds a single line. - Comments. Review comments are not included in the Markdown.
- Vector drawings in formats a browser can’t display (EMF, WMF) are extracted, but many Markdown viewers can’t display them.
Choosing how images are saved
- Separate files (.zip): the Markdown links to
images/image-1.pngand so on, and the download is a .zip with both. Best for Git repositories, static-site generators and wikis. - Embed in the Markdown: each image is written into the text as a data URI. You get one self-contained file, but it can be very large.
- Leave out: images are dropped, for text-only use.
Getting the best result
Documents that use Word’s built-in styles convert best. Before converting, check that headings use Heading 1, Heading 2 and so on, that lists are real Word lists, and that tables are Word tables rather than text lined up with tabs. Going the other way? Use the MD to DOCX converter.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert a Word document to Markdown?
Choose or drop your .docx file above. The Markdown appears straight away; you can edit it, copy it, or download it as a .md file (or a .zip with the images).
Is my Word document uploaded?
No. The file is read by JavaScript in your browser and never leaves your device.
Can it convert old .doc files?
No, only .docx. Open the .doc file in Word, Google Docs or LibreOffice and save it as .docx first.
What happens to images?
By default they are saved as separate files in an images folder, and you download a .zip containing the Markdown and the images. You can instead embed them in the Markdown as data URIs, or leave them out.
Why are my headings plain paragraphs in the Markdown?
The converter recognizes headings by their Word style (Heading 1, Heading 2 and so on). Text that was only made big and bold by hand has no heading style, so it comes out as a normal paragraph. Apply the heading styles in Word and convert again.
Does it keep colors, fonts and page layout?
No. Markdown has no way to store fonts, colors, text boxes or page layout, so the converter keeps the document's structure (headings, lists, tables, links, emphasis) and drops the visual styling.
Does it work with documents from Google Docs?
Yes, once the document is saved as a .docx file. Google Docs can also export Markdown itself: File > Download > Markdown (.md).