Convert Markdown to Word, PDF and more
Upload a .md file and choose the format you want. Headings, lists and tables arrive as the real thing, not as plain text.
Which formats it writes
| Destination | Extension | What survives |
|---|---|---|
| Word | .docx |
Everything: styled headings, lists, tables, links and images |
.pdf |
Everything, laid out and paginated | |
| Web page | .html |
Everything, in a self-contained file with its styles inlined |
| EPUB book | .epub |
Everything, split into chapters with a navigation index |
| OpenDocument | .odt |
Everything (LibreOffice, OpenOffice) |
| Rich Text Format | .rtf |
Everything, in the format every word processor opens |
| PowerPoint | .pptx |
One slide per heading |
| Excel and CSV | .xlsx, .csv |
Tables only |
Headings arrive as headings
That is the difference between this and pasting the text by hand. A ## does not
become "big bold type": it becomes a real Heading 2 style with its outline
level. That is what puts it in Word's navigation pane, what lets you generate a
table of contents in one click, and what gives the PDF its bookmarks.
The same goes for everything else: a numbered list is a numbered list — not paragraphs that start with a number — a table is a table with its header row, and a link keeps its target.
Images, and closing the circle
A .md file does not carry images inside: it references them. So if you upload
just the .md, local images cannot travel with it (images pointing at a URL are
kept as links).
The answer is to upload the ZIP produced by Convert documents to
Markdown, with the .md and its
imagenes folder inside: it is recognised here and the images end up embedded in
the Word file, the PDF, the EPUB, the OpenDocument or the PowerPoint. That way
the round trip keeps the whole document.
Every format has its own character
PowerPoint is the only destination that forces you to divide the text: a document flows, a presentation does not. Every heading at the level you choose opens a slide, and when the text does not fit it continues on another one under the same title. Tables and images each get their own slide, because mixing them with text ends in overlapping elements.
Excel and CSV keep only the tables: a paragraph has no place in a spreadsheet. Each table gets its own sheet, named after the heading above it. If the document has no tables at all, you are told so instead of handed an empty file.
EPUB splits the document into chapters at its top heading level and builds the book's navigation index from those titles.
Options
- Output format: the destination. It is the one option that changes the result completely.
- Document title: goes into the file properties, the browser tab for HTML and the presentation cover. Left blank, the first heading in the Markdown is used.
- Page size: A4, Letter or A3. Affects the PDF only.
- Each slide starts at: level 1 or level 2. Affects PowerPoint only. With
##you get more and shorter slides, which is usually what you want.
Frequently asked questions
Which flavour of Markdown does it understand?
CommonMark with tables and strikethrough — the Markdown written by GitHub, Obsidian and almost everything else. Headings, nested lists, quotes, code blocks, horizontal rules, links and images all convert.
What about HTML embedded in the Markdown?
It is left out, and you are told. A <div> with styles has no equivalent in a
.docx or a .pptx, and sneaking it in as text would be worse. The one exception is
<br>, which really is a line break and is kept.
Is my file stored on the server?
No. It is processed in memory and dropped when the request ends: nothing is written to disk and no copy is kept. That rule is the same for all 35 tools on the site.
Can I convert several files at once?
Not for now: one per conversion. What you can upload is the ZIP of a document with its images, which counts as a single document.
Why does my table look wrong in PowerPoint?
Because a wide table on a slide is a space problem, not a conversion problem. Columns share the available width equally; if the table has eight columns of long text, no sharing will save it. For big tables the natural destinations are Word, PDF or Excel.
Does the PDF keep the links?
Yes, and they are underlined and coloured so they work on paper too: whoever prints it can read the link text even though they cannot click it.