DOCX to Markdown Converter
Moving documentation out of Word and into a Git repository starts with turning each .docx into Markdown. This converter writes CommonMark-style text with # headings, pipe tables and image links, ready to commit.
Document Converter
or drop PDF, DOC, DOCX … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
150 DPI turns an A4 page into about 1240 × 1754 px. Use 300 for printing.
Convert the whole file or only some pages or slides (PDF and presentation input).
Pages or slides to convert, e.g. 1-3, 5, 8-10.
UTF-8 works for every language. Choose UTF-8 with BOM if Excel or Notepad on Windows shows garbled characters; legacy encodings only for old software.
LF for macOS, Linux and code editors; CRLF for older Windows programs such as classic Notepad.
Comma is standard. Use semicolon for Excel in countries that write decimals with a comma (Germany, France, Brazil).
Excel input with several sheets: convert all of them (one section or file per sheet) or only the first.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload the Word files
Add up to 20 .docx or .doc files, up to 95 MB each. Accept or reject tracked changes in Word first, since Markdown has no way to show them.
- 2
Check the text options
Formatting is on Simple, Text encoding on UTF-8 and Line endings on LF, the combination Git and static site generators expect. Keep Include images on to get pictures in a folder.
- 3
Convert and unpack
Press Convert to MD. Each document arrives as a ZIP with the .md file and its images; unzip it into your docs folder and commit.
How do I convert a Word document to Markdown?
Upload the .docx and press Convert to MD. You get a .md file with # headings, lists, links and tables, plus the images in a folder beside it, all inside one ZIP.
DOCX to Markdown for docs-as-code
Teams adopt docs-as-code for one reason: documentation then lives beside the code, goes through the same pull requests and ships with the same release. A .docx breaks that, because it is a ZIP of XML parts that Git stores as an opaque binary. A one-word change shows up as a changed file with no readable diff, and two people editing at once cannot merge their work.
Markdown is plain text, so every edit is a visible line change. It also became far more predictable in 2014, when John MacFarlane and others published CommonMark, a precise specification of the syntax Gruber had described loosely ten years earlier. GitHub based its own GitHub Flavored Markdown spec on CommonMark in 2017, adding the pipe tables, task lists and strikethrough most READMEs use today.
If your content is going the other way, Markdown out to a reviewer who works in Word, use Markdown to DOCX. For a web page rather than a repository, DOCX to HTML keeps more of the styling.
What the Markdown output looks like
## Release checklist Before tagging a release, confirm the following: - Tests pass on **main** - The changelog lists every merged PR | Step | Owner | | --- | --- | | Build | CI | | Publish | Maintainer | 
Where the converted Markdown will render
| Organisation | Requirement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub | Renders README.md and any .md file in a repository using GitHub Flavored Markdown | github.com |
| Hugo | Builds pages from .md content files with a CommonMark-compliant parser | gohugo.io |
| Jekyll | Turns .md files with front matter into pages; the engine behind GitHub Pages | jekyllrb.com |
| Docusaurus | Reads .md and .mdx files in its docs folder as documentation pages | docusaurus.io |
DOCX
Microsoft Word document
DOCX is Microsoft Word's default document format since Office 2007, based on the Office Open XML standard (ECMA-376, ISO/IEC 29500). It is a ZIP package of XML files holding text, styles, images, tables, comments and tracked changes. It is the most common format for editable documents in offices, schools and job applications. Layout can shift slightly between Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice and Pages, especially with complex formatting. Most word processors open DOCX files.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 2007 · Microsoft
MD
Markdown
Markdown is a lightweight markup syntax created by John Gruber in 2004. It uses plain-text symbols, such as # for headings, * for emphasis and - for lists, that stay readable as raw text and convert cleanly to HTML. It is the standard for README files, documentation, wikis, note apps and many static site generators. There are several dialects, such as CommonMark and GitHub Flavored Markdown, which differ in details like tables. Any text editor can open .md files.
- Compression
- –
- Transparency
- –
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 2004 · John Gruber
DOCX is converted to Markdown when a document moves into a code workflow: a README, a docs site or a knowledge base kept in Git, where plain text can be diffed, reviewed in pull requests and rendered by many tools.
Word features that have no Markdown equivalent
Plan for these before you convert
- Fonts, colors and page layout are dropped; Markdown describes structure, and the site theme decides the look
- Tracked changes and comments do not carry over, so resolve them in Word first
- Headers, footers and page numbers have no place in a .md file
- Text boxes and wrapped images become ordinary paragraphs and image links
- Headings you formatted by hand, bold 16 pt instead of Heading 2, come out as bold text, so apply real heading styles first
- Underline has no Markdown syntax and is removed or kept as HTML
DOCX to Markdown questions
Which Markdown flavor does the DOCX to MD output follow?
Headings, emphasis, lists, links and code follow CommonMark, and tables use the pipe syntax from GitHub Flavored Markdown. GitHub, GitLab, Hugo, Jekyll and Docusaurus all render that combination.
What happens to merged table cells?
Markdown pipe tables have no merged cells, so each merged area is split back into individual cells with the text in the first one. Rebuild complex tables as HTML inside the .md, or simplify them in Word before converting.
Where do the pictures from my Word document go?
With Include images on, every picture is saved as a separate file in the ZIP, and the Markdown links to it with a relative path such as images/figure-1.png. Keep the folder next to the .md file when you move it.
Do Word footnotes survive in Markdown?
CommonMark has no footnote syntax, but GitHub added [^1] footnotes in 2021 and most site generators support them. If your renderer does not, the note text appears as plain paragraphs at the end.
Can I convert Google Docs to Markdown this way?
Yes. In Google Docs choose File > Download > Microsoft Word (.docx), then upload that file here. Google Docs also offers a Markdown download option of its own, which works well for simple documents.
