Convert Word to Markdown
with MarkItDown
Convert Word to MD (DOCX) for editable text — heading styles, lists and tables included. Preview the result, then copy or download it.
Free for Word to Markdown: .docx up to 20MB, three per batch. Pro: 100MB and batches of 50.
Convert Your Word Document to Markdown (Word to MD)
Drop a .docx below to convert Word to MD. Server converts with Microsoft MarkItDown; Local keeps the file on your device.
See What a Word to Markdown Run Produces
Compare the same document across engines — a Word to Markdown run each way. Server output appears first; local output provides the baseline. Excerpts are unchanged; full files are downloadable.
Server conversion turns the budget table into Markdown
The report carries styled headings, two lists, bold and italic runs, and a three-column table. A Word to MD run keeps all of it on the server; the local baseline leaves the table as raw HTML.
View original document: workshop-report.docx
# Community Workshop Program — Quarterly Report *Prepared for the board · Q2 2026* ## Highlights Attendance held steady while **materials spending rose 12 percent** against plan. The repair workshop remains the *most requested* session of the quarter. * Tool library membership doubled over 18 months * Every repair workshop ran a waitlist * Two volunteer instructors completed onboarding ## Attendance by session 1. Repair workshop 2. Sewing circle 3. Bike clinic ## Budget summary | | | | | --- | --- | --- | | **Line** | **Planned** | **Actual** | | Venue hire | $1,260 | $1,260 | | Materials | $900 | $1,040 | | Instructor fees | $1,950 | $1,800 | | Printing | $220 | $260 |
Headings, lists, bold and italic survive, and the budget table arrives as pipe syntax — the first pipe row is blank because the source table has no header style.
# Community Workshop Program — Quarterly Report _Prepared for the board · Q2 2026_ ## Highlights Attendance held steady while **materials spending rose 12 percent** against plan. The repair workshop remains the _most requested_ session of the quarter. * Tool library membership doubled over 18 months * Every repair workshop ran a waitlist * Two volunteer instructors completed onboarding ## Attendance by session 1. Repair workshop 2. Sewing circle 3. Bike clinic ## Budget summary <table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Line</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Planned</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Actual</strong></p></td></tr>
The same structure comes through, but the table stays raw HTML — usable in some editors, messy in Git and LLM prompts.
Settings: Same workshop-report.docx. Unchanged saved captures from a live comparison.
AI OCR reads the photographed table inside the document
The second page is a photo of the table with no text layer. Standard conversion returns an image placeholder; High-Accuracy AI OCR recovers the table itself.
View original document: workshop-inventory.docx
# Workshop inventory check *Q2 stock count · volunteer team* The stock count below was photographed during the June session — the scan is on the next page. *[Image OCR] Inventory — June count Counted by the volunteer team during the June session. Item On hand Reorder at Safety goggles 24 10 Screwdriver sets 9 6 Glue sticks 41 20 Extension leads 7 4 Note: two goggles are on loan to the school club. [End OCR]*
The photographed table returns as readable text, every row intact.
# Workshop inventory check *Q2 stock count · volunteer team* The stock count below was photographed during the June session — the scan is on the next page.
Without OCR, the photo collapses into a base64 image placeholder — the table is invisible to text extraction.
Settings: AI OCR ran through the live service; the standard output comes from the same document.
Documents full of scans?
High-Accuracy AI OCR reads text inside document images — 10 pages a month on Free, 500 on Pro. Pro also raises files to 100MB and batches to 50.
AI OCR requires a free account. Standard conversion and local extraction stay free.
How to Convert Word to Markdown
From a .docx to editable text, in four steps.
- 01
Choose Where to Process It
Server is selected by default and converts the document with Microsoft MarkItDown. Choose Local if the file must stay on your device.
- 02
Add the Document and Read the Preview
Drop a .docx onto the panel or browse for one. Heading levels, list nesting and tables appear as Markdown, so the preview shows whether the Word to MD outline landed as expected.
- 03
Check a Table and the Heading Levels
Compare the first table with the original: server turns it into pipes, local may leave it as HTML. A heading styled by hand rather than assigned a Heading style stays body text — fix it in Word and convert again.
- 04
Copy or Download the Result
Copy the Markdown or download a .md file. Word to Markdown output opens unchanged in Obsidian, VS Code or a pull request diff, while the .docx remains the formatted original.
What to Expect from Word to Markdown
Word records more than Markdown can carry. Here is what survives a Word to Markdown run, what needs a look, and what stays in the original document.
Semantic Styles, Not Visual Guesswork
A tool that infers headings from font size promotes emphasised captions and misses headings styled by hand. This Word to Markdown engine follows the style names Word recorded, so a Styles-gallery outline survives.
Tables: Pipes on Server, HTML on Local
A Word table becomes pipe syntax on server runs. Local conversion keeps the cells but may leave the table as raw HTML — worth checking before the file enters Git.
Local, or a Temporary Upload
Local conversion keeps the document in the browser. Server conversion uploads it over HTTPS, processes it temporarily and deletes the source right after.
Structured Text for Retrieval Pipelines
Chunking behaves better when heading levels stay visible, because a retriever can attach each passage to its section. A Word to Markdown pass hands an embedding job a clean hierarchy, not a soup of styled runs.
Comments and Tracked Changes Stay Behind
You receive the text as it reads now: revision marks resolve away and comments are not carried over. Keep the .docx when the review history matters.
Free for Everyday Documents
Free Word to MD covers .docx files up to 20MB in batches of three — most reports and specifications. Pro lifts that to 100MB and thirty per batch.
Word to Markdown — Questions People Actually Ask
What the conversion carries across, which files this page accepts, and how your document is handled during a Word to Markdown run.
Is DOCX to MD the same as Word to Markdown?
Yes. Every Markdown file uses the .md extension, so DOCX to Markdown, docx to md, word to md and Word to Markdown describe the same conversion — the download opens in any editor.
Which Word features survive the conversion?
Heading 1 to Heading 6 styles, bold and italic, lists, hyperlinks and tables are preserved where Markdown supports them. Ordinary paragraphs stay ordinary.
Why is my big bold line not a heading?
Because the converter follows the recorded styles, not the appearance. A line bumped to 18pt and bolded is still body text. Apply Heading 2 and convert again — now you get ##.
What gets left behind?
Markdown has no syntax for much of what Word can express, so comments, tracked-change marks, headers, footers, page numbers and visual attributes like typeface and colour are dropped.
Can I convert an old .doc file?
Not on this page. Only .docx, the XML format from Office 2007 onward, can be parsed here; the legacy binary .doc is a different container. Save it as .docx first, then convert Word to md — doc to Markdown covers that route.
What if I only have a PDF copy of the Word document?
Use PDF to Markdown for a PDF copy or scan. If you still have the .docx, convert it here to retain the original heading styles, lists and table structure where Markdown supports them.
What about scanned pages inside a .docx?
The standard path returns a placeholder for embedded photos, because there is no text layer. AI OCR recovers text and tables from those images — 10 pages a month on Free, 500 on Pro.
Are images extracted as files?
No. A Word to Markdown run converts text, not media: inline pictures are not written out as image files. Export them from Word if the .md must point at real assets.
How is my document handled?
A Local Word to Markdown run keeps the file on your device. Server conversion uploads it over HTTPS, processes it temporarily and deletes it right after.
How large a document can I hand it?
Twenty megabytes per file on the free tier, three per batch; Pro takes 100MB files and thirty at a time. A .docx is compressed XML, so 20MB is an extremely long piece of writing.
What else can MarkItDown handle besides Word?
PDF reports, saved web pages, spreadsheets, CSV and TSV exports, JSON, XML and plain text each have a converter on this site. For docx to md, start here. The Markdown online editor opens any of those results for cleanup.
Does this page belong to Microsoft?
No. The service is operated independently by markitdown.tech and uses Microsoft's open-source MarkItDown Python library. Microsoft does not operate, endorse or host this online service.
Related tools: the legacy doc to Markdown route, PDF to Markdown for exported reports, Excel to Markdown for the workbooks those reports cite — then tidy the result in the Markdown online editor. Real output is shown in the conversion examples.
Ready for a Word to Markdown Run?
Free to start. Drop a file above to run a Word to Markdown conversion; the temporary source is deleted right after. Bigger files and batches live on MarkItDown Pro.
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