WaywardTools

Document conversion that stays on your machine

Word Markdown Swap

Word to Markdown

Your file never leaves this device. Conversion runs in your browser. The document itself is not uploaded.

1 · Choose a Word file

…or drop a Word file here

.docx · stays in this tab

2 · Convert

3 · Download

Choose a file to convert. It is not uploaded.

FAQ and format details
Why convert Word to Markdown?

Engineering teams inherit spec documents as .docx. Putting them in Git as Markdown makes pull requests possible. Researchers moving from Word to Obsidian use the same path. It is also how you extract a blog draft that only exists in a colleague's OneDrive.

How this conversion runs

Mammoth produces semantic HTML (not Word's export soup). Turndown then emits ATX headings, emphasis, GFM tables, and fenced-ish code where Word used a monospace run. Images inlined as data URLs become gigantic Markdown image lines — plan to replace them with files.

Keep in mind for Word → Markdown

Word's 'subtle' styles, theme colors, and text boxes have no Markdown. Tracked insertions may appear as ordinary text; comments are dropped, so accept or reject in Word first if those decisions matter. Nested tables and tab-aligned 'tables' that are not real tables will look wrong.

After you have a Markdown file

Open the .md in VS Code, fix heading levels (Word users love Heading 2 for everything), and move images to disk. Then Markdown→HTML is your preview. Do not round-trip Word→MD→Word expecting identical formatting.

Should I accept Track Changes first?

Yes. This converter does not surface insertions vs deletions. What Mammoth sees as the current text is what you get.

What about footnotes?

They are not reliably mapped to Markdown footnote syntax. Check the end of the HTML preview; you may need to copy notes by hand.

This pair at a glance
Accepts
.docx
Writes
.md · text/markdown
Read fidelity
high (Word → HTML)
Write fidelity
high (HTML → Markdown)
Source size
Plan for files under 24 MB

The file is read in this tab. It is not uploaded.

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About Microsoft Word (Office Open XML) and Markdown

Source file

Microsoft Word (Office Open XML)

The default Word format since 2007: a ZIP package of XML parts for body text, styles, media, and document settings.

DOCX (Office Open XML WordprocessingML) replaced the binary .doc format. It is the interchange format for business documents: resumes, contracts, manuscripts. Word, Google Docs, LibreOffice, Pages, and OnlyOffice all read and write it. Macros live in a sibling .docm type, which this converter does not execute or emit.

Extensions
.docx
MIME types
application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Kind
zip · binary
Category
word processing
Standard
Open format · since 2006
Comfortable size
Up to about 24 MB in this browser converter
Read into HTML
high fidelity · implemented — Decoded with Mammoth into semantic HTML (h1–h6, p, tables, images as data URLs).

What this format can hold

  • headings
  • paragraphs
  • lists
  • tables
  • links
  • images
  • inline formatting
  • headers footers
  • styles
  • comments
  • track changes

Usually dropped on the way in

  • macros
  • track changes
  • comments
  • embedded objects
  • complex text boxes
  • headers footers

Apps that consume Word

  • Microsoft Word (Microsoft) — creates and opens on Windows, macOS, Web, iOS, Android
  • Google Docs (Google) — creates and opens on Web, iOS, Android
  • LibreOffice Writer (The Document Foundation) — creates and opens on Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Apple Pages (Apple) — creates and opens on macOS, iOS
  • OnlyOffice — creates and opens on Windows, macOS, Linux, Web
  • WPS Office (Kingsoft) — creates and opens on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android

Catalog notes

  • .docm, .dotx, and .dotm are not accepted; strip macros before converting.
  • ZIP sniffing is shared with ODT and EPUB — the engine also checks [Content_Types].xml for WordprocessingML.

Destination file

Markdown

A lightweight plain-text syntax for structured writing that compiles to HTML. The lingua franca of README files, wikis, and note apps.

Markdown stores documents as readable plain text with a small set of punctuation conventions for headings, emphasis, lists, links, and code. GitHub-Flavored Markdown (GFM) adds tables, strikethrough, task lists, and fenced code blocks. Conversion through HTML is a natural fit because Markdown was designed as an HTML shorthand.

Extensions
.md, .markdown, .mdown, .mkd
MIME types
text/markdown, text/x-markdown
Kind
text · utf-8
Category
markup
Standard
Open format · since 2004
Comfortable size
Up to about 3.8 MB in this browser converter
Written from HTML
high fidelity · implemented — HTML is walked into GFM with Turndown.

What this format can hold

  • headings
  • paragraphs
  • lists
  • tables
  • links
  • images
  • inline formatting
  • code blocks
  • blockquotes

Usually dropped on the way out

  • complex css layout
  • nested tables
  • custom classes

Apps that consume Markdown

  • GitHub (GitHub) — creates and opens on Web
  • Obsidian (Dynalist) — creates and opens on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android
  • VS Code (Microsoft) — creates on Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Typora — creates and opens on Windows, macOS, Linux
  • Notion — creates and opens on Web, Windows, macOS
  • Jupyter — creates and opens on Web
  • Discord — opens on Web, Windows, macOS, iOS, Android

Catalog notes

  • Front matter (YAML between --- lines) is preserved as a prefix when converting from Markdown, and ignored when converting to Markdown.
  • Obsidian wikilinks and footnotes have no lossless HTML equivalent yet.
Other conversions

Other conversions from Word: HTMLRTFOpenDocumentPDFEPUB

Other ways to get Markdown: HTMLRTFOpenDocumentPDFEPUB