What gets converted
The converter reads your Markdown the way a Markdown parser does (it uses the marked library, with GitHub Flavored Markdown on) and writes each piece as its Word equivalent. Here is exactly what happens to each element.
| Markdown | In the Word document |
|---|---|
# to ###### headings |
Word's built-in Heading 1 to Heading 6 styles |
| Paragraphs | Normal paragraphs |
**bold**, *italic*, ~~strike~~ |
Bold, italic and strikethrough |
Inline code |
Monospace text (Consolas) on a light grey background |
| Links | Clickable hyperlinks (web and mailto links) |
| Bulleted and numbered lists | Word lists, nested up to nine levels; numbered lists keep their starting number |
Task lists - [x] |
List items starting with a ☒ or ☐ character |
| Blockquotes | Indented paragraphs with a grey bar on the left |
| Pipe tables | Word tables with borders, a bold shaded header row, and left, center or right alignment |
| Fenced code blocks | A monospace Code Block paragraph style with a grey background, line breaks kept. No syntax colors. |
--- horizontal rules |
A horizontal line |
Images written as data: URIs |
Embedded in the document (PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP), scaled to fit the page |
| Images by URL | Not downloaded. The alt text appears as [Image: alt text] so you can insert the picture yourself. |
| Raw HTML in the Markdown | Tags are removed and their text is kept |
Images by URL are skipped on purpose: fetching them would mean your browser contacting other sites while it converts, and this tool makes no network requests with your content.
Why not just paste Markdown into Word?
Word doesn't read Markdown. Pasting it gives you the raw syntax: pound signs, asterisks and pipes. Opening the .md file in Word does the same. Converting first gives you a document that uses Word's own styles, so you can restyle every heading at once, build a table of contents, or hand it to someone who has never seen Markdown.
Going the other way
If you have a Word document and want Markdown, use the Word to Markdown converter. For Google Docs, copy the doc as rich text and paste it here.
Common problems and fixes
Pictures are missing
Images that point to a web address are not downloaded, so the document shows [Image: alt text] in their place. Insert the pictures in Word with Insert > Pictures. If you generate the Markdown yourself, writing images as data: URIs embeds them in the .docx automatically.
The table columns are all the same width
Tables are laid out across the page with equal columns, because Markdown says nothing about widths. In Word, click inside the table and choose Layout > AutoFit > AutoFit Contents, then AutoFit Window if it gets too narrow.
I want a different font or heading style
The document uses Calibri and Word's own Normal and Heading styles. Change them once in the Styles pane (right-click a style, then Modify) and every paragraph using that style updates, which is the advantage of real styles over hand-formatted text.
The first lines are settings, not content
Front matter at the top of a Markdown file (the title: and date: lines between two --- lines) isn't recognized, so it ends up in the document as a line and a heading. Delete it from the left panel before downloading.
Lines I typed separately are joined
A single line break inside a paragraph is treated as a space, as in any Markdown renderer. Leave a blank line between paragraphs, or end a line with two spaces to keep a line break.
Other ways to convert Markdown to Word
- Pandoc.
pandoc notes.md -o notes.docxconverts from the command line, and--reference-doc=template.docxmakes it use your own fonts and styles. It is the better choice for batches, footnotes and citations. - Google Docs. Upload the .md file to Google Drive and open it with Google Docs, then choose File > Download > Microsoft Word (.docx).
- Word add-ins. Desktop Word opens an .md file as plain text. Third-party add-ins such as Writage add Markdown open and save to Word on Windows.
This page suits a single document that you want as a .docx in a few seconds, with nothing to install and nothing uploaded.