Convert Markdown to Word
Paste Markdown, get a real .docx that opens in Word, Pages,
LibreOffice and Google Docs. The conversion happens in this tab, nothing is
uploaded, and there is no account or watermark.
Preview
Converted in this tab. The file is never uploaded.
How it works
Your markdown is parsed in the page, then written out as Office Open XML: the zipped bundle of XML parts that .docx actually is. Headings
become Word heading styles, lists become Word lists, and tables become Word
tables, so the document behaves like one you typed in Word yourself.
Earlier versions of this tool produced an HTML file named .doc,
a trick Word tolerates. Pages on macOS refuses those outright, so the tool
now builds the real format instead.
What to expect
- Headings map to Word heading styles, so the navigation pane works
- Tables arrive as real tables with borders you can edit
- Lists stay ordered, unordered and nested
- Code blocks keep a monospace font on a shaded background
- Links stay clickable, with the URL spelled out for printing
- Task list boxes survive as ☐ and ☒ characters
What Word does with each element
The interesting cases are the ones where Word has no equivalent and something has to be decided:
| In the Markdown | In the Word document |
|---|---|
# to ###### | Heading 1-6 styles, so the navigation pane and any generated contents page work |
| Tables | Real Word tables with a header row and editable borders |
| Fenced code blocks | A monospace paragraph on a shaded background; syntax coloring is not carried over |
Inline code | Monospace run inside the sentence |
| Links | Clickable, with the URL also written out so a printed copy is still usable |
| Images by URL | Left as the link: Word would have to fetch it, and nothing here fetches anything |
Embedded images (data:) | Placed in the document as real pictures |
| Task lists | ☒ and ☐ characters, not Word content controls, so they print correctly but are not clickable |
| Blockquotes | An indented paragraph with a left rule |
| Horizontal rules | A bottom border on an empty paragraph, which is how Word draws one |
| Footnotes | A numbered list at the end, not Word footnote fields |
| Raw HTML in the source | Rendered first, then converted, so a <u> underlines |
Tables, code and images: the three worth knowing about
Tables come through as real Word tables, which means you can widen columns and add rows in Word afterwards. What Markdown cannot express (merged cells, a cell containing several paragraphs, column widths) is not lost in the conversion so much as never present in the source. If the destination is Word and the table is complicated, build it in Word.
Code blocks keep their monospace font and their shading but not their colors. Word has no concept of a code block, so the highlighting that this site's preview shows you is a property of the preview rather than of the document. For a printed document that is usually an improvement; for a code-heavy one, PDF keeps the colors.
Images depend on how they got into the Markdown. One
written as  stays a link, because embedding it
would mean this page fetching a remote file and it does not make network
requests. One pasted into the editor is already inside the
document as data, and lands in the Word file as a real picture. If you
want pictures in the .docx, paste them into the editor first.
Fonts, and why the file names the ones it does
Every font a .docx names has to exist on the machine that
opens it, and there is no fallback list. Calibri and Consolas are
Microsoft fonts, so a Mac without Office shows a missing-font dialog
before the reader has seen a word. The export names Arial and Courier New
instead: plainer, and present everywhere.
Headings use this site's ink color rather than Word's theme blue, so the document looks like the preview it came from. All of it is ordinary Word styling, so if you would rather have your own house style, applying it in Word after opening the file takes one click per style.
Common questions
- How do I convert Markdown to Word?
- Paste the markdown on the left, check the preview on the right, then download. The file opens directly in Word, LibreOffice Writer and Pages.
- Is the output a real Word file?
- Yes, a genuine Office Open XML .docx, the same format Word itself saves. Word, Pages, LibreOffice Writer and Google Docs all open it, and every heading, list and table arrives as a real Word construct you can keep editing.
- Will headings become real Word headings?
- Yes. Each markdown heading is written as the matching built-in Word style, Heading 1 through Heading 6, so the navigation pane, outline view and automatic tables of contents all work.
- Is my markdown uploaded?
- No. The document is rendered and packaged by JavaScript in this tab, and the download is generated locally from that result. Nothing is transmitted.
- What about tables, code blocks and images?
- Tables become real Word tables with borders and header shading. Code blocks keep a monospace font on a shaded background, without syntax coloring. Images embedded as data URIs are packaged into the file; images that live at a URL are left as their alt text, because fetching them would mean a request to someone else’s server.
Sources
- Microsoft Learn: structure of a WordprocessingML documentwhat a real .docx contains