How-to

Word to Markdown, and back again: a simple method

Updated 18 October 2026 · 6 min read

Markdown is plain text with a few symbols for structure: a # for a heading, ** around bold words, a dash for a bullet. People like it because it is light, readable anywhere and friendly to tools such as note apps and code repositories. Word documents, on the other hand, are what everyone else sends you.

So sooner or later you need to move text from one world to the other. Here is a simple way to do it in your browser, in both directions, without uploading the document anywhere.

Word to Markdown

1. On the Wrdio home page, drop in your .docx and press Edit.
2. On a computer, open File, then Export, and pick Markdown (*.md).
3. Your browser downloads the file. Open it in any text editor to check it.

The export is only available on a computer. On a phone, the File menu offers DOCX and PDF.

What usually carries over

Plain structure translates well, but always open the result and look.

• Headings become lines that start with #.
• Bold and italic text get their usual markers.
• Bullet and numbered lists stay lists.
• Links keep their address.

What needs a check

• Tables. Simple grids often convert. Merged cells and nested tables may not.
• Pictures. Markdown links to images instead of holding them, so do not expect them to be inside the file.
• Fancy layout. Columns, text boxes, headers, footers and page numbers do not exist in Markdown, so they are dropped or flattened.
• Colours and fonts. Markdown does not store them.

Markdown to Word

1. Open the editor from the home page (press New document, then Edit if the editor is not already open).
2. Drag your .md file onto the editor page.
3. Look at the result. A # Title line arrives as a real heading, **bold** as bold text, and a dashed list as a bulleted list.
4. Tidy anything you like, then use File, Export, Word document (*.docx).

Because the headings become real heading styles, the document works with navigation panes and tables of contents straight away. That is the main advantage over pasting plain text.

# Meeting notes

Agreed **three** things:

- Ship on Friday
- Update the docs
- Book the review

Tips for a clean conversion

• Use one heading level per idea. Do not skip from level one to level four. It keeps the Word version tidy.
• Leave a blank line between paragraphs and before lists in Markdown. It stops lines running together.
• Keep images in a folder next to the file if your notes app uses links.
• Read it once before you send a converted file. Five minutes of checking beats a confused reader.

When a command line is a better choice

If you convert dozens of files, or you want to script it, a free tool called Pandoc does the same job from the terminal: pandoc report.docx -o report.md goes one way, and swapping the names goes the other. For one or two files, a browser is quicker.

Want the PDF instead? See how to save a Word document as a PDF without breaking it, or read about the editor in our online DOCX editor guide.