What Markdown is
Markdown is plain text with a few symbols for formatting: # for a heading, **two stars** for bold, a dash for a list item. It reads cleanly as text and turns into HTML for the web. GitHub, Notion, Obsidian, Slack, Reddit, most static site generators and most AI chat tools use it.
This converter reads and writes GitHub-flavored Markdown (GFM), the most widely supported version. It adds tables, task lists, strikethrough, footnotes and fenced code blocks to the original syntax. It also shows GitHub's alerts ([!NOTE], [!TIP], [!IMPORTANT], [!WARNING], [!CAUTION]), :emoji: codes and heading links the way GitHub does.
Formatted text to Markdown
When you copy from Google Docs, Word or a web page, the clipboard carries HTML. The converter reads it and keeps the structure: headings, bold, italic, strikethrough, links, images, lists, quotes, code and tables. Fonts, colours and sizes are left out, because Markdown has no way to write them.
Google Docs marks bold and italic with styles instead of tags, and puts nested lists beside their parent item. Word lists arrive as paragraphs with typed bullets. The converter fixes each of these, so nested lists and bold text come through as you see them.
Markdown to formatted text
Paste or type Markdown on the right and the left side shows it formatted. Copy formatted text puts both rich text and plain text on the clipboard, so it pastes with its formatting into Google Docs, Word, Gmail, Outlook and most CMS editors, and as plain text anywhere else.
Raw HTML in your Markdown is kept when it is safe, such as <kbd> or <details>. Scripts, event handlers and javascript: links are removed before anything is shown.
Markdown cheat sheet
Headings: # Heading 1, ## Heading 2, ### Heading 3. Bold: **text** or __text__. Italic: *text* or _text_. Strikethrough: ~~text~~. Link: [text](url). Image: .
Lists: start a line with -, * or + for bullets, or 1. for numbers; indent two spaces to nest. Task list: - [ ] to do, - [x] done. Quote: > text. Inline code: `code`. Code block: three backticks on the lines above and below. Table: | A | B | then | - | - | under the header. Horizontal rule: ---. Footnote: text[^1], then [^1]: the note on its own line. Alert: > [!NOTE] on the first line of a quote. Emoji: :tada:. Line break: a backslash at the end of the line.