Markdown to Excel, explained
Pull the tables out of a Markdown document into an Excel workbook. Handy for tables from README files, notes or AI chat answers that you want to sort, filter or calculate with.
What is converted, and how
- Tables
- Every Markdown table becomes its own worksheet.
- Sheet names
- Taken from the nearest heading above the table (Excel allows 31 characters); duplicates get a number.
- Header row
- Bold on a blue fill, frozen, with filters switched on.
- Numbers
- Plain numbers such as
42or-3.5become real numbers you can calculate with. - Everything else
- Stays text, including formatting inside cells, which becomes plain text.
- No tables?
- Each paragraph goes on its own row in column A.
Limitations
- Text that looks like a formula, such as
=SUM(A1:A3), is stored as text and never as a formula. That is deliberate: a document should not be able to slip formulas into your spreadsheet. - Numbers with thousands separators, currency signs or percent signs (
1,000,€5,50%) and dates stay text. Excel's Data → Text to Columns converts them in one step. - Column widths are estimated from the longest value.
Tips
- Put a short heading right above each table to get meaningful sheet names.
- Use a dot as the decimal separator in the Markdown; the spreadsheet shows numbers in your own locale.
- Not sure about the syntax? See the Markdown cheat sheet.
Other formats
- Markdown to PDFA4, clean typography, syntax-highlighted code.
- Markdown to WordHeadings map to Word heading styles, so the navigation pane works.
- Markdown to PowerPointEvery heading starts a new slide.
- Markdown to ODTOpenDocument Text for LibreOffice Writer, with real heading styles.
- Markdown to RTFOpens almost everywhere, including WordPad and TextEdit.
- Markdown to EPUBTop-level headings become chapters.
- Markdown to HTMLSingle standalone page with styles inlined.
- Markdown to LaTeXStandalone .tex, ready for pdfLaTeX, XeLaTeX or Overleaf.
- Markdown to Plain textMarkdown syntax removed, structure kept readable.