Convert files and office documents to Markdown. Supports PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, images (with OCR), audio (with transcription), HTML, CSV, JSON, XML, ZIP, YouTube URLs, EPubs and more.

MarkItDown File to Markdown Conversion Overview MarkItDown is a Python tool developed by Microsoft for converting various file formats to Markdown. It's particularly useful for converting documents into LLM friendly text format, as Markdown is token efficient and well understood by modern language models. Key Benefits : Convert documents to clean, structured Markdown Token efficient format for LLM processing Supports 15+ file formats Optional AI enhanced image descriptions OCR for images and scanned documents Speech transcription for audio files Visual Enhancement with Scientific Schematics When creating documents with this skill, always consider adding scientific diagrams and schematics to enhance visual communication. If your document does not already contain schematics or diagrams: Use the scientific schematics skill to generate AI powered publication quality diagrams Simply describe your desired diagram in natural language Nano Banana Pro will automatically generate, review, and refine the schematic For new documents: Scientific schematics should be generated by default to visually represent key concepts, workflows, architectures, or relationships described in the text. How to generate schematics: The AI will automatically: Create publication quality images with proper formatting Review and refine through multiple iterations Ensure accessibility (colorblind friendly, high contrast) Save outputs in the figures/ directory When to add schematics: Document conversion workflow diagrams File format architecture illustrations OCR processing pipeline diagrams Integration workflow visualizations System architecture diagrams Data flow diagrams Any complex concept that benefits from visualization For detailed guidance on creating schematics, refer to the scientific schematics skill documentation. Supported Formats Format Description Notes PDF Portable Document Format Full text extraction DOCX Microsoft Word Tables, formatting preserved PPTX PowerPoint Slides with notes XLSX Excel spreadsheets Tables and data Images JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP EXIF metadata + OCR Audio WAV, MP3 Metadata + transcription HTML Web pages Clean conversion CSV Comma separated values Table format JSON JSON data Structured representation XML XML documents Structured format ZIP Archive files Iterates contents EPUB E books Full text extraction YouTube Video URLs Fetch transcriptions Quick Start Installation Command Line Usage Python API Advanced Features 1. AI Enhanced Image Descriptions Use LLMs via OpenRouter to generate detailed image descriptions (for PPTX and image files): 2. Azure Document Intelligence For enhanced PDF conversion with Microsoft Document Intelligence: 3. Plugin System MarkItDown supports 3rd party plugins for extending functionality: Find plugins on GitHub with hashtag: markitdown plugin Optional Dependencies Control which file formats you support: Common Use Cases 1. Convert Scientific Papers to Markdown 2. Extract Data from Excel for Analysis 3. Process Multiple Documents 4. Convert PowerPoint with AI Descriptions 5. Batch Convert with Different Formats 6. Extract YouTube Video Transcription Docker Usage Best Practices 1. Choose the Right Conversion Method Simple documents : Use basic MarkItDown() Complex PDFs : Use Azure Document Intelligence Visual content : Enable AI image descriptions Scanned documents : Ensure OCR dependencies are installed 2. Handle Errors Gracefully 3. Process Large Files Efficiently 4. Optimize for Token Efficiency Markdown output is already token efficient, but you can: Remove excessive whitespace Consolidate similar sections Strip metadata if not needed Integration with Scientific Workflows Convert Literature for Review Extract Tables for Analysis Troubleshooting Common Issues 1. Missing dependencies : Install feature specific packages 2. Binary file errors : Ensure files are opened in binary mode 3. OCR not working : Install tesseract Performance Considerations PDF files : Large PDFs may take time; consider page ranges if supported Image OCR : OCR processing is CPU intensive Audio transcription : Requires additional compute resources AI image descriptions : Requires API calls (costs may apply) Next Steps See references/api reference.md for complete API documentation Check references/file formats.md for format specific details Review scripts/batch convert.py for automation examples Explore scripts/convert with ai.py for AI enhanced conversions Resources MarkItDown GitHub : https://github.com/microsoft/markitdown PyPI : https://pypi.org/project/markitdown/ OpenRouter : https://openrouter.ai (for AI enhanced conversions) OpenRouter API Keys : https://openrouter.ai/keys OpenRouter Models : https://openrouter.ai/models MCP Server : markitdown mcp (for Claude Desktop integration) Plugin Development : See packages/markitdown sample plugin