Markitdown Skill (microsoft/markitdown)

Microsoft's markitdown converts 15+ file formats to Markdown. This skill covers formats not handled by /pdf-reader and /word2md — primarily PPTX, XLSX, EPUB, HTML, and more.

When to Use

• User mentions: "markitdown", "/markitdown", "convert to markdown"
• Need to read PPTX, XLSX, EPUB, IPYNB, ZIP — these are NOT covered by /pdf-reader or /word2md
• Need table-aware PDF extraction (markitdown detects tables, /pdf-reader does not)
• User says "PPTX to markdown", "Excel to markdown", "EPUB to markdown"
• Quick one-shot conversion of any document to Markdown

When NOT to Use (use other skills instead)

Supported Formats

PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, HTML, EPUB, Images (via LLM caption or EXIF), IPYNB, CSV, Plain text, ZIP (processes contents), Audio/Video (transcription via Azure), Outlook MSG, RSS, Wikipedia, YouTube (transcript).

Installation

python -m pip install markitdown 2>&1 | tail -3

Usage

CLI (recommended for single files)

# Convert to stdout
PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 markitdown "<INPUT_FILE>" 2>/dev/null

# Convert and save to file
PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 markitdown "<INPUT_FILE>" -o "<OUTPUT.md>" 2>/dev/null

# Pipe from stdin
PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 markitdown -x pptx < "<INPUT_FILE>" 2>/dev/null

Python API (for batch or programmatic use)

PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 python -c "
from markitdown import MarkItDown
import sys

md = MarkItDown()
result = md.convert(sys.argv[1])
print(result.text_content)
" "<INPUT_FILE>"

Batch conversion (multiple files)

PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 python -c "
from markitdown import MarkItDown
import sys, os, glob

md = MarkItDown()
files = glob.glob(sys.argv[1])
for f in files:
    print(f'--- {os.path.basename(f)} ---')
    result = md.convert(f)
    print(result.text_content[:2000])
    print()
" "<GLOB_PATTERN>"

Examples

PPTX (PowerPoint) to Markdown

PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 markitdown "presentation.pptx" -o "presentation.md" 2>/dev/null

XLSX (Excel) to Markdown

PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 markitdown "spreadsheet.xlsx" 2>/dev/null

EPUB to Markdown

PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 markitdown "book.epub" -o "book.md" 2>/dev/null

HTML to Markdown

PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 markitdown "page.html" 2>/dev/null

PDF with table detection

PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 markitdown "report.pdf" -o "report.md" 2>/dev/null

markitdown uses pdfplumber to detect tables and output pipe-formatted markdown tables. If pdfplumber fails, falls back to pdfminer.

CLI Options

Known Limitations

1. DOCX math bug: OMML→LaTeX escapes underscores (\_{c} instead of _{c}), breaking LaTeX rendering. Use /word2md for DOCX with math.
2. Base64 images: Images embedded as data URIs, truncated by default. Use --keep-data-uris to preserve (output becomes very large). Use /word2md if you need image files extracted.
3. Scanned PDFs: Like all text extractors, cannot handle image-only pages. Needs OCR (paddleocr, tesseract).
4. Audio/Video transcription: Requires Azure Document Intelligence endpoint (-d -e <endpoint>).

Rules

1. Always use PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 — Windows defaults to GBK
2. Always suppress warnings with 2>/dev/null — markitdown's dependency warnings are noisy
3. For DOCX with math formulas — recommend /word2md instead (this skill's OMML converter has bugs)
4. For PDF reading — prefer /pdf-reader for high fidelity; use this skill when you need table detection
5. Check dependencies: Some formats need extras (pip install markitdown[pdf], etc.)