Writage: Markdown to Word document conversion in one click
We live in a digital era, and the necessity of sharing information with others is becoming more and more evident. Using Markdown markup language for text documents helps us in numerous ways. For example, it allows us to work together with people who use different operating systems on their computers and have their own preferred text editors.
However, Microsoft Word is still a hugely popular text editor used by millions of people worldwide and remains the main collaborative tool for a large number of companies and organisations.
So how to convert Markdown files to Microsoft Word documents to share them with your teammates who use Microsoft Word? And how to convert DOCX documents back to Markdown format so you can continue to work on them in your favourite editor?
The answer is Writage. Writage is a smart plugin for Microsoft Word for seamless conversion between DOCX and Markdown formats. It is pretty invisible, and when installed, it opens Markdown files in a human-readable way in Microsoft Word without any markup symbols.
When you use Writage, you may not even notice that you are using something except Microsoft Word. Writage is integrated into Microsoft Word and uses standard elements of its interface, so you will know how to use the plugin straight away.
The very first step is to open a Markdown file in Microsoft Word.
If you are a Windows user, find the file on your computer and double-click on it, or choose a file through the standard «File/Open» dialogue in Microsoft Word or click on the «Open Markdown» button on the Writage tab.
For macOS users, opening Markdown files is slightly different. You need to use the ‘Open Markdown’ button located on the Writage tab.
The file will be opened as any other document in Microsoft Word, and you will see just the text, not the marking symbols or tags.
Some might point out that it is possible to read raw Markdown code, but if you are working on a large document with a number of hyperlinks or images, it may be distracting.
If you receive a Markdown file from your colleague or prefer to initially write your content in any other editor, you can easily convert it into a Microsoft Word format and finish your work there.
To convert an MD file to a DOCX document, follow these steps after opening the Markdown file: click on the “File/Save as” command in MS Word and select the “Word document (.docx)” format from the list.
Using Writage, you can also convert your Word documents to Markdown files. To perform the conversion, open the DOCX file and follow these steps:
- Windows: Click on the “File/Save as” command and select the “Markdown” format from the list of available formats or click on the “Save as Markdown” button on the Writage ribbon
- macOS: Click on the “Save as Markdown” button on the Writage ribbon.
What is more, Writage allows you to open Markdown files in Microsoft Word directly, which means you can use Microsoft Word as a Markdown editor.
Most of the supported Markdown styles are available through the Writage tab on the MS Word ribbon. So all you need is to apply a style to selected text or insert an image or a table — like you usually do when writing documents.
There are some objections that Microsoft Word does not fully match the idea of using a minimalist writing editor to concentrate on the content rather than how the document looks. But Microsoft Word is a really great tool when you need to create a document in a corporate style or meet a publishing agency’s or an ebook platform’s requirements.
Whether you need to convert your Microsoft Word documents to Markdown or do the opposite conversion from Markdown to DOCX files, you can easily do both with the Writage plugin.
