Free Ruby Library to Convert Microsoft Word to Markdown
Open Source Ruby Gem That Empowers Software Developers to Read and Convert Microsoft Word Documents (DOCX or DOC) into Clean, Human Readable Markdown File.
What is Word to Markdown?
When it comes to creating content and building websites, how you structure your text is crucial. Although Microsoft Word is widely used for creating documents, Markdown has emerged as the go-to format for web writing. Its simple formatting, compatibility with version control, and ability to work across different platforms have made it a top choice for writers, developers, and publishers. But what do you do when you have a bunch of Word documents that you want to include on your blog, in your guides, or on your site? The manual process of converting them can be a tedious and error-prone nightmare. This is where the Word-to-Markdown library, an open-source gem by Ben Balter, comes to the rescue.
Word to Markdown is a powerful tool automates the conversion of .docx files into clean, readable Markdown, saving you countless hours of manual formatting. At its core, it is s a Ruby gem that intelligently converts Microsoft Word documents into Markdown. It's not just a simple text extractor; it's a sophisticated tool that understands the underlying structure of a Word document and translates it into the corresponding Markdown syntax. This means that headings, lists, bold and italic text, and even more complex elements like images and tables are preserved during the conversion process. The main features includes:
- CLI tool for batch or single file conversion
- Browser based client version
- Minimal dependencies and fast runtime
- Designed to produce readable Markdown with headings, lists, links, images, even footnotes
Getting Started with Word to Markdown
The recommend way to install Word to Markdown is using RubyGems. Please use the following command for a smooth installation.
Install Word to Markdown via RubyGems
gem install word-to-markdown Convert Word Docx to Markdown via Ruby
The Word-to-Markdown library boasts an impressive list of supported conversions, making it a versatile tool for a wide range of use cases. The gem parses .docx files (Office Open XML format) and older .doc files, extracting text, headings, lists, links, tables, images, and more. The library seamlessly converts basic text formatting, ensuring that your content's emphasis and structure remain intact. Standard paragraphs are converted with the correct spacing as well as text formatted as bold or italic in Word will be converted to the corresponding Markdown syntax with ease. The following example demonstrates, how software developers can convert Word documents with basic text formatting using Ruby library.
How to Convert Word Docx to Markdown with Basic Formating via Ruby?
require 'word-to-markdown'
# Create a new WordToMarkdown object with the path to your .docx file
w2m = WordToMarkdown.new("path/to/your/document.docx")
# Convert the document to Markdown
markdown_output = w2m.to_s
# Print the output
puts markdown_output
Image & Links Extraction via Ruby
Images are often a pain point in content migration, but Word-to-Markdown library handles them with ease. The library has included complete support for extracting images, tables and links from Microsoft Word documents inside Ruby applications. The library extracts the images from the Word document and automatically generates the Markdown image syntax (). The following example demonstrates how software developers can extracts images to the images/ directory and embeds Markdown image links in the output using Ruby API.
How to Handle Images in Word Documents Automatically via Ruby?
options = { extract_images: true, image_output_dir: "images" }
md_with_images = WordToMarkdown.convert("report.docx", **options)
puts md_with_images
Extract Tables & Hyperlinks from Word File via Ruby
Tables are another complex element that can be difficult to convert manually. The open source Word-to-Markdown library does an excellent job of converting Word tables into Markdown's pipe-based table syntax with just a couple lines of code. All hyperlinks in the original Word document are preserved and converted to the correct Markdown link syntax ([link text](url)).