How to Convert HTML to Markdown
Converting HTML to Markdown is essential when migrating content from a CMS to a static site generator, extracting content from web pages for documentation, or converting rich text editor output to version-controllable Markdown files.
- Transform HTML pages into clean Markdown.
- What Converts Cleanly.
- What Doesn't Convert.
- Covers using the html to markdown tool.
- Covers bulk content migration tips.
What Converts Cleanly
Standard HTML elements map directly to Markdown: <h1>–<h6> become # headings, <strong> becomes **bold**, <em> becomes *italic*, <a href> becomes [text](url), <img> becomes , <ul> and <ol> become - or 1. lists, <blockquote> becomes > quotes, <code> becomes backticks, and <pre> becomes fenced code blocks.
What Doesn't Convert
Custom classes, inline styles, and layout divs have no Markdown equivalent — they're stripped. Tables with colspan/rowspan simplify to basic Markdown tables. Embedded scripts and iframes are removed. Complex nested HTML may produce imperfect output that needs manual cleanup. The HTML to Markdown tool handles the structural conversion; you review the output for edge cases.
Using the HTML to Markdown Tool
Paste any HTML — from a full web page to a single paragraph — and get clean Markdown output. The tool preserves document structure (headings, lists, links, images) while stripping presentation markup (classes, styles, divs). Copy the Markdown output for use in GitHub READMEs, documentation sites, or static site generators.
background-size animation or @property registered custom properties instead.Bulk Content Migration Tips
When migrating a CMS (WordPress, Drupal) to a static site: export content as HTML, run each page through the converter, review and fix the Markdown output, then save as .md files. For large migrations, use a programmatic converter like Turndown (JavaScript) or html2text (Python) in a build script. The HTML to Markdown tool is ideal for one-off pages and spot-checking conversion quality.