OmniDocConvert Markdown to Plain Text or Formatted Text
Learn how to convert Markdown to plain text or formatted text you can paste into another app, and when to convert to Word instead.
If you have ever pasted a README or a chat draft into an email and found pound signs, asterisks, and brackets sitting in the middle of your sentences, you have met raw Markdown. The file reads fine as written, but the symbols that tell a renderer to make a heading or bold a word are just noise in most other apps. A markdown to text converter removes those symbols so the words land cleanly. If you want the styles to survive, you need formatted text instead.
This guide is for writers, students, and team members who need the content of a Markdown file somewhere else, such as an email, a form, a word processor, or a ticket. You will decide whether you need plain text or formatted text, prepare the file, convert it, and check the result for the parts that usually break. If the real goal is a Word file, the steps below are not the right path, and we cover that case later.
Which output do you need: plain text or formatted text? The short answer
Use plain text when the destination shows every character literally, and use formatted text when it keeps headings, bold, and lists. If someone needs a .docx file, convert to Word rather than copying text.
| Your situation | What to do | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pasting into a plain text field, a form, or a commit message | Strip all Markdown symbols and keep line breaks | These fields show every character, so leftover asterisks and hashes stay visible |
| Pasting into an email or a word processor | Render the Markdown first, then copy the rendered output | The destination keeps headings, bold text, and lists, so the symbols are not needed |
| Sending a file that must look like a document | Convert to .docx instead of copying text | Copying loses page setup and styles, while a file keeps them |
| A long file with tables and code blocks | Convert in sections and check tables and code separately | Tables and code are the parts that often break when symbols are removed |
Before you start
- Decide where the text is going. The destination decides whether you need symbols removed or styles kept. A plain text field and a word processor need different outputs from the same file.
- Make a copy of the original file. Stripping symbols is hard to undo by hand, and the original keeps your link addresses and heading levels for later edits.
- Scan the file for tables, code blocks, and images. These have no direct plain text equivalent. Tables need a new layout, code keeps its literal characters, and image links usually reduce to their alt text.
- Look for a front matter block. This is the group of lines between two lines of three dashes at the top of some files. It holds metadata, so you usually leave it out of the text you paste.
- Choose an editor that shows the raw source. You need to see the symbols to remove them. The UniDoc web editor at app.unidoc.top supports Markdown, and the OmniDoc desktop client is available at download.omnidoc.top if you prefer to work on your computer.
Step by step: using a markdown to text converter
Work through these steps on your copy. Many text editors can run find-and-replace with regular expressions, which handles repeated patterns in one pass. Test each pattern on a few lines before you run it on the whole file.
- Open the copy and read the structure. Scroll through once to note headings, lists, links, tables, and code blocks so you know what to expect in the output.
- Remove heading markers. Delete the leading hash characters and the space after them. Keep the heading text on its own line with a blank line above it, so it still reads as a separate section.
- Unwrap emphasis. Remove the paired asterisks or underscores around bold and italic words. Keep the words inside, since they carry the meaning.
- Turn links into text. Replace each link with its label alone. If readers need the address, add it in parentheses after the label, copied from the source.
- Flatten lists. Remove the leading hyphen, asterisk, or number at the start of each item, and keep one item per line. If the order matters, type the numbers back in as plain text.
- Handle code and tables. Keep code text as written, without the fence lines. For tables, replace the pipe characters with tabs or rewrite each row as a short line of labeled values.
- Clean up images and HTML. Delete image syntax and HTML tags you do not need. Keep alt text when it describes something the reader needs to know.
Getting formatted text instead
For formatted text, you skip most of the symbol removal and let a rendered view do the work. Open the Markdown in an editor or preview that displays it as headings and bold text, select the rendered content, and copy it into your destination.
Paste with formatting kept, and then check the result. If the paste brings back raw symbols, paste as plain text and reapply headings and bold in the destination, which is usually a quick job for a short document.
Check the result
Once you have the output, compare it with the source. These checks catch the problems that show up most often.
| Check | How to see it | If it's wrong |
|---|---|---|
| No stray symbols | Search the pasted text for #, *, _, brackets, and backticks | Repeat the matching step for that symbol, or remove the leftovers by hand |
| Headings still stand apart | Look for a blank line before each former heading | Add a line break above the heading |
| Lists match the source | Compare the first and last items with the original | Retype the numbers or markers in the destination |
| Links point to the right places | Check each label against the source address | Paste the address after the label |
| Tables and code are intact | Compare row counts and code text with the original | Rebuild the table in the destination and paste code in a monospace block |
Conversion can miss things, so read the final text against the source before you send it, especially for technical terms and numbers.
❓ FAQ
1. Will removing Markdown symbols change the meaning?
Not if you only remove formatting markers and keep the words. The risk is in tables and code, where a missing pipe or indent can shift content. Compare those sections with the source.
2. Can I keep bold and headings when I paste?
Yes, if the destination accepts formatted text. Copy from a rendered view rather than the raw file, and if the styles do not carry over, reapply them after pasting.
3. Why do pasted tables fall apart?
Tables depend on the pipe characters and alignment rows that plain text does not keep. Rebuild the table in the destination, or write each row as labeled values.
4. How do I get a Word file from a Markdown document?
Convert to .docx rather than copying text, because a Word file keeps page setup and styles. For the steps, see our Markdown-to-Word articles on the OmniDoc blog.
📝 Summary
A markdown to text converter works by removing formatting symbols while keeping the words, and formatted text works by copying the rendered view. Choose plain text for fields that show every character, formatted text for documents that keep styles, and a Word file when the layout has to travel with the document.
