OneClick Markdown Converter - VS Code Extension

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A powerful VS Code extension for converting various document formats to Markdown and text formats with just one click.

🚀 Features

Supported Document Types

• Word Documents (.docx, .doc) → Markdown
• Markdown Files (.md, .markdown) → Word Documents (.docx) ⭐ NEW in v0.4.0
• Excel Spreadsheets (.xlsx, .xls, .csv) → Markdown Tables
• Excel Spreadsheets (.xlsx, .xls) → CSV Files
• PDF Documents (.pdf) → Text Files
• PDF Documents (.pdf) → PNG Images (requires poppler-utils)
• PowerPoint Presentations (.pptx, .ppt) → Markdown

🆕 v0.4.x Highlights

• 📝 Markdown to Word Conversion - Convert Markdown files to professional Word documents with full formatting support
• 📋 Better Lists in Word (v0.4.1) - Bullet lists with "*" now render as real symbol lists with proper indent; nested items look clean and structured
• 📋 HTML List Support - Complete support for HTML lists in table cells with proper Word formatting
• 🔥 Multi-File Selection - Select multiple files in VS Code Explorer and convert them all to Markdown at once
• 🎛️ Configurable Info Blocks - Choose what information to include in converted Markdown:
  • File title headers and source notices
  • File metadata (size, modification date, creation date)
  • Document-specific metadata (author, sheet count, slide count)
  • Conversion warnings and content headings
  • Section separators and custom formatting
• ** PDF Page Range Export** - Extract specific pages as text or images
• 📊 Excel Worksheet Range Export - Export selected worksheets to Markdown/CSV
• 🎨 PowerPoint Slide Range Export - Convert specific slides to Markdown
• � Mixed File Type Support - Process Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files in a single operation
• 💾 Preference Persistence - Remember your info block choices for future conversions
• 📊 Smart Progress Reporting - Real-time conversion progress with detailed status updates

Core Features

• ✅ Context Menu Integration - Convert directly from file explorer
• ✅ Command Palette Support - Access via Cmd+Shift+P
• ✅ Multi-Select Conversion - Convert multiple files at once with customizable output
• ✅ Batch Conversion - Select folders for bulk processing
• ✅ Range Selection - Choose specific pages, worksheets, or slides to convert
• ✅ Smart Text Processing - Automatically optimize conversion quality
• ✅ Progress Indicators - Real-time conversion progress display
• ✅ Error Handling - Comprehensive error messages and handling
• ✅ Multi-language Support - Automatic language switching between English and Chinese
• ✅ Performance Optimized - Efficient processing of large documents

📦 Installation

From VS Code Marketplace (Recommended)

1. Open VS Code Extensions Marketplace (Ctrl+Shift+X or Cmd+Shift+X)
2. Search for "Document Converter" or "hddevteam"
3. Click Install

Direct Link

Visit the VS Code Marketplace and click Install.

Manual Installation (For Development)

# Clone the project
git clone https://github.com/hddevteam/vscode-md-converter.git
cd vscode-md-converter

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Compile extension
npm run compile

# Press F5 in VS Code for debugging

🎯 Usage

Single File Conversion

1. Context Menu: Right-click on document files in file explorer and select appropriate conversion option
2. Command Palette:
   • Press Cmd+Shift+P (macOS) or Ctrl+Shift+P (Windows/Linux)
   • Type conversion commands (e.g., "Convert Word to Markdown")

Batch Conversion

1. Right-click on a folder containing documents
2. Select "Batch Convert Documents"
3. Follow prompts to select conversion types and options

Available Commands (v0.4.0)

• Convert Word to Markdown - Convert Word documents to Markdown
• Convert Markdown to Word - Convert Markdown files to Word documents (.docx)
• Convert Excel to Markdown - Convert Excel files to Markdown tables
• Convert Excel to CSV - Convert Excel files to CSV format
• Convert PDF to Text - Convert PDF to text files
• Convert PDF to Images - Convert PDF pages to PNG images (requires poppler-utils)
• Convert PowerPoint to Markdown - Convert PowerPoint presentations to Markdown
• Extract Word Tables to CSV - Extract tables from Word documents to CSV format
• Extract PDF Tables to CSV - Extract tables from PDF documents to CSV format
• Export Specified PDF Pages to Text - Convert selected PDF pages to text
• Export Specified PDF Pages to Images - Convert selected PDF pages to images
• Export Selected Excel Worksheets to Markdown - Convert chosen worksheets to Markdown
• Export Selected Excel Worksheets to CSV - Convert chosen worksheets to CSV
• Export PowerPoint Slides to Markdown - Convert selected slides to Markdown
• Convert Selected to Markdown - Convert multiple selected files to Markdown with customizable info blocks
• Batch Convert Documents - Batch convert documents
• Open Document Converter - Open converter interface

🔧 Conversion Features

Markdown Document Conversion ⭐ NEW (v0.4.0)

• Comprehensive Markdown Support:
  • All heading levels (H1-H6)
  • Text formatting (bold, italic, strikethrough)
  • Inline code and code blocks with syntax highlighting
  • Ordered and unordered lists with nesting
  • Tables with alignment support
  • Blockquotes and horizontal rules
  • Links and images
• Professional Output:
  • Clean Word document (.docx) structure
  • Proper formatting preservation
  • Unicode and multilingual support
  • Efficient file size optimization
• Performance Optimized:
  • Fast conversion (typically < 50ms per document)
  • Efficient handling of large documents
  • Streaming output for memory efficiency
• Quality Features:
  • Preserves document structure and hierarchy
  • Maintains text formatting across all elements
  • Handles edge cases and complex nested structures
  • Consistent output across platforms

How to use:

1. Right-click on a .md or .markdown file in VS Code Explorer
2. Select "Convert Markdown to Word" from context menu
3. Or use Command Palette: Cmd+Shift+P → "Convert Markdown to Word"
4. Output Word document will be created in the same directory

Word Document Conversion

• Preserve text formatting (bold, italic, etc.)
• Convert heading levels
• Handle lists and tables
• Support .docx and .doc formats
• Smart timeout handling (prevents .doc file freezing)

Excel Spreadsheet Conversion

• To Markdown: Convert to Markdown table format
• To CSV: Convert to CSV format with configurable options
  • Choose separate files (one per worksheet) or combined file
  • Configurable encoding (UTF-8 or GBK for Chinese Excel compatibility)
  • Configurable delimiter (comma, semicolon, or tab)
  • Optional metadata comments
• Preserve cell data types
• Handle multiple worksheets
• Support .xlsx, .xls, .csv formats
• Automatic data formatting

PDF Document Conversion

Text Extraction

• Advanced Text Processing Algorithms:
  • Smart space correction
  • Word boundary detection
  • Punctuation formatting
  • Hyphenated word reconstruction
• Text Quality Optimization:
  • Remove extra whitespace
  • Fix common spacing issues
  • Protect URL and email formats
  • Sentence structure optimization
• Output Enhancement:
  • Add document metadata
  • Organize content by paragraphs
  • Markdown format output

Image Conversion (New Feature)

• PDF to Images: Convert PDF pages to high-quality PNG images
• Tool Requirement: Requires poppler-utils installation
• Standard Settings: 300 DPI resolution for optimal quality
• Batch Processing: Convert multiple PDFs with progress tracking
• Cross-Platform: Automatic tool detection with installation guidance
• Organized Output: Creates structured folder hierarchy for images
• One-Click Setup: Simple installation guidance for missing tools

Installation Guide for poppler-utils:

• macOS: brew install poppler
• Windows: Download portable version or use package manager
• Linux: sudo apt-get install poppler-utils

PowerPoint Presentation Conversion

• Slide Content Extraction:
  • Extract text from all slides
  • Intelligent paragraph grouping
  • Header detection and formatting
  • List item identification
• Presentation Structure:
  • Maintain slide order and hierarchy
  • Extract presentation metadata (author, title, subject)
  • Include slide count and file information
• Speaker Notes Support:
  • Extract and organize speaker notes
  • Link notes to corresponding slides
  • Preserve note formatting
• Format Compatibility:
  • Support both .pptx (modern) and .ppt (legacy) formats
  • Provide guidance for .ppt format conversion
  • Handle complex presentation layouts

🌐 Multi-language Support

The extension automatically switches interface language based on VS Code language settings:

• English (default) - For English environments
• Chinese - Automatically detects Chinese environments

Supported language features:

• Command titles and descriptions
• User interface text
• Error messages and prompts
• Configuration option descriptions

📁 Output Formats

All converted files are saved in the same directory as the original files with appropriate formats:

• Word → .md files
• Excel → .md files (with tables)
• PDF → .txt files

🚀 Latest Features (v0.4.1)

Smoother Lists in Word ✨

• Bulleted lists (using "*") keep their dot symbols instead of turning into numbers
• Sub-items自动缩进，层级更清晰，阅读更舒适
• 表格和HTML中的列表也能一致呈现，复制粘贴后不乱形

🚀 Upcoming Features (v0.5.0+)

We're actively working on expanding format support and adding new capabilities:

• 🖼️ PDF to Images: Convert PDF pages to individual image files (PNG/JPG)
• 📤 Enhanced Export: Export PowerPoint slides and PDF pages as high-quality images
• 🏗️ Architecture Improvements: Better plugin system for future format extensions
• 🎨 Custom Templates: User-defined output templates for different conversion scenarios

View our complete roadmap | Track progress on GitHub

⚙️ Configuration Options

The extension supports the following configuration options (search for "Document Converter" in settings):

• Output directory settings
• Excel maximum rows limit
• Format preservation options
• Auto-open result files

🛠️ Technical Implementation

Dependencies

• mammoth.js - Word document processing
• xlsx - Excel file processing
• pdf-parse - PDF text extraction
• VS Code API - Extension integration

Architecture Design

src/
├── converters/           # Core converters
│   ├── wordToMarkdown.ts
│   ├── excelToMarkdown.ts
│   └── pdfToText.ts
├── commands/            # VS Code command handlers
├── i18n/               # Internationalization support
│   ├── index.ts        # I18n manager
│   ├── en.ts          # English language pack
│   └── zh-cn.ts       # Chinese language pack
├── utils/              # Utility functions
├── types/              # TypeScript type definitions
└── extension.ts        # Extension entry point

🐛 Troubleshooting

Common Issues

1. Conversion Failed

   • Check if file is corrupted
   • Ensure file is not open in other programs
   • Check VS Code Developer Console for error messages

2. .doc File Conversion Freezing

   • Extension has built-in timeout mechanism
   • Recommend converting .doc files to .docx before processing

3. Poor PDF Text Quality

   • Some PDFs may use image text, recommend using OCR tools
   • Check if PDF is a scanned document

4. Interface Language Issues

   • Extension automatically detects VS Code language settings
   • Supports Chinese (zh-cn) and English environments
   • Can change display language in VS Code settings

Debug Mode

Press F5 in VS Code to run extension in debug mode and view detailed log information.

🤝 Contributing

Welcome to submit Issues and Pull Requests to improve this extension!

See our Development Roadmap for planned features and upcoming improvements.

Development Environment Setup

# Clone repository
git clone https://github.com/hddevteam/vscode-md-converter.git
cd vscode-md-converter

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Development mode compilation
npm run watch

# Run tests
npm test

Adding New Language Support

1. Create new language file in src/i18n/ directory
2. Add language detection logic in src/i18n/index.ts
3. Create corresponding package.nls.{language}.json file

📄 License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details

🔄 Changelog

v0.1.5 - 2025-07-09

• ✨ NEW: PDF Table Extraction - Complete implementation of PDF table extraction to CSV
• 📊 NEW: Word Table Extraction - Enhanced Word table extraction with improved CSV output
• 🎯 Advanced table detection algorithms for PDF documents with single-space separation support
• 🌏 Support for complex Chinese forex tables and multi-column data extraction
• ⚙️ Table output mode selection (separate files vs combined file)
• 📝 Excel compatibility with UTF-8 BOM for proper Chinese character display
• 🧹 Simplified PDF parsing architecture using only reliable pdf-parse library
• 🔧 Enhanced table detection for various table formats (tab, comma, space-separated)
• 🛠️ Better error handling and user feedback for table extraction operations
• 📖 Code quality improvements with English comments throughout codebase

v0.1.4

• ✨ NEW: PowerPoint Support - Full conversion of .pptx presentations to Markdown
• 🎯 Intelligent slide content extraction with proper text formatting
• 📝 Speaker notes support with automatic linking to slides
• 🔧 Enhanced user experience with proper progress reporting
• ⚠️ User-friendly warnings for legacy .ppt format with conversion guidance
• 📊 Comprehensive presentation metadata extraction (author, title, subject, slide count)
• 🧹 Codebase cleanup - removed unnecessary test commands for cleaner interface
• 🌐 Updated translations and documentation for PowerPoint features

v0.1.3

• ✨ Added directory structure preservation in batch conversion
• 🗂️ Enhanced subfolder handling with original hierarchy
• 🔄 Improved conversion workflow with better progress reporting
• 🌐 Updated translations for subfolder structure features
• 🧩 Fixed additional context menu integration issues

v0.1.2

• ✨ Added enhanced folder batch conversion
• 🔍 Added file count preview before batch conversion
• 🚀 Added conversion confirmation dialog
• ⏱️ Added total duration tracking for batch operations
• 🧩 Fixed folder context menu integration
• 🌐 Updated internationalization for new UI elements

v0.1.1

• 🎨 Updated extension branding to "OneClick Markdown Converter"
• 🌐 Enhanced GitHub Pages website with Chinese version
• 🎨 Improved color scheme with modern purple-teal gradients
• 📚 Updated internationalization support
• 🔧 Enhanced documentation and user guides

v0.1.0

• 🚀 Published to VS Code Marketplace
• 🌐 Added comprehensive GitHub Pages website
• 📦 Professional packaging and distribution
• 🎨 Created custom extension icon
• 📖 Complete documentation and guides

v0.0.1

• ✨ Initial release
• ✅ Word to Markdown conversion
• ✅ Excel to Markdown conversion
• ✅ PDF to text conversion
• ✅ Batch conversion functionality
• ✅ VS Code integration
• ✅ English and Chinese bilingual support

Enjoy the convenience of document conversion! 🎉