MarkItDown Context Menu

Right-click any supported file or folder in Windows Explorer to convert it to Markdown with Microsoft's markitdown.

MarkItDown is Microsoft's open-source tool that turns documents — PDFs, Office files, images, web pages, and more — into clean Markdown, ideal for feeding content to LLMs or storing it as plain text. This project wires it into the Explorer right-click menu so a conversion is one click away.

Target OS: Windows 10 and Windows 11.

Features

• Convert a single file, a multi-file selection, or a whole folder (recursive).
• Three actions: save .md beside the source, copy Markdown to the clipboard, or save & open.
• One configurable direct entry plus an options submenu with all actions.
• Per-user install — no admin rights required.
• Checkbox GUI to pick which file types show the menu.
• Bilingual (German / English), auto-selecting the Windows system language.
• Toast notifications with a batch summary for multi-file runs.
• Checks for Python 3.10+ and markitdown, offering to install them if missing.

Supported files

PDF · Word (.doc, .docx) · Excel (.xlsx) · PowerPoint (.pptx) · images (.png, .jpg, .jpeg) · HTML (.html, .htm) · .csv · .json · .xml · .txt · EPUB

Add other extensions yourself in the configuration GUI.

Install

1. Install PowerShell 7+ (pwsh) from https://aka.ms/powershell if you don't have it.
2. Double-click install.cmd.

That's it — no admin rights needed. On first conversion the tool checks for Python 3.10+ and markitdown, and offers to install them if missing.

Use

Right-click a file, several files, or a folder:

• In Markdown umwandeln / Convert to Markdown — runs the default action.
• … (Optionen) / … (Options) — choose: save .md, copy to clipboard, or save & open.

On Windows 11 the entries appear under "Show more options" (Shift+Right-click).

Configure

Open "MarkItDown Context Menu" from the Start menu to pick which file types show the menu, set the direct-entry action, and choose the language (Auto / Deutsch / English).

Update

Download the latest release, unzip, and run install.cmd again — no need to uninstall first. The installer overwrites the program files and keeps your settings.json (file types, language, default action). The current version is shown under Installed versions in the settings window; Check for updates compares it with the latest GitHub release and shows a download button when a newer one exists.

For a fully clean update, uninstall first, then install.

Uninstall

Run uninstall.ps1, or use the Uninstall button in the settings window.

Settings