XLSX to Markdown is a table extraction path, so the selected worksheet becomes one GFM pipe table and workbook-only structure is left behind.
From real runs
| Element | Result | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Worksheet choice | Changed | The browser engine can read a named sheet, while the API run with defaults wrote the first sheet and warned that other sheets were not included. |
| Merged title cells | Changed | A merged A1:E1 report title became the first Markdown header cell, with generated column_2 through column_5 headings beside it. |
| Formula cells | Changed | Formula expressions were removed and cached results were written, as shown by line_total values 39 and 15 replacing B*C formulas. |
| Dates | Changed | Excel date cells were emitted as ISO timestamp strings such as 2026-09-10T00:00:00.000Z. |
| Percent cells | Changed | A 37.5 percent spreadsheet value appeared as the underlying decimal 0.375, not as the displayed percent text. |
| Markdown syntax | Changed | The output uses GitHub-flavored pipe table syntax with a separator row and escaped cell text where needed. |
| Workbook presentation | Lost | Charts, widths, formulas, colors, frozen panes, comments, and merged-cell geometry do not exist in the Markdown table output. |
The browser engine can read a named sheet, while the API run with defaults wrote the first sheet and warned that other sheets were not included.
A merged A1:E1 report title became the first Markdown header cell, with generated column_2 through column_5 headings beside it.
Formula expressions were removed and cached results were written, as shown by line_total values 39 and 15 replacing B*C formulas.
Excel date cells were emitted as ISO timestamp strings such as 2026-09-10T00:00:00.000Z.
A 37.5 percent spreadsheet value appeared as the underlying decimal 0.375, not as the displayed percent text.
The output uses GitHub-flavored pipe table syntax with a separator row and escaped cell text where needed.
Charts, widths, formulas, colors, frozen panes, comments, and merged-cell geometry do not exist in the Markdown table output.
| Q3 Orders | column_2 | column_3 | column_4 | column_5 |, then | A-001 | Ada Lovelace | 2026-09-10T00:00:00.000Z | 0.375 | 1250.5 |.| F-1 | 2 | 19.5 | 39 | and warned twice that formulas were dropped while cached values were retained.We converted our Excel XLSX sample (17 KB) with Table engine on 2026-09-11. It took 1 ms and produced a 318 B Markdown file, 98% smaller than the input. The engine raised 2 warnings, listed below.
Input · sample.xlsx · 17 KB
Workbook with 2 sheets (Pipeline, Notes); first sheet 5 rows, 25 cells, 0 formulas
Output · sample.md · 318 B
0 headings, 1 table, 0 list items, 0 code blocks, 0 image references
First lines of the output
| company | stage | arr | owner | close_date |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Northwind Traders | Proposal | 48000 | R. Ayers | 2026-10-14 |
| Contoso Ltd | Negotiation | 120000 | P. Ng | 2026-09-30 |
| Fabrikam | Qualified | 22500 | R. Ayers | 2026-11-02 |
| Tailspin Toys | Won | 64000 | M. Okafor | 2026-09-03 |Python pandas
python - <<'PY'
import pandas as pd
df = pd.read_excel("in.xlsx", sheet_name="Orders", header=1)
print(df.to_markdown(index=False), file=open("out.md", "w", encoding="utf-8"))
PYInstall tabulate for pandas Markdown output, and set sheet_name/header for workbooks with title rows.
The HTTP API and the MCP server run the exact engine this page uses (Table engine); the response carries the same warnings the web converter shows. Check support first with GET /api/v1/pairs?from=xlsx&to=md.
curl -X POST https://filetypeconverters.com/api/v1/convert \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $FTC_API_KEY" \
-F "file=@input.xlsx" -F "from=xlsx" -F "to=md" \
-F 'options={"sheet":""}' \
--output output.md| Key | Applies to | Type | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| sheet | Reading Excel XLSX | string | |
| headerRowIndex | Reading Excel XLSX | number | 0 |
| dateHandling | Reading Excel XLSX | date · string | date |
/convert/xlsx-to-html when the table will be embedded in a web page instead of copied into Markdown.No. A single Markdown table is written from one worksheet. In our API run, the second Lookups sheet was omitted and the response carried a multiple-sheets warning.
The formula text is not written to Markdown. The converter uses the cached value stored in the workbook, so a B2*C2 cell appeared as 39.
The tabular engine reads the cell value rather than Excel's visual number format. A cell displayed as 37.5 percent can become 0.375 in the Markdown table.