Export & import
Export formats
Markdown, HTML, PDF and slides are generated on your device, from the same rendered output you see in the preview. Word (DOCX) is the exception: while you are online it is converted on markbird's server — see DOCX below.
| Format | What you get |
|---|---|
| Markdown | The source, exactly as written |
| HTML | One self-contained file — CSS, fonts and images inlined |
| Print-quality, via a dedicated print stylesheet | |
| DOCX | A Word document |
| Slides | A presentation in one HTML file |
All five are in the command palette (⌘/Ctrl + K) and in each document's row
menu. You can also copy the rendered HTML or the Markdown to the clipboard.
HTML
The exported file opens standalone with no external requests: stylesheets, KaTeX fonts and images are inlined as data URIs, and Mermaid diagrams are rasterized into the file. Archive it, mail it, or open it in ten years.
markbird renders a hidden print view with a print-specific stylesheet and hands it to your browser's print-to-PDF. It works offline, and headings, code, tables, maths and diagrams all survive.
DOCX
Word export has two paths, and markbird picks one for you.
Online, the document is sent to markbird's server in the EU and converted with Pandoc. Maths becomes native Word equations, footnotes become Word footnotes, and tables, task lists and images convert cleanly. The document is processed in memory to produce the file and is not stored.
Offline, or when the server cannot be reached, a converter on your device takes over. Headings, lists, tables, emphasis, code, links, blockquotes and images still convert cleanly, but maths degrades to its TeX source and complex nested tables are flattened.
On both paths, Mermaid diagrams become pictures. They are drawn on your device in
the light theme, so they suit a white page even when you work in dark mode, and
at twice the resolution, so they stay sharp when printed. A diagram with an error
in it becomes a [diagram] placeholder offline and stays as its source online.
Slides
Separate slides with a horizontal rule, --- on a line of its own with a blank
line above it. A --- inside a code block or the frontmatter does not count.
Export as slides (HTML) produces one file that works like the HTML export: no
external requests, maths and diagrams included, readable in any browser.
Present with →, Space or a click to go forward, ← to go back, Home and
End to jump, and F for full screen; swipe on a touch screen. The address
ends in the slide number, so a reload keeps your place. Printing the file gives
one landscape page per slide, which is also the way to make a PDF of the deck.
Import
- Markdown files — Import Markdown file(s)…, one or many at once, or a
.zipof them. - Word and HTML — the same dialog takes
.docxand.htmlfiles and converts them to Markdown: headings, emphasis, lists, links, tables and images come across. The conversion runs in your browser; the file is not uploaded. Pictures from a Word document are kept with your images on this device. For a saved web page with a single main content area, only that area is imported, without the navigation around it. Layout that Markdown cannot express, such as colours, columns and text boxes, is dropped. - From Notion — export your workspace from Notion as Markdown & CSV and
drop the
.zipin. markbird recognises it and cleans it up: page ids disappear from titles and folders, links between pages become wiki links, databases become tables whose rows link to the pages they describe, images are kept with your images on this device, and a page's properties move into frontmatter so you can use them in queries. A link to a page that was not part of the export is left exactly as it was written. - From Evernote — export a notebook as
.enexand import the file: every note in it becomes a document, in a folder named after the file. Titles, tags, the date the note was written and its pictures come across. Evernote identifies attachments by a checksum browsers cannot compute, so pictures are matched to the note's attachments in the order they appear; in the rare case that cannot be done, the text arrives without the picture rather than with the wrong one. - From a URL — Import from URL… fetches a Markdown document by address.
- From disk, editable — Open file from disk… opens a real file and Save to file writes back to it, so markbird can edit files in a folder you already keep in Git.
- From Claude — see Claude integration.
The whole library
Export the entire library as a .zip of Markdown files — the recommended way to
take everything with you, and a fine periodic backup.
For an ongoing copy rather than a one-off, use scheduled local backups to a folder; see Library.