md2txt — Markdown to plain text converter

Overview

md2txt is a small web utility that converts Markdown-formatted text into plain text. It accepts uploaded .md files or pasted Markdown/MDX text, strips or normalizes Markdown-specific punctuation and constructs, and produces a downloadable .txt file or a preview of the converted text.

Goals and scope

• Remove Markdown control characters and transform common constructs into readable plain text.
• Preserve human-readable content (headings, paragraph text, list items, code blocks) while removing formatting markers.
• Provide a simple UI consistent with other converters in the project (upload or paste, preview, download).

Behavior and transformation rules

The converter applies a deterministic, rule-based transformation. The following rules summarize the main behaviors:

• Code fences (triple backticks): fence markers are removed, inner code lines are preserved verbatim.
• Inline code (single backticks): backticks are removed and the enclosed text is kept.
• ATX headings (# Heading) and Setext headings (underlined === / ---) have leading markers removed; heading text remains.
• Links in the [text](url) form are replaced by their link text (text). Reference-style link definitions are removed from the output.
• Images ![alt](url) are replaced with their alt text alt.
• Emphasis and strong markers (*italic*, **bold**, _italic_, __bold__) are removed while preserving the inner text.
• Lists: unordered list markers (-, *, +) are normalized to - at the start of lines; ordered list numbers (1. ) have their numbering removed and the item text is preserved.
• Blockquotes (> ) have the leading marker removed.
• HTML tags, if present, are stripped.
• Repeated blank lines are collapsed to at most two consecutive newline characters.

Limitations

• The tool uses heuristic, regex-based transformations. It is not a full Markdown parser and may not cover every edge case in extended Markdown flavors or MDX.
• Complex constructs like nested lists, tables, or custom Markdown extensions may be simplified; table formatting is not preserved as a table in plain text.

Usage

1. Serve the md2txt folder from a webserver that can serve PHP files. For quick local testing, use PHP's built-in server:

cd 'C:\Users\Administrator\Documents\GitHub\proish-webtools\converters\md2txt'
php -S 127.0.0.1:8000 -t .

2. Open http://127.0.0.1:8000/index.php.
3. Either upload a .md file or paste Markdown into the text area.
4. Click Convert (Preview) to view the resulting text in the page, or Convert & Download (.txt) to save a .txt file.

Examples

Input:

# Title

This is **bold** text and a [link](https://example.com).

1. First
2. Second

Output (plain text):

Title

This is bold text and a link.

First
Second

File naming

• When downloading, the converter provides a default filename export.txt. Rename as desired after download.

Testing

Manual test checklist:

1. Upload a variety of Markdown files: simple docs, README.md files, and MDX snippets.
2. Verify headings are preserved but marker characters removed.
3. Verify inline links and images reduce to their readable text alternatives.
4. Confirm code fences retain inner text and inline code markers are removed.
5. Test lists, tables and nested list structures to observe simplification behavior.

Integration notes

• The converter follows the project's lightweight, single-file tool pattern. It can be integrated into CI or automation flows by invoking the page via an HTTP POST with a file upload and reading the response (or using the download endpoint).

Changelog

• 2025-11-07: Initial implementation and documentation — adds index.php converter and this README.

This document describes the transformation approach and usage for the md2txt converter. For workflows that require precise Markdown-to-text fidelity (e.g., preserving tables or conversion to other formats), consider using a full Markdown parsing library or a dedicated converter toolchain.