I keep notes in Markdown and receive everything else: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML, EPUB, and photos of whiteboards. Retyping those into headings and lists is the tax I used to pay before editing. MarkAny batch-converts those formats into structured Markdown, and it can export Markdown back out to common formats. It also runs text recognition, so a picture of a page is not a dead end.
What I convert, and why
- A PDF spec becomes headings and code fences I can diff
- A slide deck becomes one section per slide, which is easier to edit than text boxes
- A spreadsheet becomes a table I can review in a plain-text diff
- An EPUB or an HTML page becomes a single note
- A photo of a whiteboard becomes text I can correct, instead of a file I cannot search
A batch habit
I do not convert one file at a time if I have a folder. I drop the set in, let the batch finish, then open the Markdown and fix the places text recognition is weak: columns that merged, headers that became body text, and tables that lost a cell.
Going back out
Once the note is clean I sometimes need a Word file or a slide again for someone who will not open Markdown. Exporting from the cleaned source is better than editing the original binary. The Markdown stays the copy I trust.
Limits I plan for
Text recognition on handwriting is a draft, not a record. I read every line that came from a photo. Scanned tables with merged cells often need a manual rebuild. MarkAny removes the retyping. It does not remove the proofread, and for anything I will publish, the proofread is the whole point.
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