Import PDFs and Word files into Obsidian or Notion as Markdown

Note apps are great once your notes are in them. The trouble is everything that isn't: old Word documents, PDFs of manuals and reports, spreadsheets, scanned letters. Attaching them as files works, but you can't link to a heading inside them, edit them, or always search them properly.

Converting them to Markdown first turns each document into a real note.

Why Markdown

Obsidian stores every note as a Markdown (.md) file on your device. Notion, Logseq, Bear, Joplin and many others import Markdown and keep its headings, lists, tables and links. So Markdown is the common format that moves cleanly between them.

Step 1: Convert the documents

Drop each file on the Docuflat converter. You can add several at once.

• Word (.docx): headings, lists, tables, bold and italics come across. These usually need no clean-up.
• PDF: the text comes out page by page. Add headings where you want them (see below).
• Excel and CSV: each sheet becomes a Markdown table.
• Scans and photos: text is recognised with OCR. Pick the right language first.

Download each result as a .md file. Conversion runs in your browser, so private documents aren't uploaded anywhere.

Step 2: Tidy before importing

Five minutes here saves confusion later:

• Give it one clear title as the first # heading, and rename the file to match.
• Add ## headings for the main sections of PDF conversions. Both Obsidian and Notion build a navigable outline from headings.
• Remove clutter: cover pages, tables of contents, repeated headers and footers, and the ## Page N markers if you don't need them.
• Add context at the top: where the document came from, its date, and who it's from.

Step 3a: Obsidian

1. Move the .md files into your vault folder (or a subfolder such as Imports/).
2. They appear in Obsidian immediately; no import step is needed.
3. Optionally add properties at the very top of a note for search and filtering:

---
source: Supplier contract
date: 2026-03-14
tags: [contracts, suppliers]
---

4. Link to them from other notes with [[Note name]], or to a section with [[Note name#Heading]].

Step 3b: Notion

1. In Notion, use Import and choose Text & Markdown.
2. Select one or more .md files. Each becomes a page, with headings, lists and tables converted to Notion blocks.
3. Move the pages where they belong, or into a database to add properties like date and source.

For a single short document, you can also paste the Markdown straight into a Notion page; Notion converts common Markdown as you paste.

Keep the original?

For contracts, certificates and anything legal, yes. Keep the PDF and link to it from the note. The Markdown note is for reading, searching and linking; the original is the record.

Bonus: ask AI about your notes

Once your documents are Markdown notes, it's easy to paste a note, or several, into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini and ask questions. Text is much cheaper and more reliable than attaching the original files. See PDF to Markdown for AI.