Tables without the pipe-counting
Writing Markdown tables by hand means counting pipes and padding columns. Instead:
- Select cells in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers and paste them here (they arrive tab-separated), or paste CSV, or paste an existing, messy Markdown table to reformat it.
- Get a neatly aligned Markdown table, ready for GitHub, GitLab, Notion, Obsidian or any Markdown editor.
Options
- Align: left, centre, right, or auto, which right-aligns columns that contain only numbers.
- First row is header: if not, generic “Column 1, Column 2…” headers are added (Markdown tables require a header row).
- Pad columns aligns the pipes so the raw table is readable; turn it off for compact output.
CSV fields in quotes, commas inside quotes and doubled quotes are parsed correctly; pipes inside cells are escaped. Wide characters (Chinese, Japanese, emoji) count as two columns when padding, so tables stay aligned in monospaced editors.
You can also convert the same data to an HTML table or clean CSV.
Worked example
Here is what the Markdown Table Generator returns for its built-in example. Settings used: Output: Markdown; Align: Auto (numbers right); First row is header: on. Click Try an example in the tool above to load it, then change it as you like.
Tool Category Users
Word Counter Counters 12500
Grammar Checker Proofreading 9800
"Case, Title" Case 4200| Tool | Category | Users |
| --------------- | ------------ | ----: |
| Word Counter | Counters | 12500 |
| Grammar Checker | Proofreading | 9800 |
| Case, Title | Case | 4200 |Questions
How do I convert Excel to a Markdown table?
Copy the cells in Excel and paste them here. The tab-separated data becomes a Markdown table instantly.
How do I right-align a column in Markdown?
Put a colon at the right of the separator: ---:. Choose Right or Auto alignment and the tool does it for you.
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