Markdown → Org-mode

Org Mode is Emacs's note format and goes far beyond markup: agenda, task tracking, executable code blocks and export to several formats. Anyone migrating notes from another tool into Emacs needs to convert the Markdown they already have, and the syntax differences are large enough that pasting directly leaves the result unreadable.

Paste the Markdown and receive Org. Headings swap the hash for an asterisk, keeping the level count; strong emphasis becomes a single asterisk and light emphasis becomes a slash; links reverse order and gain the characteristic double bracket pair; and a fenced code block becomes the BEGIN_SRC and END_SRC pair, preserving the language declared on the opening fence, which is what makes Emacs highlight and run the block.

One structural difference the conversion cannot resolve on its own: in Org, the asterisk at the start of a line defines the hierarchy of the whole document, and that is what the agenda and section folding rely on. If the original Markdown started at heading level two, the resulting Org will carry an empty level at the top — worth reviewing the hierarchy after converting a large file.