Markdown Table Generator
Spreadsheet-style editing for GitHub Markdown tables, with a live preview.
Pasted data replaces the example table. You can also paste straight into the grid below.
Table
The first row is the header. Type to replace a cell, Enter or double-click to edit, Alt+Enter for a line break, Tab to move right. Ctrl+V pastes cells from a spreadsheet; Ctrl+Z undoes.
Markdown
Preview
How GitHub-style Markdown shows the table: bold, italics, code, strikethrough, links and line breaks are rendered.
About the Markdown Table Generator
Write Markdown tables the way you edit a spreadsheet: type in a grid, paste a block of cells from Excel or Google Sheets, then copy GitHub-Flavored Markdown that renders on GitHub, GitLab and most editors and site generators that support the GFM table syntax. The output is padded so the pipes line up in the source (wide characters such as 日本語 count as two columns), or compact if you prefer.
Pipes inside cells are escaped as \|, line breaks inside a cell become <br>, and each column can be left, centre or right aligned. You can also paste CSV, an HTML table, JSON or an existing Markdown table to edit it, or switch to Tidy the tables in a Markdown document to reformat every table in a README in one go while the rest of the text stays untouched.
How to use it
- Edit the example table, or choose New table. The first row is the header row — Markdown tables always have one.
- Paste data: copy cells in Excel or Google Sheets and press Ctrl+V (⌘V) in the grid, or paste CSV, an HTML table, JSON or a Markdown table into Paste data to import.
- Select a column and pick Left, Center or Right under Align column. Add or delete rows and columns with the buttons; Ctrl+Z undoes.
- Choose the style — Aligned columns or Compact — and whether lines start and end with pipes.
- Check the preview, then Copy Markdown or Download .md.
- To clean up a whole README, choose Tidy the tables in a Markdown document, paste the document and copy the result.
Examples
Name Score Asha 92 Ravi 87
| Name | Score | | ---- | ----- | | Asha | 92 | | Ravi | 87 |
Copied cells arrive as tab-separated text. Set Score to right-aligned to get ----: and numbers lined up on the right.
Cell text: “a | b” and “line 1⏎line 2”
| a \| b | line 1<br>line 2 |
An unescaped pipe would start a new column. GitHub shows <br> as a line break inside the cell.
|Command|Meaning| |-|:-:| |`git status`|show changes|
| Command | Meaning | | ------------ | :----------: | | `git status` | show changes |
The alignment from the delimiter row (here centred) is kept, and code spans stay as written.
Common uses
- Tables for README files, pull requests, issues, wikis and documentation sites.
- Turning a spreadsheet range into a Markdown table for a changelog, release notes or a comparison.
- Fixing a Markdown table whose pipes do not line up, or that breaks because a cell contains a pipe.
- Converting an HTML table or a CSV export into Markdown for a blog written in Markdown.
The Markdown table syntax
GitHub-Flavored Markdown (the GFM spec, “Tables (extension)”) writes a table as a header row, a delimiter row of hyphens and body rows, with cells separated by pipes:
- Alignment goes in the delimiter row:
:---left,:---:centre,---:right,---the renderer’s default. - Pipes in a cell must be escaped as
\|, also insidecode; this tool does it for you. - Leading and trailing pipes are optional, but a one-column table needs them, so they are always written for one column.
- Cells hold inline Markdown only — bold, italics, code, links, images — not lists, headings or paragraphs; a line break needs
<br>. - Body rows with fewer cells than the header are filled with empty cells; extra cells are ignored.
Plain text or Markdown in cells
By default a cell is Markdown: **bold** becomes bold, and only pipes are escaped. Tick Show text exactly when the cells hold plain text that happens to contain Markdown characters (file names with underscores, prices with asterisks): then \, *, _, ` `, ~, [, ], <, >, &, # and |` are escaped with a backslash, so the table shows exactly what you typed.
Keyboard
- Arrows move; Shift+arrows select a block; Ctrl+A selects everything.
- Typing replaces a cell; Enter, F2 or a double-click edits it; Alt+Enter adds a line break; Escape cancels.
- Tab and Shift+Tab move right and left (past the last or first column, on to the next control); Delete clears the selection.
- Ctrl+C, Ctrl+X and Ctrl+V copy, cut and paste blocks of cells as tab-separated text, which Excel and Google Sheets understand.
- Ctrl+Z undoes and Ctrl+Y (or Ctrl+Shift+Z) redoes.
Limitations
- Markdown tables cannot merge cells; merged cells in pasted HTML are split into an empty cell next to (or under) the value.
- The aligned style pads with spaces assuming a monospaced font in which wide East Asian characters and emoji take two columns; some editors draw a few emoji or scripts at other widths, so a line may look off by a space there. The table renders the same either way.
- The preview renders bold, italics, code, strikethrough, links and
<br>; images, footnotes and raw HTML other than<br>are shown as typed. - XML and YAML are not imported here — open them in the Table Converter and choose Markdown as the output.
- The preview shows the first 200 rows; the Markdown always has all of them.
Privacy
Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot.
Frequently asked questions
How do I make a table in Markdown?
Write a header row, a delimiter row and one line per row, separating cells with pipes:
| Name | City |
| --- | --- |
| Asha | Pune |
Or type the cells in the grid above and copy the result.
How do I put a | character in a Markdown table cell?
Escape it as \|. A bare pipe starts a new cell, even inside a code span. Type the pipe normally in the grid — the output escapes it automatically.
How do I add a line break inside a cell?
Press Alt+Enter while editing a cell (or Shift+Enter in the cell box under the grid). The output writes it as <br>, which GitHub shows as a line break; choose A space if your renderer does not allow HTML.
Can I convert an Excel or Google Sheets range to Markdown?
Yes. Select the cells, copy them, click a cell in the grid and press Ctrl+V (⌘V on a Mac) — or paste into the import box. The first copied row becomes the header.
How do I center or right-align a column?
Click any cell of the column and choose Center or Right. In the Markdown this is the colon in the delimiter row: :---: centre, ---: right.
Is my data uploaded?
No. The table, the pasted data and the Markdown stay in your browser.