DOC to Markdown moves the words and leaves the layout
You want Word text in a repo, a docs site, or a Markdown editor.
Paragraphs are extracted and saved as Markdown under a plain title. Bold and links are not reconstructed as Markdown syntax.
When this DOC file should stay in the original app
The file starts with a generic heading, Document Export. Replace that before you commit it. Images in the Word file are not included.
Why DOC to Markdown is its own job
DOC to Markdown sits on this site because DOC and MD are not interchangeable, even when they look similar in a file list. You want Word text in a repo, a docs site, or a Markdown editor. People meet DOC on old email attachments and on forms that were never updated. People convert to Markdown when the words should live in a repo or a notes app.
Paragraphs are extracted and saved as Markdown under a plain title. Bold and links are not reconstructed as Markdown syntax.
The DOC file you already have
DOC is the Word format from before 2007. A few portals and older PCs still ask for it. Browsers cannot read a real Word 97 binary document, and they cannot write a certified legacy DOC with full styling.
If you still have the DOCX, keep it. DOC is a compatibility copy.
What a MD result is for
The download has to be MD, because that is the format the next step named. People convert to Markdown when the words should live in a repo or a notes app. You can edit it in any text editor and see the structure.
The result is text you can correct. It is not a styled export.
How to tell that DOC to Markdown worked
DOC to Markdown is worth using only when MD is what the next step actually named. You want Word text in a repo, a docs site, or a Markdown editor. What you get from DOC to Markdown: Paragraphs are extracted and saved as Markdown under a plain title. Bold and links are not reconstructed as Markdown syntax. Before you trust it: The file starts with a generic heading, Document Export. Replace that before you commit it. Images in the Word file are not included. The file stays in your browser and is not uploaded. The limit is 100 MB. Keep the original until the download has been opened in the program that will use it. A second pass rarely helps. If the first MD file is rejected, read the error from the program that rejected it. Another conversion of a bad result usually makes the file worse, not more compatible. When you are done, you should still have the DOC original and one MD download that you have opened. If those two are the same kind of failure, this was the wrong tool and the page above is the place that says so. Document tools on this site carry words. DOC to Markdown will not clone a brochure, a letterhead, or floating images. If the page has to look exact, export from Word, Google Docs, or LibreOffice. Use this download for a draft, a paste, or a simple handoff, and keep the file you can still edit.
Here is the decision for DOC to Markdown. You start with DOC and you stop when a real program accepts MD. If the other side truly cannot open DOCX, a simple DOC of the words can unblock them. Tables, images, and complex layouts are not rebuilt from a Word file or a PDF. If those two sentences describe a tradeoff you do not want, do not convert. Renaming the extension by hand will not do this job. Running the tool twice on its own output will not do it either.
The file starts with a generic heading, Document Export. Replace that before you commit it. Images in the Word file are not included.
A related step, if you still need one, is Markdown to DOC.
Other jobs start from the homepage, where each tool is named for the conversion it actually does.