tomd

Drag & drop anything. Get Markdown. · Website · Download

A thin desktop GUI for Microsoft MarkItDown. Drop files or whole folders onto the window and a .md file appears next to every source file.

tomd does no conversion itself — it runs the markitdown CLI on your device, exactly as you would in a terminal.

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Why tomd?

MarkItDown is a fantastic CLI tool, but it's a terminal command — not everyone wants to live in a terminal, and batch-converting a folder of PDFs shouldn't require a shell script. tomd gives it a proper desktop UI while staying completely out of the way: no bundled runtime, no cloud, just your own markitdown doing the work.

Feature	MarkItDown CLI	tomd
Drag & drop	❌	✅
Conversion queue UI	❌	✅
Progress tracking	❌	✅
One-click install	❌	✅
Folder conversion	⚠️ Terminal required	✅

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How it works

1. On launch, tomd checks your device for the markitdown CLI (your PATH first, then tomd's own managed environment).
2. If it's missing, a one-time setup screen installs markitdown[all] into a private virtualenv at ~/Library/Application Support/tomd/venv (macOS) — your global Python is never touched.
3. After that, every conversion is markitdown <file> -o <file>.md running in the background, one file at a time.

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Walkthrough

First launch — one-time setup

When you open tomd for the first time, it checks your device for Python 3.10+, uv, and the markitdown CLI. If anything is missing, the setup screen shows exactly what was found and offers a single Install MarkItDown button. Click it and tomd handles everything — you won't see this screen again.

If you already have markitdown installed, tomd uses yours and skips setup entirely.

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The drop zone

Once set up, you land on the main window. The dashed area is your drop target — drag files or entire folders anywhere onto the window. When your list is empty (or after you clear it), this is what you see.

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Auto-convert — single file

With Auto-convert on drop enabled, tomd starts converting the moment a file lands. Drop one file, watch it convert — no extra clicks.

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Auto-convert — multiple files

Same as above, but with a batch. Drop a folder or several files at once and tomd queues and converts them all automatically, one after another.

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Manual mode — select, remove, and run

With auto-convert off, dropped files sit in the queue as pending. You can click the checkbox on any row to select it, then use Remove Selected to trim the list before running. Hit Run when you're ready and tomd converts whatever remains.

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Selecting multiple files

Click the checkbox on the left of any row to select it. Select as many as you like — Remove Selected and Reveal Selected appear in the toolbar whenever you have an active selection.

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Conversion in progress

While a batch is running, each file shows its state — done (green check), converting (spinning indicator), queued (clock) — alongside an overall progress bar. You can hit Stop at any time to halt after the current file; queued files go back to pending.

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All done

When the batch finishes, every row shows a green check and a toast confirms the count. From here you can Copy MD to grab the markdown straight to your clipboard, drag the .md chip into Finder, an editor, or Slack, or hit Reveal to jump to the file in Finder / Explorer.

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Features

• Drag & drop files or entire folders (recursively picks up supported files)
• Auto-convert on drop (toggleable) — drop and it converts immediately, no clicks
• Sequential queue — one conversion at a time, per-file status, animated spinner, overall progress bar
• Multi-select — checkbox on every row; remove or reveal a selection in one click
• Copy MD — copy converted markdown straight to your clipboard
• Drag the .md out — drag the result file into Finder, an editor, Slack, anywhere
• Reveal — jump to the converted file in Finder / Explorer
• Stop — halt the queue after the current file; queued files return to pending
• Toasts — success and error notifications on batch completion

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Install

Grab the latest build from Releases:

• macOS — see below.
• Windows — download tomd.exe and run it.

macOS — Gatekeeper workaround

tomd is currently unsigned (no Apple Developer certificate yet), so macOS will block it on first install. Pick either option:

Option A — remove the quarantine flag before opening the DMG

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Downloads/tomd.dmg

Then open the DMG and drag tomd into Applications as normal.

Option B — allow it after the fact via System Settings

1. Download tomd.dmg, open it, drag tomd into Applications, and try to open it.
2. macOS will show a "cannot be opened" dialog — click Done.
3. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click Open Anyway next to tomd.
4. Confirm in the follow-up dialog.

Either option is a one-time step — subsequent launches open normally.

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Run from source

Requires uv.

git clone https://github.com/thekiwidev/tomd.git
cd tomd
uv sync
uv run python app.py

Build the app yourself

# macOS — produces dist/tomd.app and dist/tomd.dmg
bash scripts/build_macos.sh

# Windows — produces dist\tomd.exe
pwsh scripts/build_windows.ps1

Tagged pushes (v*) build both platforms on GitHub Actions and attach them to a release automatically.

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Supported formats

PDF, DOCX/DOC, PPTX/PPT, XLSX/XLS, CSV, JSON, XML, HTML, TXT, RTF, EPUB, MSG/EML, WAV/MP3/M4A, JPG/PNG/WEBP, IPYNB, ZIP — everything MarkItDown handles.

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Credits

All conversion is done by MarkItDown, an open-source project by Microsoft's AutoGen team. tomd is an independent GUI and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.

License

MIT