z-md-excel

Extract all Markdown tables from a .md file and save them to a formatted Excel .xlsx file.

When to Use

Trigger this skill when the user asks to:
- Convert/extract Markdown tables to Excel
- Export tables from a .md file to .xlsx
- Batch extract multiple tables from one Markdown file
- Parse Markdown table data into a spreadsheet

Requirements

• Python 3.7+
• openpyxl: pip install openpyxl

Usage

Command Line

# Basic usage (output defaults to <input_name>.xlsx)
python scripts/md2xlsx.py input.md

# Specify output file
python scripts/md2xlsx.py input.md output.xlsx

As Agent (recommended workflow)

1. Identify the Markdown file the user wants to extract tables from.
2. Ensure openpyxl is installed: pip install openpyxl
3. Run the script:
   bash python /path/to/z-md-excel/scripts/md2xlsx.py <input.md> [output.xlsx]
4. Report results: The script prints the number of tables found and their dimensions.

Programmatic (inline Python)

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, '/path/to/z-md-excel/scripts')
from md2xlsx import extract_tables, write_xlsx

tables = extract_tables('input.md')
write_xlsx(tables, 'output.xlsx')

Output Format

• Each table becomes a separate sheet named Table_1, Table_2, etc.
• Header row: Bold white text on blue background, centered
• Data rows: Regular font, auto-fitted column widths
• Alignment: Preserved from Markdown GFM markers (:--- left, :---: center, ---: right)
• Frozen pane: Top row frozen for easy scrolling
• Inline Markdown stripped: Bold, italic, code, links, images are converted to plain text

How It Works

1. Reads the Markdown file line by line
2. Detects table blocks (consecutive lines containing |)
3. Skips lines inside code blocks (``` fenced blocks)
4. Requires a GFM separator row (|---|---|) to validate a table
5. Strips inline Markdown formatting from cell content
6. Writes all tables to a single Excel file

Limitations

• Only supports GFM-style pipe tables (| col1 | col2 |)
• Does not support HTML <table> elements
• Does not preserve complex Markdown formatting (converts to plain text)
• Nested tables are not supported

File Structure

z-md-excel/
├── SKILL.md          # This file (Agent instructions)
├── README.md         # Human-readable documentation
└── scripts/
    └── md2xlsx.py    # Core extraction script

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