Convert a Word File to reStructuredText with Pandoc¶

Authors:

Cao Tri DO <caotri.do@astrodata.fr>

Version:

2026-02

To convert a Word file (.docx) to a reStructuredText (.rst) file with Pandoc, follow these steps:

  1. Install Pandoc: If you don’t have it already, you need to install Pandoc. You can download it from the official Pandoc site and follow the instructions for your operating system (Windows, macOS, Linux).

  2. Use the Command Line: Once Pandoc is installed, you can use the command line to convert your file. Open a terminal (or command prompt on Windows) and use the following command:

    pandoc -o output_file.rst input_file.docx

    Replace input_file.docx with the path to your Word file and output_file.rst with the desired name for your output reStructuredText file.

Example¶

Suppose you have a Word file named document.docx and you want to convert it to document.rst. Here is the command you would use:

pandoc -o document.rst document.docx

Additional Options¶

Pandoc offers many options to customize the conversion. For example, you can specify metadata, adjust formatting, and more. Here are some useful options:

  • --standalone (or -s): Create a complete document (including necessary headers).

  • --toc: Add a table of contents.

  • --extract-media: Extract embedded images from the Word document into a specified directory.

Example with Options¶

If you want to extract images into a directory named media and add a table of contents, you would use:

pandoc -s --toc --extract-media=media -o document.rst document.docx

Verify Pandoc Installation¶

To check that Pandoc is correctly installed, you can run the following command in your terminal:

pandoc --version

This should display the installed version of Pandoc along with other information.

By following these steps, you should be able to easily convert a Word file to a reStructuredText file using Pandoc.