How to Export a Notion Page to a Word Document
Notion cannot export a page as a Word document directly. What it can do is export the page as Markdown, and Markdown converts to a genuine .docx in seconds. So the route is: export the page as Markdown from Notion, then run that file through the Markdown to Word converter and download the result. Nothing is uploaded on the second step; the conversion happens in your browser.
The rest of this guide covers the export itself, what each kind of Notion block becomes, what happens to databases and images, and the problems that come up.
Exporting the page from Notion
Open the page, open its menu from the three dots in the top corner, and choose Export. Set the format to Markdown and CSV, decide whether to include subpages, and keep the content option on everything. Notion downloads a zip file.
Inside the zip is a .md file named after the page, a folder of any images the page used, and a .csv file for each database. If you included subpages, each one is a further .md file in a folder.
Unzip it, then drop the .md file onto the converter or open it with the file button. You get a Word document with real heading styles, real tables and real lists.
What each Notion block becomes
Notion’s Markdown export is faithful for the blocks that have a Markdown equivalent and approximate for the ones that do not.
Headings, text, bold, italic, links. All export cleanly and convert cleanly.
Bulleted and numbered lists. Export with their nesting and convert to real Word lists.
To-do lists. Export as task-list syntax, a pair of square brackets before each item. Word has no task list, so the brackets appear as text at the start of each line. Delete them in Word, or replace the checkboxes with a bulleted list before converting if the ticks do not matter.
Toggles. The heading of the toggle exports as ordinary text and the hidden content follows it, expanded. Nothing is lost, but the collapsing behaviour is gone, because a Word document has no equivalent.
Callouts. Export as a quote block, usually with the callout’s emoji at the start. They convert to Word quotes, with the emoji kept as a character.
Simple tables. Notion’s simple table block exports as a Markdown table and converts to a real Word table with a repeating header row.
Code blocks. Export as fenced code with the language name and keep their monospace formatting in Word.
Equations. Export as LaTeX between dollar signs. The fast converter keeps them as text and warns you; best quality mode turns them into editable Word equations.
Dividers. Export as a horizontal rule and convert to one.
What happens to databases
A database is the one thing that does not come through as part of the page. Notion exports every database, inline or full-page, as a separate .csv file, and the page itself contains only a link to it.
If you need the database as a table inside the Word document, open the .csv in a spreadsheet, copy the cells, and paste them into Word after converting the page, which gives you a real Word table. For a small database, it can be quicker to build a Markdown table by hand in the exported file before converting.
What happens to images
Notion exports the images as files inside the zip and writes each one into the Markdown as a reference with a relative path. The converter keeps the reference and its alt text but cannot fetch the file, because it never touches your disk. After converting, insert the images from the unzipped folder into the Word document at the marked places. The guide to Markdown with images goes into the detail.
Exporting many pages at once
Exporting a page with its subpages included gives you a folder tree: one .md file per page, nested to match the Notion hierarchy, with the images and databases alongside. Notion can also export an entire workspace from its settings, which produces the same structure for everything.
The converter takes one file at a time, so decide what the Word document should contain before converting. If the answer is one page, convert that page’s file. If the answer is a section of the workspace, open the exported files in a text editor, paste them into one Markdown document in reading order, and check the heading levels: each page starts at a top-level heading, so a document made of six pages has six top-level headings, and you may want the sub-pages demoted a level so the contents page reads sensibly. Then convert the merged file once.
Long file names with identifiers appended are normal in Notion exports and can be ignored; the identifier is not part of the content.
Common problems
The page title appears twice. Notion writes the page title as a top-level heading in the export, and the converter turns it into a Word heading. If you also add a title in Word, delete one of them.
A database is missing. It is in the zip as a .csv file. See the section above.
Square brackets at the start of lines. Those are to-do items. Remove the brackets in Word, or change the to-dos to a bulleted list in Notion first.
Long file names with a code at the end. Notion appends a page identifier to exported file names. It has no effect on the conversion; rename the .docx if you want a cleaner name.
Text inside a toggle was not indented. The export flattens toggles. Indent or restyle the section in Word if the visual grouping matters.
Frequently asked questions
Can Notion export to Word directly? No. Notion offers PDF, HTML and Markdown exports. Markdown is the one that converts to an editable Word document.
Will the formatting match the Notion page exactly? The structure will: headings, lists, tables, quotes and code. Colours, column layouts and toggles do not exist in Markdown, so they do not carry across.
Is the exported page uploaded anywhere when I convert it? Not by the converter. It runs entirely in your browser. The only upload in the process is the export you download from Notion itself.
Can I get changes from Word back into Notion?
Convert the edited .docx with the Word to Markdown converter and paste the Markdown into a Notion page, which reads Markdown on paste.