LaTeX/Markdown to Word Converter

Convert LaTeX .tex and Markdown .md files to Microsoft Word documents (.docx) with native Word equations! This tool automatically transforms embedded LaTeX equations into OMML (Office Math Markup Language) format for proper rendering in Microsoft Word.

Also includes a BibTeX (.bib) to Word converter for generating formatted bibliography documents.

Features

• 📄 Multiple input formats: Convert both LaTeX (.tex) and Markdown (.md) files
• 📚 Bibliography conversion: Convert BibTeX (.bib) files to formatted Word documents
• ✨ Automatic equation conversion: LaTeX equations → native Word equations (OMML)
• 📄 Full document support: Handles chapters, sections, subsections, figures, captions, and citations
• 🧮 Multiple equation environments: Support for equation, align, gather, multline, and inline equations
• 📝 Text formatting: Preserves subscripts, superscripts, bold, italic, and other text formatting
• 🏷️ Figure captions: Extracts figure captions and labels (wrapped in brackets) while converting inline equations within them
• 🔢 Equation labels: Preserves equation labels below display equations
• 🔗 Reference preservation: Keeps all reference labels (figures, equations, sections) in square brackets
• 📋 List support: Converts itemize (bullets) and enumerate (numbered) environments to proper Word lists
• 📊 Table conversion: Supports tabular and tabularx environments with \multicolumn and \multirow support, including inline equations in cells
• 🎨 Advanced LaTeX handling: Supports \texorpdfstring, \resizebox, and escaped characters (\%)
• � Citation preservation: Keeps citation labels in square brackets (e.g., [author2023])

How It Works

This tool builds on top of the excellent texmath Haskell package—a versatile and mature converter supporting multiple math markup formats including LaTeX, MathML, and OMML.

Our implementation adds a Python wrapper that:

1. Extracts LaTeX equations from .tex files
2. Uses texmath to convert them to OMML
3. Embeds the OMML equations into a Word document
4. Processes LaTeX structure (sections, figures, citations) for clean Word formatting

Installation

Prerequisites

• Python 3.7+
• texmath installed and available at ~/.local/bin/texmath

1. Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/yeewantung/tex_math_to_word.git
cd tex_math_to_word

2. Install texmath (Haskell)

Follow the installation instructions at https://github.com/jgm/texmath. On macOS with Homebrew:

brew install texmath

Or install from Hackage:

cabal install texmath --install-method=copy --installdir ~/.local/bin

3. Install Python dependencies

pip install -r requirements.txt

Usage

LaTeX files

python latex_to_word.py path/to/your/file.tex

Markdown files

python markdown_to_word.py path/to/your/file.md

BibTeX files

python latex_bib_to_word.py path/to/your/references.bib

Or simply run without arguments to enter the file path interactively:

python latex_bib_to_word.py
# Then enter: path/to/your/references.bib

Verbose output

python latex_to_word.py -v path/to/your/file.tex
python markdown_to_word.py -v path/to/your/file.md

Notes:

• Both absolute and relative paths are supported for input files
• The converted Word document will be saved in the current working directory with the same filename (e.g., file.docx)
• Example: python latex_to_word.py ~/Documents/paper.tex creates paper.docx in the current folder
• For BibTeX files: python latex_bib_to_word.py sample.bib creates sample.docx with formatted references

Supported LaTeX Features

Equation Environments

• \begin{equation}...\end{equation} and equation*
• \begin{align}...\end{align} and align*
• \begin{gather}...\end{gather} and gather*
• \begin{multline}...\end{multline} and multline*
• Display equations: $$...$$
• Inline equations: $...$

Text Formatting

• \textbf{...}, \textit{...}, \texttt{...}, \emph{...}
• \textsubscript{...}, \textsuperscript{...}
• \mathrm{...}, \mathbf{...}, \mathcal{...}, \mathbb{...}

Document Structure

• \chapter{...} - converts to title heading (level 0)
• \section{...}, \subsection{...}, \subsubsection{...}
• \begin{figure}...\end{figure} - extracts captions (wrapped as [Caption: ...]) and labels
• \begin{itemize}...\item...\end{itemize} - creates bulleted lists
• \begin{enumerate}...\item...\end{enumerate} - creates numbered lists
• \cite{...} - preserves citation labels as [label]
• \ref{...} - preserves references as [label]
• \reffig{...}, \refeqn{...} - converts to "Fig." and "Eq."

Table Support

• \begin{tabular}{...}...\end{tabular} - converts to Word tables with proper grid formatting
• \begin{tabularx}{width}{...}...\end{tabularx} - supports tabularx with width specifications
• \multicolumn{n}{format}{content} - properly merges cells horizontally (colspan)
• \multirow{n}{width}{content} - preserves multirow structure (content placed in first cell)
• Inline equations in table cells (e.g., $T_2$, $\pm$) - converted to native Word equations
• Table captions and labels - extracted and displayed as [Caption: ...] and [Table: label]
• \hline and \cline{...} - formatting commands are processed (visual borders from table style)
• Note: Support for other table environments (e.g., longtable, array) coming soon

Equation Features

• Equation labels: \label{eqn_name} appears as [eqn_name] below equations
• \resizebox{...}{...}{$...$} - automatically strips wrapper and processes equation
• Inline equations within figure captions are properly converted

Special Handling

• \texorpdfstring{pdf_version}{simple_version} - extracts simple version
• Removes LaTeX comments (% ...)
• Skips preamble (starts from \begin{document} or first section)
• Converts ~ (non-breaking spaces) to regular spaces
• Converts \% to %
• Handles delimiter commands like \Bigl(, \Bigr), etc.

Example

Input LaTeX:

\chapter{Introduction}

\section{Theory}

The energy is given by Einstein's equation:
\begin{equation}
E = mc^2
\label{eqn_energy}
\end{equation}

Key properties:
\begin{itemize}
    \item Mass-energy equivalence as shown in \ref{eqn_energy}
    \item Speed of light $c = 3 \times 10^8$ m/s
\end{itemize}

We define H\textsubscript{2}O concentration as $c$.

\begin{table}[h]
    \centering
    \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|}
        \hline
        \multicolumn{2}{|c|}{Method} & Result \\
        \hline
        Type & $T_2$ (ms) & Value \\
        \hline
        A & 74.3 & $\pm$2.3 \\
        \hline
    \end{tabular}
    \caption{Sample data showing $T_2$ relaxation times}
    \label{tab:results}
\end{table}

Output Word document:

• Chapter heading: "Introduction" (title style)
• Section heading: "Theory"
• Display equation for $E = mc^2$ with label [eqn_energy] below it
• Bulleted list with two items, including inline equation and reference
• Subscript properly formatted in "H₂O"
• Table with merged header cells, inline equations ($T_2$, $\pm$) rendered as Word equations
• Table caption and label displayed as [Caption: ...] and [Table: tab:results]
• All equations rendered as native Word equations

Acknowledgments

This project leverages texmath by John MacFarlane—a comprehensive and well-maintained Haskell package for converting between various mathematical markup formats. We highly recommend checking out the original project for more information on its capabilities.

Development assistance provided by AI.

License

MIT License - See LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues or pull requests.

Roadmap

• Web interface for online conversion (GitHub Pages + backend API)
• Word to LaTeX conversion
• Word to Markdown conversion
• Support for more LaTeX packages and environments
• Batch file conversion

Requirements

• Python 3.7+
• python-docx
• bibtexparser (for BibTeX conversion)
• texmath (Haskell executable)

BibTeX to Word Converter

The latex_bib_to_word.py script converts BibTeX bibliography files to formatted Word documents. Each reference appears with its citation key as a label followed by the formatted reference content.

Supported BibTeX Entry Types

• @article - Journal articles
• @inproceedings / @conference - Conference papers
• @book - Books

Reference Format

Each reference is formatted as:

[citation_key] Author(s), "Title", Journal/Conference, vol. X, no. Y, pp. Z, Month Year, doi: XX.XXXX/XXXXX

Example Input (BibTeX):

@article{Einstein1905,
  author = {A. Einstein},
  title = {On the electrodynamics of moving bodies},
  journal = {Annalen der Physik},
  volume = {17},
  pages = {891-921},
  year = {1905}
}

Example Output (Word):

[Einstein1905] A. Einstein, "On the electrodynamics of moving bodies", Annalen der Physik, vol. 17, pp. 891-921, 1905.