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Importing from Markdown (Obsidian) and Word

Most authors don't start a manuscript inside Scribe. They start in the tool they already trust — an Obsidian vault, a stack of plain Markdown files, or a Microsoft Word document with thirty chapters and forty years of habits baked in. This tutorial walks through the two most common migration paths into a clean Scribe project:

  • Part A — Markdown / Obsidian → Scribe
  • Part B — Word (.docx) → Scribe

Both parts produce the same end state: a properly structured Scribe project where chapters are managed as Markdown documents, images live in the project assets, and the file tree order and inclusion settings are ready for preview and export.

Plan to spend about 30 minutes per part on a novel-length manuscript.

Before you start​

You'll need:

  • a finished or in-progress manuscript in either Markdown / Obsidian or Word format,
  • Scribe installed and signed in (any plan; Free is enough for the import),
  • a backup of your source folder or .docx file.

Make a backup of your source folder or .docx before you begin. Import does not replace that backup. Check the imported content before deciding where you will maintain the manuscript from then on.

Part A — Markdown / Obsidian → Scribe​

A1. Create an empty Scribe project​

  1. Open Scribe and choose New project on the welcome screen.
  2. In the system folder picker, create or select an empty folder named after your manuscript.
  3. Scribe opens that folder as an empty Project.

Keep your source manuscript outside this folder until you are ready to import it.

A2. Import folders and files​

Most Obsidian vaults and Markdown manuscript folders already look roughly like a Scribe project:

my-novel/
├── 01-opening.md
├── 02-encounter.md
├── 03-rising.md
└── images/
    ├── map.png
    └── chapter-3-divider.png

In your new Scribe Project, choose Import > Import folder in the left file tree action bar. Scribe can bring in .md, .markdown, .txt, and .docx files together, preserving the original folder hierarchy where possible.

If you prefer to organise files by hand, put the chapter Markdown files in the manuscript folder and collect images under assets/. Scribe detects new files and refreshes the file tree.

A3. Check names, structure, and front matter​

Folder import uses each filename as the basis for the Scribe document name. Review the imported names, hierarchy, and body structure before continuing.

YAML front matter from Obsidian is not copied into Project Settings. Review fields such as tags, cssclass, and publish; keep, rewrite, or remove them according to how you want the manuscript to read. Enter book and publishing information in Project Settings separately.

A4. Rewrite Obsidian-specific syntax​

Obsidian adds a few Markdown extensions that Scribe does not interpret natively. Decide once per project how you want each to land:

Obsidian syntaxRecommended replacement in Scribe
[[Internal link]]Plain link [Internal link](./other-chapter.md), or just italicise the title if it isn't a real cross-reference.
[[Image.png]] embedStandard Markdown image ![](assets/Image.png).
![[Note#Heading]] transclusionManually copy the relevant content into the manuscript. Scribe does not insert linked note content automatically.
==highlight==Wrap in *emphasis* or remove. Highlights don't carry meaning in print.
%%comment%%Standard HTML comment <!-- comment -->.
Callouts (> [!note])Convert to a regular blockquote, or drop the marker line and keep the body.

A simple two-pass workflow:

  1. In your operating system, open the project folder in a text editor that supports find-and-replace across files (VS Code, Sublime, BBEdit, Neovim).
  2. Run the replacements in the table above in order, from least to most invasive.

You don't have to fix every link before opening the project in Scribe — broken links don't crash anything. They just show up as plain text. You can clean them up as you re-read.

A5. Check chapter order​

Once your imported chapters are visible in the file tree, drag them into the intended reading order and open a few files to confirm their content.

A6. Fill in project metadata​

This is the moment to fill in Project Settings from the left sidebar: title, subtitle, author, language, description, and an EPUB cover if needed. This information is used in EPUB export and shortcodes, so doing it now saves work later.

Part B — Word (.docx) → Scribe​

Scribe can import .docx files directly. Clean styles in Word first, then use File > Import Document… for one file or Import > Import folder for a folder. DOCX import preserves common text structure, but it does not reproduce the complete Word layout.

B1. Clean the Word document first​

A small amount of housekeeping in Word makes the imported Markdown much nicer to read:

  • accept all Track Changes,
  • remove comments,
  • normalise styles: chapter titles use Heading 1, scene breaks use Heading 2 or three centred asterisks, body text uses the default body style,
  • remove any page breaks inside chapters; Scribe inserts page breaks based on structure, not on hand-placed breaks,
  • keep any image-caption text you still need. Images must be added again in Scribe after import, and Scribe does not currently provide a separate image-caption field.

B2. Import the .docx​

For a single Word document, use File > Import Document…. If your book is already split into multiple .docx chapter files, choose Import > Import folder.

After import, check the preview for these items first:

  • headings, paragraphs, bold, italic, links, lists, quotations, and code remain in the expected order;
  • scene breaks remain in the right locations;
  • tables, images, footnotes, and endnotes are recreated or rewritten as needed.

B3. Split by heading when needed​

Before importing a long document, enable Split document by # heading if each level-one heading should start a separate Scribe document. For long manuscripts, separate documents make file-tree order, compilation choices, and export range easier to manage.

B4. Clean up import artefacts​

Word documents often carry years of formatting habits. After import, make one quick pass for:

  • Wrappy paragraphs — if any paragraphs still feel awkward, run a find-and-replace to delete soft-wraps inside paragraphs.
  • Smart quotes — the import usually preserves Word's curly quotes. Good. Don't "fix" them to straight quotes.
  • Bookmark anchors — remove anchors you don't need. Keep the ones you cross-reference in the manuscript.
  • Inline styles — Word character styles may not map one-to-one to Markdown. Replace these with plain *italic* or **bold** where appropriate.
  • Tables — rewrite them as regular paragraphs, lists, or images when needed.
  • Images — add them again with Insert image > Import from disk….

B5. If you prefer pandoc​

If your team prefers CLI workflows or needs batch conversion, you can still use pandoc to convert .docx files into GitHub-Flavoured Markdown first, then follow the Markdown import flow in Part A. This path is useful when you want to review converted files outside Scribe before importing them.

What you've learned​

  • How to map an Obsidian vault into a Scribe project layout.
  • How to neutralise the Obsidian-specific syntax that Scribe does not interpret.
  • How to import Word .docx, check the preserved text structure, and recreate unsupported elements.
  • How to organise metadata, images, and compile order so the rest of the Scribe workflow runs smoothly.

Where to go next​