Text to HTML

Convert plain text to valid HTML markup. Detect paragraphs, headings, lists, bold, italic, and links automatically.

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Free Client-Side Private
🔒 This tool runs entirely in your browser — your files are never uploaded to any server.

The Text to HTML converter is a free, browser-based tool that transforms plain text into valid HTML markup. Type or paste your text, choose your formatting options, and generate clean HTML code ready to drop into any web page. All conversion happens entirely in your browser — nothing is sent to any server.

Features

Feature Detail
Paragraph wrapping Blank-line-delimited blocks become <p>…</p> tags
Heading detection Lines starting with # become <h1>–<h6> elements
Bold and italic **bold** and *italic* inline syntax becomes <strong> and <em>
Unordered lists Lines starting with - or * are grouped into <ul><li> elements
Ordered lists Lines starting with 1., 2. etc. are grouped into <ol><li> elements
Auto-link URLs https:// and http:// URLs become clickable <a href> elements
Single line break Optional: single newlines inside a block become <br>
Entity escaping Converts &, <, >, and " in the source to safe HTML entities
Output indentation Choose 2 spaces, 4 spaces, tab, or no indentation for the generated tags
Live preview Toggle between HTML source view and rendered preview
File load Open .txt, .md, or .text files directly from your device
Stats bar Shows paragraph count, tag count, and output file size
Copy to clipboard Copy the full HTML output with one click
Download .html Save the result as an .html file

How to Use

  1. Type or paste your plain text into the Input area on the left, or click Load file to open a .txt or .md file from your device.
  2. Choose your formatting options in the Options panel.
  3. Click Convert to HTML — the generated markup appears in the output panel on the right.
  4. Click Preview to toggle between the raw HTML source and a rendered preview of the output.
  5. Click Copy to copy the HTML to your clipboard, or Download to save an .html file.

Conversion Options

Wrap Paragraphs

When enabled (default), blank-line-separated blocks of text are wrapped in <p>…</p> tags. Each double newline in your source creates a separate paragraph. Disable this if you prefer bare text without paragraph tags.

Detect Headings

When enabled (default), lines beginning with one or more # characters are converted to the matching HTML heading level. # Title becomes <h1>, ## Section becomes <h2>, and so on up to <h6>.

Bold and Italic

When enabled (default), **double asterisks** are converted to <strong> and *single asterisks* are converted to <em>. Nesting is supported: ***bold italic*** produces <strong><em>.

Lists

When enabled (default), consecutive lines starting with - or * are grouped into a <ul> element. Lines starting with a number followed by a period (e.g. 1., 2.) are grouped into an <ol>. Each item becomes an <li>.

When enabled (default), any URL starting with https:// or http:// in the text is wrapped in an <a href="…"> tag. The URL is used as both the href and the visible link text.

Single <br>

When enabled, a single newline within a paragraph block (not a blank line) is converted to a <br> tag. Useful for address blocks or poetry where line breaks are meaningful. Disabled by default.

Escape HTML Entities

When enabled, literal &, <, >, and " characters in your source text are converted to &amp;, &lt;, &gt;, and &quot;. Enable this when your text contains angle brackets or ampersands that should appear as visible characters rather than being interpreted as HTML. Disabled by default.

Output Indentation

Controls the indent applied inside block tags such as <ul> and <ol>. Choose 2 spaces, 4 spaces, a tab character, or no indentation. This is cosmetic only and does not affect how the HTML renders.

Use Cases

Blog and CMS Content

Write blog posts or article drafts in plain text editors that lack an HTML mode, then convert the finished draft to properly marked-up HTML ready to paste into your CMS or static site template.

README and Documentation Pages

Convert plain-text README files or documentation notes into HTML fragments for embedding in project websites, wikis, or internal knowledge bases.

Email Newsletter Content

Quickly mark up plain-text email copy with paragraph and link tags. Combine with an email template after conversion to produce a ready-to-send HTML message.

Prototyping Page Structure

Sketch out a page hierarchy using headings and bullet points in plain text, then convert to HTML to get a structural skeleton you can style and extend without writing tags by hand.

Batch Data Preparation

Convert lists or structured plain-text outputs from scripts or spreadsheets into HTML lists and tables for display on a web page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does this support full Markdown?

The converter handles the most commonly used Markdown-like syntax: headings, bold, italic, unordered and ordered lists, paragraphs, and URLs. It does not support tables, blockquotes, fenced code blocks, or other advanced Markdown features. For full CommonMark support, use a dedicated Markdown-to-HTML tool.

Is my text sent to a server?

No. All conversion is done entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your text never leaves your device.

Can I convert HTML back to plain text?

Yes — use the companion HTML to Text tool.

What does "Escape entities" do?

When enabled, characters that have special meaning in HTML — &, <, >, and " — are replaced with their HTML entity equivalents. Enable this when your plain-text source contains angle brackets (e.g. in code examples) that should appear as visible text rather than being parsed as HTML tags.

Why is the preview different from the source?

The source view shows the raw HTML tags. The preview view renders that HTML in an iframe, showing how it would look in a browser. Differences in appearance are due to default browser stylesheet applied during rendering.

Can I load Markdown (.md) files?

Yes. Click Load file and select any .txt, .md, or .text file. The converter will apply the same rule set to the file contents. Full Markdown syntax beyond the supported subset will be left as-is.

What output indentation should I use?

For readability during development, 2 or 4 spaces works well. For production code where you want minimal whitespace, choose None. Tab indentation is useful if your project follows tab-based style conventions.

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