Follow the instructions under "To use the code" to create a new Macro in Word.
Note: This converts the currently open Word document ato Markdown, which removes all the Word formatting (headings, lists, etc.). First save the Word document you plan to converts, and then save the document again as a new document before running the macro. This way you can always go back to the original Word document to make changes.
There are more examples of Word to markdown VB scripts here:
For bulleted lists you can paste a list into Sublime Text and use multiselect ( tested ) or find and replace ( not tested ) to replace eg the proprietary MS Word characters with -, -- etc
This doesn't work with headings but it may be possible to use a similar technique with other elements.
Mammoth is best known as a Word to HTML converter but it now supports a Markdown writer module. When I last checked, Mammoth Markdown support was still in its early stages, so you may find some features are unsupported. As usual ... check the website for the latest details.
Install
To use the Javascript version ... install NodeJS and then install Mammoth:
npm install -g mammoth
Command line
Command line to convert a Word document to Markdown ...
mammoth document.docx --output-format=markdown
API
NodeJS API to convert to Markdown ...
var mammoth = require("mammoth");
mammoth.convertToMarkdown({path: "path/to/document.docx"});
Features:
Mammoth Markdown writer currently supports:
Lists (numbered and bulleted)
Links
Font styles such as bold, italic
Images
The Mammoth command line tools and API have been ported to several languages:
Given that you asked this question on stackoverflow you're probably wanting a programmatic or command line solution for which I've included another answer.
However, an alternative solution might be to use the Writage Markdown plugin for Microsoft Word.
Writage turns Word into your Markdown WYSIWYG editor, so you will be able to open a Markdown file and edit it like you normally edit any document in Microsoft Word. Also it will be possible to save your Word document as a Markdown file without any other converters.
Under the covers, Writage uses Pandoc that you'll also need to install for this plugin to work.
It currently supports the following Markdown elements:
Headings
Lists (numbered and bulleted)
Links
Font styles such as bold, italic
Tables
Footnotes
This might be the ideal solution for many end users as they won't need to install or run any command line tools - but rather just stick with what they are most familiar.
Specifically regarding the question (docx --> markdown), use the Writeage plugin for Microsoft Word. It also works the other way round markdown --> docx.
More Options
Use a Conversion Tool for multi-file conversion.
Use a WYSIWYG Editor for single files and superior fonts.
Which Conversion Tools?
I've tested these three: (1) Pandoc (2) Mammoth (3) w2m
Pandoc
By far the superior tool for conversions with support for a multitude of file types (see Pandoc's man page for supported file types):
pandoc -f docx -t gfm somedoc.docx -o somedoc.md
NB
To get pandoc to export markdown tables ('pipe_tables' in pandoc) use multimarkdown or gfm output formats.
If formatting to PDF, pandoc uses LaTeX templates for this so you may need to install the LaTeX package for your OS if that command does not work out of the box. Instructions at LaTeX Installation
If you wish to preserve unicode characters, emojis and maintain superior fonts, you'll get some milage from the editors below when using copy-and-paste operations between file formats. Note, these do not read or write natively to docx.
For a programatic equivalent, you might get some results by calling a different pdf-engine and their respective options but I haven't tested this. The pandoc defaults to 'pdflatex'.