github / github/paste-markdown
Copied table from Excel is pasted as raw HTML
- Dominant language
- JavaScript
- Stars
- 234
- Forks
- 47
- Avg merge
- 1d 12h
- Merged PRs (30d)
- 5
Description
### To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
1. Copy table from [example_table.xlsx](https://github.com/github/issues/files/11222266/example_table.xlsx)
2. Open Google Chrome and navigated to Web UI on GHES 3.8 instance (This issue is reproduced in GitHub.com as well)
3. Paste it on a issue comment. It is pasted as raw HTML.
```
<!--table
{mso-displayed-decimal-separator:"\.";
mso-displayed-thousand-separator:"\,";}
@page
{margin:.75in .7in .75in .7in;
mso-header-margin:.3in;
mso-footer-margin:.3in;}
.font5
{color:windowtext;
font-size:6.0pt;
font-weight:400;
font-style:normal;
text-decoration:none;
font-family:游ゴシック;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-charset:128;}
tr
{mso-height-source:auto;
mso-ruby-visibility:none;}
col
{mso-width-source:auto;
mso-ruby-visibility:none;}
br
{mso-data-placement:same-cell;}
td
{padding-top:1px;
padding-right:1px;
padding-left:1px;
mso-ignore:padding;
color:black;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-weight:400;
font-style:normal;
text-decoration:none;
font-family:游ゴシック;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-number-format:General;
text-align:general;
vertical-align:middle;
border:none;
mso-background-source:auto;
mso-pattern:auto;
mso-protection:locked visible;
white-space:nowrap;
mso-rotate:0;}
ruby
{ruby-align:left;}
rt
{color:windowtext;
font-size:6.0pt;
font-weight:400;
font-style:normal;
text-decoration:none;
font-family:游ゴシック;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-charset:128;
mso-char-type:katakana;
display:none;}
-->
a | b
-- | --
1 | 2
```
**Expected behavior**
When I pasted the same excel table in Safari, it was formatted as Markdown style.
```
a | b
-- | --
1 | 2
```
**Screenshots**
Copy and paste table from Excel results in both raw HTML and Markdown. It depends on browser
Raw HTML in Chrome

Markdown in Safari
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start by reproducing the Excel-table paste in Chrome and Safari on the web UI, using the attached example_table.xlsx and the provided steps. Trace the browser clipboard and paste handling implicated by the issue. Done means Chrome produces the same Markdown-style table as Safari instead of exposing the raw Excel HTML.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- javascript
- Domain
- frontend
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 3/5
- Estimated time
- 1-2 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100