Bug, Suggestion: Improve Markdown Conversion, Format Support, and Rich Content Extraction

Library version:

• markitdown==0.0.1a3

python version 3.11.9

Summary of Observations

Below are the findings from testing various formats with the library:

Supported Formats

1. Image:
   ✅ Working as expected.

2. Word Documents (e.g., .docx):
   ✅ Working as expected.

3. Excel Sheets (e.g., .xlsx):
   ✅ Working as expected.

4. HTML:
   ✅ Working as expected.

5. XML:
   ✅ Working as expected.

6. ZIP Files:
   ✅ Working as expected.

Partially Supported Formats

1. PDF:
   ⚠️ Content is being extracted but not converted into proper Markdown format.

2. PowerPoint Presentations (e.g., .pptx):
   ⚠️ Content is being extracted but not converted into proper Markdown format.

Unsupported Formats or Errors

1. Audio (e.g., .wav):
   ❌ Encountering an error when processing .wav files. NameError: name 'IS_AUDIO_TRANSCRIPTION_CAPABLE' is not defined

2. JSON:
   ❌ UnsupportedFormatException: Could not convert 'data.json' to Markdown. The formats ['.json', '.json'] are not supported.

3. CSV:
   ❌ UnsupportedFormatException: Could not convert 'data.csv' to Markdown. The formats ['.csv'] are not supported.

Suggestions for Improvement

1. Provide Metadata Information:

   • Include additional metadata, such as page numbers, in the extracted Markdown content. This can be useful for tracking and reference purposes.

2. Handle Embedded Images in PDFs and Documents:

   • Utilize LLM models, such as GPT-4 or similar, to extract and describe images embedded in PDFs and other documents. Many real-world documents include critical visual information interspersed with text.

3. Improve PDF Text Extraction:

   • Observed that the library uses pdfminer.high_level.extract_text, which extracts only the text. Consider integrating an enhanced approach to extract richer data, such as layout-aware text and embedded elements (e.g., tables, images).

Start by reproducing the reported PDF, PowerPoint, WAV, JSON, and CSV cases with markitdown==0.0.1a3 on Python 3.11.9. Inspect the conversion paths around pdfminer.high_level.extract_text and the format-support logic, then verify that the reported errors and Markdown-formatting gaps are addressed across the listed formats.