Description
QH Markdown Exporter lets you export any combination of post types and statuses as Markdown files — perfectly formatted for Obsidian and other Markdown-based note-taking apps.
Key features:
- YAML frontmatter — title, source URL, author, published date, description, tags, and full hierarchical categories
- Extended metadata (optional, on by default) — adds
word_count,outline(ordered H2–H4 heading list), andinternal_links(structured list of links to other exported posts) to each file’s frontmatter — ideal for AI/SEO tooling - Clean content — strips sidebars, widgets, navigation, related-posts blocks, social-share plugins, and other injected noise
- GFM tables — converts HTML tables to GitHub-Flavored Markdown pipe tables
- Bulk export — export your entire site at once or filter by post type, status, and date range
- Large-site support — chunked AJAX export with live progress bar handles sites with thousands of posts
- Sitemap export — optional
sitemap.jsonbundled in the ZIP: hierarchical pages tree, posts grouped by category, and custom post types — ready for AI/LLM ingestion - No dependencies — pure PHP with no external libraries required
Output format:
Each post becomes a .md file named YYYY-MM-DD_Post Title.md containing:
`
title: “Post Title”
source: “https://yoursite.com/post-slug/”
author:
– “[[Author Name]]”
published: 2024-01-15
created: 2024-06-01
description: “Post excerpt or auto-generated summary…”
tags:
– tag-name
categories:
– “Parent > Child”
word_count: 1250
outline:
– “## What This Post Covers”
– “### Step One”
– “## Conclusion”
internal_links:
– slug: “related-post-slug”
anchor: “related post title”
url: “https://yoursite.com/related-post-slug/”
Post Title
Post body in Markdown…
`
The word_count, outline, and internal_links fields are added when Include extended metadata is ticked (default: on). internal_links only lists links to other posts included in the current export — external links and links to non-exported content are excluded.
All files are bundled into a single ZIP archive named {sitename}_md_export_YYYY-MM-DD.zip.
Installation
- Upload the
qh-markdown-exporterfolder to the/wp-content/plugins/directory, or install directly through the WordPress plugin screen. - Activate the plugin through the Plugins screen in WordPress.
- Go to Tools MD Exporter.
- Select the post types and statuses you want to export, optionally set a date range, and click Export & Download ZIP.
FAQ
-
Which post types are supported?
-
All public post types registered on your site are available. The
attachmentpost type is excluded by default. -
How does it handle large sites?
-
For exports above 100 posts the plugin automatically switches to a chunked AJAX export. You will see a live progress bar. Each batch of 100 posts is processed separately to avoid server timeouts.
-
Does it export images?
-
Image tags are converted to Markdown
format pointing to the original URLs on your site. The image files themselves are not downloaded or included in the ZIP. -
What capability is required to use the exporter?
-
Users must have the
exportcapability (Editor role and above by default). -
Will it conflict with page-builder plugins?
-
The exporter reads raw
post_contentand processes it throughdo_blocks()(Gutenberg) then converts HTML to Markdown. It intentionally bypassesthe_contentfilters to avoid injected content from page builders and other plugins.
Reviews
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Contributors & Developers
“QH Markdown Exporter” is open source software. The following people have contributed to this plugin.
Contributors
Translate “QH Markdown Exporter” into your language.
Interested in development?
Browse the code, check out the SVN repository, or subscribe to the development log by RSS.
Changelog
1.6.0
- Added Include extended metadata option (enabled by default) — appends three new fields to each file’s YAML frontmatter:
word_count— integer word count of the post body (plain text, no HTML).outline— ordered list of H2, H3, and H4 headings with Markdown prefix (##,###,####).internal_links— structured list of links that point to other posts included in the same export, each withslug,anchortext, and canonicalurl. Links to pages, categories, or posts outside the export set are excluded, preventing false “broken link” reports in downstream tools.
- Extended metadata can be disabled by unchecking the option — the export then produces the same output as previous versions.
1.5.1
- Refactored sitemap.json output for cleaner AI/LLM consumption.
- Replaced
posts_by_categoryobject (dynamic keys) with acategoriesarray — each category hasid(slug),name, andposts. - Deduplicated posts: each post now appears only once, under its primary category.
- Decoded HTML entities in all titles (
&&, etc.). - Filtered out internal builder CPTs (Elementor library, Gutenberg reusable blocks, etc.) using the
show_in_nav_menusflag. - Converted
custom_post_typesfrom a slug-keyed object to a typed array{ type, label, posts }. - Added
metadatablock: site URL, generation date,total_pages,total_categories,total_posts.
1.5.0
- Added optional sitemap.json export — tick “Include sitemap.json” in the export form to bundle a site structure file into the ZIP.
- Sitemap includes: hierarchical pages tree (parent child), posts grouped by category, and public custom post types.
- Sitemap reflects the live site and intentionally ignores any date-range filters set on the export form.
1.4.0
- Renamed plugin to “QH Markdown Exporter” with slug
qh-markdown-exporterfor WordPress.org compliance. - Renamed all internal prefixes from
pme_/PME_(3 chars) toqhmaex_/QHMAEX_(6 chars) to meet the 4+ character prefix requirement. - Updated text domain from
post-markdown-exportertoqh-markdown-exporteracross all files. - Fixed upload directory path to use
wp_upload_dir()instead of hardcodedWP_CONTENT_DIR . '/uploads/'.
1.3.0
- Renamed plugin to “Post Markdown Exporter” for WordPress.org compliance.
- Fixed output escaping to meet WordPress coding standards.
- Replaced unlink() with wp_delete_file() and file_put_contents() with WP_Filesystem.
- Added wp_unslash() to all sanitized input handling.
- Fixed i18n placeholder ordering in translatable strings.
- Updated “Tested up to” to WordPress 6.9.
1.2.0
- Added chunked AJAX export with live progress bar for large sites.
- Added date range filter.
- Improved filename sanitization with Unicode support.
- Added hierarchical category paths (Parent > Child).
1.1.0
- Added GFM pipe-table conversion.
- Added junk-node removal (navigation, sidebars, social share widgets).
- Added YAML frontmatter with author, tags, and categories.
1.0.0
- Initial release. Basic HTML-to-Markdown export with ZIP download.