Environment Setup for convert-excel-to-md

Follow these steps exactly, in order, before running scripts/convert_excel_to_md.py for the first time in a given environment. Don't skip steps or improvise alternatives — they're written to be deterministic and safe to re-run.

1. Check Python is available (3.10+)

python --version

• If this fails (command not found), install Python 3.10 or newer:
  • Windows: winget install --id Python.Python.3.12 -e
  • macOS: brew install python@3.12
  • Linux (Debian/Ubuntu): sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install -y python3 python3-pip python-is-python3
• If the reported version is older than 3.10, install a newer Python using the same command above (MarkItDown requires 3.10+).

2. Check pip is available

python -m pip --version

• If this fails, bootstrap pip:

python -m ensurepip --upgrade

3. Install MarkItDown with Excel (.xlsx) support

Use the scripts/requirements.txt file bundled with this skill to install a pinned, known-good version of the dependency:

python -m pip install -r scripts/requirements.txt

This pulls in markitdown[xlsx] (MarkItDown's XLSX table conversion dependencies, which include pandas and openpyxl). No extra package is needed for image extraction — this skill's script reads embedded images directly from the .xlsx zip structure using Python's built-in zipfile and xml modules.

4. Verify the install

python -c "from markitdown import MarkItDown; print('markitdown OK')"

Expect to see markitdown OK printed with no errors. If you see ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'markitdown', repeat step 3 — pip may be installing into a different Python environment than the one being invoked (check python -m pip --version shows the same path as python --version's interpreter).

Notes

• This setup only needs to be done once per environment/virtual environment, not once per conversion.
• convert_excel_to_md.py itself also checks for markitdown at startup and prints a pointer back to this file if it's missing, so re-running setup is safe and idempotent.
• Only .xlsx is supported by this skill. Legacy binary .xls files are out of scope (a completely different, harder-to-parse file format) — ask the user to re-save the file as .xlsx (Excel: File > Save As > Excel Workbook (.xlsx)) if one is encountered.
• Chart objects (as opposed to embedded pictures) are not extracted as images — only raster pictures actually embedded in the workbook's xl/media folder are. Native Excel charts would need to be rendered by Excel/LibreOffice to become images, which this lightweight skill does not attempt.