This Markdown table formatter re-aligns the pipes of every table in a document and leaves the rest of the text untouched. Paste a messy table or a whole README and copy the tidy version.
Last updated:
How it works
Paste Markdown
Paste a single table or a whole document, drop a .md file or open one from a URL. All tables are found, code blocks are skipped.
Choose the style
Keep the alignment as written or set it for all columns, pad the cells so the pipes line up or make the table compact.
Copy the result
The formatted document appears on the right with a rendered preview; copy it or download it as .md.
Features
Whole documents
Headings, lists, code and text between the tables stay byte for byte; only the table lines change, with the document's own line endings.
Width-aware padding
Chinese, Japanese and Korean characters and emoji count as two columns, so the pipes line up in a monospace editor.
Repairs
Short rows get empty cells, the delimiter row gets one segment per column, and missing outer pipes are added.
Cells untouched
Cell content is kept exactly: escaped pipes, inline code, links and <br> are not changed, so the rendered table is the same.
One table or all
Format every table at once, or choose a single table from the list and leave the others as they are.
Limits & privacy
Documents can be up to 10 MB. Files above 5 MB are formatted from the file without loading them into the editor.
Tables inside lists or block quotes and HTML tables are left as they are. A table whose delimiter row has a different number of columns than its header is not a table for GitHub either, so it is not changed – fix the header first. A table started right after a paragraph line is still recognised, as on GitHub.
Formatting runs in your browser; see the privacy page.
FAQ
How do I format a Markdown table?
Paste it. The pipes are aligned immediately; copy the result back into your file.
Does it change the content of my cells?
No. Only spaces, pipes and the delimiter row change, so the table renders exactly as before.
Can I format all tables in a README at once?
Yes. Paste the whole README: every table is formatted and the rest of the document is kept.
What happens to a row with too many cells?
GitHub ignores cells beyond the header width, so they are removed and a warning gives the line number.
How do I make a table compact instead?
Turn off Align columns. Each cell then has a single space around it, which keeps diffs small.
Is it the same as Prettier?
The result is close to Prettier's table formatting, without installing anything, and you can also change the alignment.