Markdown Preview vs HTML to Markdown Render vs Convert — Two Markdown Tools That Work in Opposite Directions

You write documentation in Markdown. You use a Markdown preview to see how it will render. The preview shows you the formatted output. You are looking at the rendered view.

Now you have an old HTML document. You want to convert it to Markdown so you can edit it in a text editor. You use an HTML to Markdown converter. The converter produces Markdown syntax from HTML. You are creating the source code.

The two tools are inverse operations. Markdown preview: Markdown → HTML (render). HTML to Markdown: HTML → Markdown (convert). One goes from source to view. The other goes from view to source. Use the preview to check your work. Use the converter to migrate content. Different directions. Different tools.