We will use Pandoc, which is the absolute gold standard for document conversion in the open-source world.
Open your terminal and install it natively via apt:
Bash
sudo apt update
sudo apt install pandoc -y
Navigate to wherever your Word document is saved, and run this command:
Bash
pandoc -f docx -t markdown input_document.docx -o output_document.md
-f docx: From Word format.
-t markdown: To clean Markdown format.
-o: The name of the new file you want to create.
Hugo needs a tiny block of metadata at the very top of the Markdown file (called Front Matter) so it knows how to style the page, what the title is, and when it was made.
Just open your newly converted .md file in nano and paste a clean block like this at the very top:
YAML
---
title: "My Converted IT Guide"
date: 2026-06-28
draft: false
categories: ["Guides"]
tags: ["SysAdmin", "Documentation"]
---
Then, simply drop that file into your Hugo project's content/ directory, and it will render instantly on your site!