After exploring this problem a little more, I think I see the problem.
First, the regex does preserve whatever indenting was used (even a mix of tabs and spaces, as in the last two lines of the example text), applying a hypen+space before the first word of the line. Here's the output:
That improves on the OP's original regexes.
But it doesn't convert to Markdown in the two Markdown editors I tried (Texts and Obsidian). Instead, the hyphens are escaped. Which is apparently what the OP's screen shots were showing.
Sorry for the confusion. Outright prolonged applause for @ComplexPoint.
I thought you were trying to apply Markdown list markup to indented lines.
I don't understand where you got your bulleted/hyphened lines, but you would search ^• for that and replace with nothing at all to get Markdown list format.
Hmm, is the problem that you ran the macro on the original Mindnode text (which seems like it might have been a list already) rather than the n indented Atom text?
If that doesn't help, supply the actual text you want to convert to Markdown list format.
We would probably be clearer about what the requirement actually is if the sample source were shown
```
as text between markdown triple backticks
```
or provided as a text file attachment, rather than as a graphic image.
iThoughtsX and MindNode clipboards, for example typically paste tab-indented outlines, but your graphic showס something that might, for example, be indented by double spaces ?
PS on the output side, Markdown parsers typically (See CommonMark, for example) expect each level in the the indentation of MD bullet nests to differ by four space characters exactly.
So the solution offered didn't look to me like it separated out the white space at the front from the rest of the item. That's what's needed - so an asterisk can be spliced between the white space and the rest of the line.
A related question, I'm grappling with a little right now in md2pptx development, is whether the white space created by MindNode is the right white space. (It probably is.)
I'm also wondering whether MindNode has its own native Markdown export.
That is actually the problem I have with Markdown indentation in md2pptx. I might implement a "liberal/smart" algorithm there. But certainly allow an option of 2 / 4 spaces for 1 level of indentation. (Currently md2pptx converts tabs into 4 spaces early on.)
But if it's consistently tabs that MindNode is emitting then that is a much simpler (RegEx) problem.
