diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index ceeedf5..998c933 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@
 ## Internal changes
 
 * Drop **jpeg** package from suggests, which is formerly used in a vignette (#42).
-
+* `colformat_md` converts cells to Pandoc's AST by a single call of Pandoc. Previously it called pandoc for each cell. This change improves performance around 15X faster (#46).
 
 # ftExtra 0.1.1
 * Fix math not rendered on Windows with Pandoc < 2.10 (#33)
diff --git a/R/as-paragraph-md.R b/R/as-paragraph-md.R
index bc42c59..771dd96 100644
--- a/R/as-paragraph-md.R
+++ b/R/as-paragraph-md.R
@@ -34,6 +34,29 @@ lua <- function(...) {
   c("--lua-filter", system.file("lua", ..., package = "ftExtra"))
 }
 
+lua_filters <- function(.sep) {
+  if (!rmarkdown::pandoc_available("2")) return(NULL)
+
+  c(
+    lua("smart.lua"),
+    lua("inline-code.lua"),
+    if (rmarkdown::pandoc_available("2.7.3")) {
+      c(
+        lua("math.lua"),
+        paste0("--metadata=pandoc-path:", rmarkdown::pandoc_exec()),
+        if (!rmarkdown::pandoc_available("2.10")) {
+          paste0("--metadata=temporary-directory:", tempdir())
+        }
+      )
+    },
+    if (rmarkdown::pandoc_available("2.2.3")) {
+      c(lua("blocks-to-inlines.lua"), paste0("--metadata=sep_blocks:", .sep))
+    }
+  )
+}
+
+
+
 parse_md <- function(x,
                      auto_color_link = "blue",
                      pandoc_args = NULL,
@@ -44,43 +67,37 @@ parse_md <- function(x,
     stop("`auto_color_link` must be a string")
   }
 
-  filters <- if (rmarkdown::pandoc_available("2")) {
-    c(
-      lua("smart.lua"),
-      lua("inline-code.lua"),
-      if (rmarkdown::pandoc_available("2.7.3")) {
-        c(
-          lua("math.lua"),
-          paste0("--metadata=pandoc-path:", rmarkdown::pandoc_exec()),
-          if (!rmarkdown::pandoc_available("2.10")) {
-            paste0("--metadata=temporary-directory:", tempdir())
-          }
-        )
-      },
-      if (rmarkdown::pandoc_available("2.2.3")) {
-        c(lua("blocks-to-inlines.lua"), paste0("--metadata=sep_blocks:", .sep))
-      }
-    )
-  }
+  md_df <- md2df(
+    x,
+    pandoc_args = c(lua_filters(.sep = .sep), pandoc_args),
+    .from = .from,
+    .check = TRUE
+  )
 
-  md_df <- md2df(x, pandoc_args = c(filters, pandoc_args), .from = .from)
-
-  if (is.null(.footnote_options) || (all(names(md_df) != "Note"))) {
-    y <- md_df
-  } else {
-    .footnote_options$n <- .footnote_options$n + 1L
-    ref <- data.frame(txt = .footnote_options$ref[[.footnote_options$n]],
-                      Superscript = TRUE,
-                      stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
-    .footnote_options$value <- c(
-      .footnote_options$value,
-      list(construct_chunk(as.list(dplyr::bind_rows(ref, md_df[md_df$Note, ])),
-                           auto_color_link))
-    )
-    y <- dplyr::bind_rows(md_df[!md_df$Note, ], ref)
+  id <- pandoc_attrs(md_df$Div, "id")
+  cells <- unname(split(dplyr::select(md_df, !"Div"), factor(id, levels = unique(id))))
+
+  lapply(cells, function(cell) {
+    y <- solve_footnote(cell, .footnote_options, auto_color_link)
+    construct_chunk(as.list(y), auto_color_link)
+  })
+}
+
+solve_footnote <- function(md_df, .footnote_options, auto_color_link) {
+  if (is.null(.footnote_options) || !any(md_df[["Note"]])) {
+    return(md_df)
   }
 
-  construct_chunk(as.list(y), auto_color_link)
+  .footnote_options$n <- .footnote_options$n + 1L
+  ref <- data.frame(txt = .footnote_options$ref[[.footnote_options$n]],
+                    Superscript = TRUE,
+                    stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
+  .footnote_options$value <- c(
+    .footnote_options$value,
+    list(construct_chunk(as.list(dplyr::bind_rows(ref, md_df[md_df$Note, ])),
+                         auto_color_link))
+  )
+  dplyr::bind_rows(md_df[!md_df$Note, ], ref)
 }
 
 construct_chunk <- function(x, auto_color_link = "blue") {
@@ -147,7 +164,16 @@ as_paragraph_md <- function(x,
                             pandoc_args = NULL,
                             .from = "markdown+autolink_bare_uris",
                             ...) {
-  structure(lapply(x, parse_md,
+  x <- paste(
+    purrr::map2_chr(
+      x,
+      paste0('cell', seq_along(x)),
+      function(x, id) sprintf('<div id="%s">%s</div>', id, x)
+    ),
+    collapse = ''
+  )
+
+  structure(parse_md(x,
                    auto_color_link = auto_color_link,
                    pandoc_args = pandoc_args,
                    .from = paste0(.from, paste(md_extensions, collapse="")),
diff --git a/R/md2df.R b/R/md2df.R
index 17940c1..797369f 100644
--- a/R/md2df.R
+++ b/R/md2df.R
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@ has_attr <- function(x) {
 }
 
 add_type <- function(x, t) {
-  parents <- if (is.list(t)) t else stats::setNames(list(TRUE), t)
   child <- stats::setNames(
     list(structure(
       if (isTRUE(x$t %in% c("Image", "Link"))) x$c[[3]][[1]] else TRUE,
@@ -35,7 +34,7 @@ add_type <- function(x, t) {
     x$t
   )
 
-  x$t <- c(child, parents)
+  x$t <- c(child, if (is.list(t)) t else stats::setNames(list(TRUE), t))
 
   if (has_attr(x$c)) x$c <- x$c[[2]]
 
@@ -53,6 +52,9 @@ resolve_type <- function(x) {
   if (identical(names(x$c), c("t", "c"))) {
     return(add_type(x$c, x$t))
   }
+  if (identical(x$t, "Div")) {
+    return(resolve_type(add_type(x, list())))
+  }
   return(lapply(x$c, add_type, x$t))
 }
 
@@ -127,7 +129,8 @@ ast2df <- function(x) {
   x$blocks %>%
     flatten_ast() %>%
     lapply(branch2list) %>%
-    lapply(purrr::map_at, "Image", list) %>%
+    # Div is not for users, but for processing multiple cells at once
+    lapply(purrr::map_at, c("Div", "Image"), list) %>%
     lapply(format_by_attr) %>%
     lapply(drop_Para) %>%
     dplyr::bind_rows() %>%
@@ -137,16 +140,16 @@ ast2df <- function(x) {
 
 #' Convert Pandoc's Markdown to data frame
 #' @noRd
-md2df <- function(x, .from = "markdown", pandoc_args = NULL) {
+md2df <- function(x, .from = "markdown", pandoc_args = NULL, .check = FALSE) {
   ast <- md2ast(x, .from = .from, pandoc_args = pandoc_args)
 
   ast$blocks <- ast$blocks[
     !vapply(ast$blocks,
-            function(x) identical(c(x$t, x$c[[1]][[1]]), c("Div", "refs")),
+            function(x) identical(c(x$t, x$c[[1L]][[1L]]), c("Div", "refs")),
             NA)
   ]
 
-  if ((ast$blocks[[1]]$t != "Para") || (length(ast$blocks) > 1)) {
+  if (.check && any(vapply(ast$blocks, function(x) length(x$c[[2L]]), 0L) > 1L)) {
     stop("With Pandoc < 2.2.3, markdown text must be a single paragraph")
   }
 
diff --git a/docs/news/index.html b/docs/news/index.html
index 45bbda5..d282709 100644
--- a/docs/news/index.html
+++ b/docs/news/index.html
@@ -156,6 +156,8 @@ <h2 class="hasAnchor">
 <a href="#internal-changes" class="anchor"></a>Internal changes</h2>
 <ul>
 <li>Drop <strong>jpeg</strong> package from suggests, which is formerly used in a vignette (<a href='https://github.com/atusy/ftExtra/issues/42'>#42</a>).</li>
+<li>
+<code>colformat_md</code> converts cells to Pandoc’s AST by a single call of Pandoc. Previously it called pandoc for each cell. This change improves performance around 15X faster (<a href='https://github.com/atusy/ftExtra/issues/46'>#46</a>).</li>
 </ul>
 </div>
 </div>
diff --git a/inst/lua/blocks-to-inlines.lua b/inst/lua/blocks-to-inlines.lua
index 0f22eaa..497ab3d 100644
--- a/inst/lua/blocks-to-inlines.lua
+++ b/inst/lua/blocks-to-inlines.lua
@@ -4,7 +4,9 @@ function Meta(meta)
     ) or {pandoc.LineBreak(), pandoc.LineBreak()}
 end
 
-function Pandoc(doc)
-  doc.blocks = {pandoc.Para(pandoc.utils.blocks_to_inlines(doc.blocks, sep))}
-  return doc
+function Div(div)
+  div.content = {pandoc.Para(pandoc.utils.blocks_to_inlines(div.content, sep))}
+  return div
 end
+
+return {{Meta = Meta}, {Div = Div}}