diff --git a/README.txt b/README.md
similarity index 54%
rename from README.txt
rename to README.md
index 768a7d9e0..1a49a6253 100644
--- a/README.txt
+++ b/README.md
@@ -1,17 +1,23 @@
-/*  Copyright 2004-2024 The Apache Software Foundation
- *
- *  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
- *  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
- *  You may obtain a copy of the License at
- *
- *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- *
- *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
- *  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
- *  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
- *  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
- *  limitations under the License.
- */
+<!--
+  - Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
+  - or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
+  - distributed with this work for additional information
+  - regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
+  - to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
+  - "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
+  - with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
+  -
+  -   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+  -
+  - Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
+  - software distributed under the License is distributed on an
+  - "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
+  - KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
+  - specific language governing permissions and limitations
+  - under the License.
+  -->
+
+# Apache XMLBeans™
 
 Welcome to XMLBeans!
 
@@ -31,13 +37,13 @@ Layout of the tree:
 - xkit          contains the README file for the binary distribution
 
 To quickly get started run:
-"gradlew jar" to build XmlBeans or
-"gradlew tasks" to see the most useful build targets or
-"cd bin" and then "<tool_name> -help" for a description of what the
+* "gradlew jar" to build XmlBeans or
+* "gradlew tasks" to see the most useful build targets or
+* "cd bin" and then "<tool_name> -help" for a description of what the
      tool does and what parameters it accepts
  
 For further information check out:
-http://xmlbeans.apache.org
+https://xmlbeans.apache.org
 http://wiki.apache.org/xmlbeans
 ./samples/<sample_name>/README.txt  for running samples
 ./test/docs/*                       for running tests
@@ -45,9 +51,9 @@ http://wiki.apache.org/xmlbeans
 XmlBeans depends on the following external libraries:
 - log4j-api [https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/] for logging
 - javaparser-core (O) [https://github.com/javaparser/javaparser]
-- Saxon-HE (O) [http://saxon.sourceforge.net/]
-  for XPath/XQuery in XmlBeans
+- Saxon-HE (O) [http://saxon.sourceforge.net/] for XPath/XQuery in XmlBeans
 (O) means that the library is optional
 
 For licensing information, see LICENSE.txt
+
 Updated: 1 January 2024.