Copy and paste markdown table from text editor or jira to confluence adds empty lines between rows

[Enric Martinez]

I have edited a list of words in Notepad++ adding markdown as a table, thus:

|| group | institute | contracts |
|| xxxxx | yyyy | zzzz |

The idea is (obviously) to add this as a table in Confluence.

While this works flawlessly in Jira (text mode), in Confluence it always adds a spacing between each row.

It would already be annoying enough if it were just a blank line. The prospect of having to remove them by hand is nothing I am specially looking forward too, but I could manage.

The "fun" part is that it is just spacing, not a proper line, and it can thus not be removed. 

The result is a crappy set of rows, which adding insult to injury, is each of a different length as the content of the cells (obviously) differ.

My question: Is there a way to avoid that? Or more specifically: Is there a way to avoid that without having to install a costly plugin?