Markdown Reader Guide

Markdown Reader is a calm, focused Markdown viewer and editor. It opens .md files and renders them in a clean reading view, and it can edit them too. This guide covers everything the app does. For the Markdown language itself, see the Markdown Reference.

Opening documents

• Open a file — the Open button in the title bar, ⌘O / Ctrl+O, or drag a file onto the window. On the web, Chromium browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave) show a native file picker; other browsers use a standard file dialog.
• Open a folder — ⌘⇧O / Ctrl+Shift+O. The folder appears as a file tree in the sidebar (switch to the Files tab). Markdown Reader watches the folder for changes. Folder mode needs a Chromium browser on the web.
• New document — ⌘N. A blank, editable document; Save As gives it a name.
• Recent documents — the desktop app lists them under File ▸ Open Recent.

Connecting to a NAS or server (desktop)

Choose File ▸ Connect to Server…, press ⌘⇧K / Ctrl+Shift+K, or use Connect to NAS… on the start screen. Markdown Reader supports:

• SFTP
• FTP and encrypted FTPS
• WebDAV over HTTPS
• SMB (experimental)

Enter the server address, credentials, and optional folder within the server, then use Test connection or Save & Open. Saved passwords are encrypted through the operating system keychain and are never sent to the web interface. Remote folders support the file tree, search, backlinks, relative links, images, editing, saving, and session restore just like local folders. The browser version cannot connect directly to these protocols.

Every open document gets a tab. The tab strip appears once two or more are open.

• New tab: ⌘T or the + button
• Close tab: ⌘W, middle-click, or the tab’s ×
• Switch tabs: ⌃Tab / ⌃⇧Tab
• Drag a tab to reorder it; right-click a tab to pin it, close others, or (desktop) reveal it in Finder
• A pinned tab stays at the front and won’t close with ⌘W
• Each tab keeps its own scroll position, edit state and unsaved changes

Reading view

Contents sidebar

Toggle the sidebar with ⌘\ / Ctrl+\ or the ☰ button. The Contents tab shows the document’s headings and highlights the one you’re reading as you scroll. Click a heading to jump to it.

Document info card

If a document starts with a YAML front matter block (see the Markdown Reference), Markdown Reader folds it into a tidy card at the top. Toggle it with ⌘⇧I / View ▸ Show Document Info, or in Preferences ▸ Document metadata.

Code blocks

Hover a fenced code block to reveal its controls in the top-right corner:

The language label sits in the top-left when a language is set on the fence. To wrap every code block by default, use Preferences ▸ Wrap code blocks.

Task lists

Checkboxes in - [ ] / - [x] lists are interactive in the reading view. Ticking or un-ticking one writes the change straight back into the document’s source.

Images

• Local images load from paths relative to the document.
• Remote images (https://…) are blocked by default for privacy. A banner offers to load them for the current document; Preferences ▸ Remote images changes the default.
• Click any image to open it in a lightbox.

Diagrams and math

• Mermaid diagrams render from ```mermaid code blocks. Hover a diagram to export it as SVG or PNG.
• KaTeX renders $inline$ and $$display$$ math.

Links

• Links to https:// open in your browser.
• Links to another local .md file, a #heading, or a [[wikilink]] open in a new tab (wikilinks and relative links resolve within an open folder).

Typography

Preferences (⌘, — the ⚙ button) controls the look:

• Primary color — nine presets plus a custom picker (dark green by default)
• Appearance — Light, Dark, or System
• Text size and Reading width
• Body font — Sans, Serif, or Mono

You can also zoom the whole interface with ⌘+ / ⌘- / ⌘0.

Custom stylesheet

Desktop: create a file called custom.css in Markdown Reader’s application-data folder and it will style the reading view. Web: a custom stylesheet is stored in your browser via Preferences.

Editing

Press Edit (⌘E) to open the split editor: Markdown source on the left, live preview on the right, scroll-synced. Press ⌘E again to return to reading.

Saving

• Save — ⌘S
• Save As — ⌘⇧S
• The title bar and the tab show a dot when there are unsaved changes
• Closing a document with unsaved changes prompts you first
• Desktop: if the file changes on disk while you’re editing, Markdown Reader shows a Reload / Keep my version banner instead of overwriting your work
• Web: in Chromium browsers, Save writes back to the original file; in other browsers it downloads a copy

Formatting shortcuts

Brackets and quotes auto-close around a selection. Line numbers and Vim keybindings are Preferences toggles (Vim can also be flipped from the command palette).

Tables

Put the cursor inside a Markdown table and a small toolbar appears over the editor: add or delete a row, add or delete a column, cycle that column’s alignment, or Tidy to re-align everything. Insert Table and the same actions are in the command palette. The table is rewritten with padded columns each time.

Find and replace

• Find in the reading view — ⌘F
• Find & Replace in the editor — ⌘⌥F (supports regular expressions and search-within-selection)

Format Document

⌘⌥L reformats the Markdown source with Prettier — consistent list markers, heading spacing, wrapped tables, and so on.

Smart paste

While editing:

• Paste an image → it’s saved next to the document (desktop) or downloaded (web), and a link is inserted
• Paste a URL while text is selected → the text becomes a link to that URL
• Paste rich text / HTML → it’s converted to Markdown

Working with a folder of notes

Open a folder (⌘⇧O) to use Markdown Reader as a lightweight notes app:

• File tree in the sidebar’s Files tab
• Quick Open — ⌘P, a fuzzy file switcher
• Search across files — from the command palette, Search in Folder…
• Backlinks — a “Linked from” panel shows which notes link to the current one
• [[wikilinks]] and relative .md links resolve within the folder
• Tags — write #tag (or #project/alpha) anywhere in a note, or list them in the front matter (tags: [a, b]). They render as chips; click one to search for it. The sidebar’s Tags tab lists every tag in the folder with counts.

Exporting and sharing

Automation and MCP (desktop)

Preferences ▸ Local API turns on a small HTTP API on 127.0.0.1 so scripts, automation tools, and AI assistants can list, read, write and search your notes — including the ones on a server. It is off by default and token-protected. There is also a Model Context Protocol bridge for Claude Desktop and Claude Code. See the Automation & MCP guide for setup and the full endpoint list.

The command palette

⌘⇧P opens the command palette — every command by name, searchable. ⌘P is the same palette in “quick open” mode when a folder is open.

Keyboard shortcuts

On Windows and Linux, use Ctrl in place of ⌘.

Privacy

Markdown Reader collects nothing. There is no analytics, no tracking, and no account. Your documents never leave your device. See the Privacy Policy and the Accessibility Statement for details.

Built by Vasyl Madei.