markdown-converter/README.md

MarkdownConverter

A powerful cross-platform Markdown editor and document converter powered by Pandoc, built with Electron. 100% open-source with no proprietary dependencies.

Features

Markdown Editor

- **Multi-tab editing** - Work on multiple files simultaneously - **Live preview** - Real-time markdown rendering with syntax highlighting - **Dynamic splitter** - Drag to resize editor and preview panes - **25+ themes** - Light and dark themes including Atom One Light, Dracula, Nord, Sepia, and more - **Find & Replace** - Search and replace with regex support - **Line numbers** - Toggle line numbers in the editor - **Auto-save** - Automatic saving every 30 seconds - **Math support** - KaTeX integration for mathematical expressions

PDF Viewer & Editor

• Built-in PDF viewer - Open and view PDF files directly in the app
• Page navigation - Navigate pages with keyboard or buttons
• Zoom controls - Zoom in/out, fit to width, fit to page
• Rotation - Rotate pages left or right
• PDF Editor tools:
  • Merge multiple PDFs
  • Split PDFs by page range
  • Compress PDFs
  • Rotate pages
  • Delete pages
  • Reorder pages
  • Add watermarks
  • Password protection
  • Remove passwords
  • Set permissions

Export Options

• PDF - Export to PDF with customizable page sizes and orientation
• DOCX - Standard and Enhanced (template-based) Word export
• ODT - OpenDocument format
• HTML - Web-ready HTML export
• PowerPoint - PPTX presentation export
• EPUB - E-book format
• LaTeX - Academic document format
• RTF - Rich Text Format

Advanced Features

• Custom headers & footers - Add headers/footers to exports with dynamic fields
• Page size configuration - A3, A4, A5, B4, B5, Letter, Legal, Tabloid, or custom sizes
• Batch conversion - Convert entire folders of markdown files
• ASCII Art Generator - Create text banners and diagrams
• Word templates - Use custom Word templates for enhanced exports
• Import documents - Import from 30+ formats (DOCX, PDF, HTML, etc.)
• MarkItDown import - Any file → Markdown via Microsoft MarkItDown: PDF, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX, Outlook .msg, EPUB, images, ZIP (audio/OCR with the [all] extras)
• Excel export - Markdown tables to native .xlsx workbooks (one sheet per table)
• AI Assistant - Multi-provider AI help (OpenAI/Anthropic/Ollama/LM Studio): chat panel, summarize/improve/translate commands, grammar proofreading
• Inline comments - Anchor-based document comments in .comments/ sidecars with F8 navigation
• Wiki-links & Backlinks - [[Note]] links with click-to-create and a "what links here?" panel (local knowledge base)
• Crash recovery - Session restore of open tabs and unsaved buffers after a crash
• Version history - Automatic pre-save snapshots with restore/diff/delete from the History panel
• Vim mode & snippet expansion - Vim keybindings toggle; Tab expands saved snippets
• Quick Note - Global scratchpad (Ctrl+Alt+Q) that appends to notes/quick-notes.md
• Real PDF encryption - Password protection, removal, and permissions actually work
• Offline math & diagrams - KaTeX bundled locally; PlantUML renders locally when the CLI is installed

Installation

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v16 or later)
• Pandoc (required for export functionality)
• Optional: MarkItDown (pip install "markitdown[all]") for any-file → Markdown import

Install Dependencies

npm install

Run the Application

npm start

Build for Distribution

# Windows
npm run build:win

# macOS
npm run build:mac

# Linux
npm run build:linux

Keyboard Shortcuts

Action	Shortcut
New File	Ctrl+N
Open File	Ctrl+O
Open PDF	Ctrl+Shift+O
Save	Ctrl+S
Save As	Ctrl+Shift+S
Export	Ctrl+E
Print	Ctrl+P
Find	Ctrl+F
Undo	Ctrl+Z
Redo	Ctrl+Shift+Z
New Tab	Ctrl+T
Close Tab	Ctrl+W
Toggle Preview	Ctrl+Shift+V
Zoom In	Ctrl+Shift++
Zoom Out	Ctrl+Shift+-
Command Palette	Ctrl+Shift+P
Zen Mode	F11
Writing Analytics	Ctrl+Shift+A
Quick Note	Ctrl+Alt+Q
Universal Converter	Ctrl+Shift+C
Table Generator	Ctrl+Shift+T
ASCII Art Generator	Ctrl+Shift+A
Next Comment	F8
Add Comment at Cursor	Ctrl+Alt+M

Themes

Light Themes

• Atom One Light (Default)
• GitHub Light
• Light
• Solarized Light
• Gruvbox Light
• Ayu Light
• Sepia
• Paper
• Rose Pine Dawn
• Concrete Light

Dark Themes

• Dark
• One Dark
• Dracula
• Nord
• Monokai
• Material
• Gruvbox Dark
• Tokyo Night
• Palenight
• Ayu Dark
• Ayu Mirage
• Oceanic Next
• Cobalt2
• Concrete Dark
• Concrete Warm

PDF Viewer

Open PDF files directly in MarkdownConverter:

• File > Open PDF or Ctrl+Shift+O
• Navigate pages with arrow buttons or page input
• Zoom controls: +/- buttons, Fit Width, Fit Page
• Rotate pages left or right
• Close PDF to return to editor

Bundled Dependencies, Legal Notices & Credits

MarkdownConverter ships as a self-contained package. Everything needed for the core workflows is bundled; a few large optional tools are detected from the system when present.

Bundled with the app

Component	License	Role
Pandoc 3.9	GPL-2.0+ (separate process)	25+ export/import formats
FFmpeg (via ffmpeg-static)	GPL-3.0+ build (separate process)	audio/video tools
MarkItDown (MIT) + embedded Python runtime (PSF)	MIT / PSF	any-file → Markdown import (PDF/DOCX/PPTX/XLSX/Outlook/EPUB/images/ZIP)
sharp + libvips	Apache-2.0 / LGPL-2.1+ (dynamic)	image tools
KaTeX, marked, [highlight.js], [DOMPurify], [mermaid], [CodeMirror 6], pdf-lib (@cantoo fork), pdfjs-dist, JSZip, simple-git	MIT / Apache-2.0 / BSD-3 / MPL-2.0	editor, preview, PDF, Git
JetBrains Mono & Fira Code fonts	SIL OFL 1.1	editor typography

GPL-licensed tools run as separate processes (never linked into the app) and their complete corresponding sources are offered in SOURCES.md. Full details: THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md, also available inside the app under Help → Third-Party Notices & Licenses.

Not bundled (used when installed)

LibreOffice (Office conversion), MiKTeX/TeX Live (LaTeX PDF), ImageMagick (extra image formats), PlantUML + Java (local diagrams), Calibre (MOBI), MarkItDown [all] extras (audio transcription / OCR).

Credits

Built on open source: [Electron], [CodeMirror], [marked], [KaTeX], [highlight.js], DOMPurify, mermaid, [pdf-lib], pdf.js, [sharp]/libvips, [Pandoc], [FFmpeg], [MarkItDown] by Microsoft, [simple-git], [JSZip], [JetBrains Mono], [Fira Code]. Thank you to all their authors and maintainers.

Open Source

MarkdownConverter is 100% open-source. All dependencies are permissively licensed:

• Electron - MIT License
• pdf-lib - MIT License
• pdfjs-dist - Apache 2.0 License
• marked - MIT License
• highlight.js - BSD 3-Clause License
• dompurify - Apache 2.0/MIT License
• docx - MIT License
• xlsx - Apache 2.0 License (SheetJS Community Edition)

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Author

Amit Haridas (amit.wh@gmail.com)

Version

v4.7.1