markdown-converter/UPDATES.md

PanConverter - Updates & Changelog

Version 4.0.0 (2026-03-04)

Major Changes

• CodeMirror 6 Editor — Replaced textarea with CodeMirror 6 featuring syntax highlighting, code folding, bracket matching, multiple cursors, and auto-indent
• Sidebar Panel System — Collapsible sidebar with File Explorer, Git, Snippets, and Templates panels
• Command Palette — Ctrl+Shift+P to search and execute all app actions
• Code Execution (REPL) — Run JavaScript, Python, and Bash code blocks directly from the preview

New Features

• Print Preview dialog with paper size, orientation, margins, scale, and page range controls
• Image paste from clipboard and drag-drop support with auto-save to assets folder
• Document templates library (10 templates: blog post, meeting notes, tech spec, changelog, README, project plan, API docs, tutorial, release notes, comparison)
• Markdown extensions: footnotes, admonitions (note/warning/tip/danger/info), and toc table of contents
• PlantUML diagram rendering alongside Mermaid
• Welcome tab with onboarding and "What's New" feature showcase
• System spell checking with context menu suggestions and dictionary support
• Enhanced status bar with word count, character count, line/column, encoding, and language mode
• Grouped toolbar with visual section separators
• Breadcrumb bar showing current file path

New Export/Import Formats

• Reveal.js slides (.html)
• Beamer slides (.pdf)
• Confluence/Jira wiki markup (.txt)
• MOBI e-books (via Calibre)
• Developer formats: JSON, YAML, XML, TOML

Security

• Content Security Policy (CSP) meta tag
• File size validation (50MB limit)
• Error message sanitization (stripped file paths)
• Conversion rate limiting (2-second debounce)

Dependencies Updated

• marked: 16.x to 17.x (with marked-highlight extension)
• pdfjs-dist: 3.x to 5.x (new worker model)
• html2pdf.js: 0.10 to 0.14
• pdfkit: 0.14 to 0.17
• dompurify, docx, and others updated to latest

Testing

• 80 tests across 7 test suites
• New tests for sidebar manager, command palette, print preview, markdown extensions, and utility functions

Breaking Changes

• Editor is now CodeMirror 6 (replaces textarea)
• marked API changed to use marked.use() instead of marked.setOptions()
• pdfjs-dist upgraded to v5 with new worker model

---

Version 2.1.0 (December 14, 2025)

🎨 UI/UX Improvements

Subtle & Small Preview Popout Button

• Redesigned popout button with minimalist aesthetic
• Removed border for cleaner appearance
• Reduced size: 11px font, 2px×6px padding (previously 14px font, 4px×8px padding)
• Added opacity transition: 50% when idle, 100% on hover
• Subtle background effect on hover instead of heavy border styling
• File: src/styles.css:195-211

Simplified Table Headers in Preview

• Removed gradient background from table headers in modern theme
• Changed from var(--primary-gradient) (purple gradient) to simple light gray (#f0f0f0)
• Updated text color to dark (#333333) for better readability
• Clean, professional appearance matching standard themes
• File: src/styles-modern.css:445-449

📥 Enhanced Import Capabilities

Comprehensive Format-to-Markdown Conversion

Dramatically expanded the "Import Document" feature to support 30+ file formats:

Supported Formats:

• Documents: DOCX, ODT, RTF, HTML, HTM, TEX, EPUB, PDF, TXT
• Presentations: PPTX, ODP
• Markup Languages: RST, Textile, MediaWiki, Org-mode, AsciiDoc, TWiki, OPML
• E-book Formats: EPUB, FB2
• LaTeX Formats: TEX, LATEX, LTX
• Web Formats: HTML, HTM, XHTML
• Wiki Formats: MediaWiki, DokuWiki, TikiWiki, TWiki
• Data Formats: CSV, TSV, JSON

Format-Specific Optimizations:

• PDF text extraction with XeLaTeX engine
• CSV/TSV automatic table conversion
• JSON structure handling
• Improved error messages with format hints

Access: File → Import Document (Ctrl+I) File: src/main.js:1933-1994

🎨 Exhaustive ASCII Art Generator

5 New Text Banner Styles

Complete alphabet (A-Z) and numbers (0-9) support for all styles:

1. Standard - Classic ASCII art with slashes and underscores
2. Banner - Large format using # characters (7-line height)
3. Block - Modern Unicode block characters (█ ╔ ╗ ═ ║)
4. Bubble - Circular bubble letters (Ⓐ Ⓑ Ⓒ)
5. Digital - Digital display style (▄ ▀ ▐ ▌)

File: src/renderer.js:3397-3537

19 Professional ASCII Templates

Organized into 4 categories with expanded options:

Arrows & Flow (4 templates):

• Arrow Right - Horizontal flow indicators
• Arrow Down - Vertical flow indicators
• Decision - Binary decision diagrams
• Process Flow - Multi-step process visualization

Diagrams & Charts (6 templates):

• Flowchart - Advanced flowchart with decision branches and loops
• Sequence - Sequence diagrams for User-System-Database interactions
• Network - Server-client network topology
• Hierarchy - Organizational tree structures
• Timeline - Milestone visualization with dates
• Table Simple - Basic table template with borders

Boxes & Containers (4 templates):

• Header - Section header with decorative borders
• Note Box - Important notes with rounded corners (┏━━┓)
• Warning Box - Warning messages with bold borders (╔═══╗)
• Info Box - Information boxes with subtle styling (╭───╮)

Decorative Elements (6 templates):

• Divider - Horizontal section separator (═══)
• Separator Fancy - Elegant rounded divider
• Brackets - Japanese-style brackets 【 】
• Banner Stars - Star-bordered banners
• Checklist - Task lists with ✓ checkmarks
• Progress Bar - Visual progress indicators

Features:

• All ASCII art automatically wrapped in code blocks for proper rendering
• Preserved formatting in markdown preview and all export formats
• Categorized template selection interface
• Real-time preview generation

Access: Tools → ASCII Art Generator Files: src/renderer.js:3513-3671, src/index.html:427-466

📝 Technical Improvements

• Enhanced ASCII art detection in Word template exporter
• Improved monospace font rendering across all export formats
• Better code block preservation in PDF and Word exports
• Optimized template categorization and organization

🔧 Files Modified

• src/styles.css - Preview popout button styling
• src/styles-modern.css - Table header simplification
• src/main.js - Enhanced import function, version update
• src/renderer.js - ASCII art generator enhancements
• src/index.html - ASCII template UI organization
• package.json - Version bump to 2.1.0

---

Version 2.0.0 (Previous Release)

Major Features

• Export Profiles - Save and reuse export configurations
• Mermaid.js diagram support
• Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P)
• GitHub Light/Dark preview themes
• Table Generator
• ASCII Art Generator (basic)
• Resizable Preview Pane
• Pop-out Preview Window
• Configurable page sizes (A3-A5, B4-B5, Letter, Legal, Tabloid, Custom)
• Custom Headers & Footers for exports
• Enhanced PDF and Word export with templates
• 22 beautiful themes

Core Capabilities

• Cross-platform markdown editor with live preview
• Universal document conversion (30+ formats)
• PDF Editor (merge, split, compress, rotate, watermark, encrypt)
• Batch file conversion
• File association support
• Advanced export options
• Multi-tab interface

---

Installation & Usage

Prerequisites

• Pandoc - Required for document conversion
• Optional: LibreOffice, ImageMagick, FFmpeg for universal converter

Download

Get the latest release from: https://github.com/amitwh/pan-converter/releases

Supported Platforms

• Windows (x64)
• Linux (AppImage, .deb, .snap)
• macOS (planned)

---

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please see CLAUDE.md for development guidelines.

Author: Amit Haridas (amit.wh@gmail.com) License: MIT Repository: https://github.com/amitwh/pan-converter