Support

Last updated 24 July 2026

Getting started

Which files can it open?

Markdown, in every extension it travels under: .md, .markdown, .mdown, .mkd, and .mdx. It also opens the plain-text files that sit alongside your notes, so a package.json or a CI workflow does not send you out of the app: .json, .yaml, .yml, .toml, .ini, .cfg, .conf, .txt, .text, .log, and .csv. Those render as highlighted text rather than as Markdown. MarkdownRender reads the files already sitting in your folders, so there is no import step and no library to add anything to.

Opening a folder

Choose Open… and pick a folder. It becomes a pinned root in the sidebar, with its tree of files underneath. You can pin several roots at once and work across all of them, and the filter field above the tree narrows to the file you want by name. Files you have had open recently appear under Recents.

Why does it ask permission for each folder?

MarkdownRender runs inside the macOS App Sandbox, which means it can only read the locations you hand it. Granting a folder stores a security-scoped bookmark so the app can reopen it after a relaunch without asking again. Nothing outside the roots you pinned is visible to the app.

Reading and rendering

The four view modes

Preview renders the document. Source shows the Markdown itself. Split puts the editor and a live-updating preview side by side. Live is a single pane that hides the markup and shows the formatting inline, revealing the raw syntax only on the line you are editing. The mode is a toggle in the toolbar and applies to the tab you are looking at.

Which flavour of Markdown?

GitHub-flavored Markdown, via marked in GFM mode. Tables, task lists, and fenced code render the way they do on GitHub. Footnotes and GitHub's > [!NOTE] callouts are not supported: both are extensions beyond GFM and no extension is loaded. The rendered document follows your system light or dark appearance, and there are six colour themes to choose from.

Code blocks and diagrams

Fenced code blocks are syntax-highlighted in about three dozen languages, the common set that ships with highlight.js: the C family, Go, Rust, Swift, Python, Ruby, PHP, JavaScript and TypeScript, shell, SQL, and the config formats. Mermaid blocks (flowcharts, sequence diagrams, graphs) render live in Mermaid's strict mode. Both engines are vendored inside the app rather than fetched from a CDN, so highlighting and diagrams work with the network off. If a block will not render, the cause is its syntax.

Getting around

Quick Open and search

⌘P opens Quick Open: start typing and it finds files by name across every pinned root. ⇧⌘F searches the contents of those roots instead, for when you remember a phrase rather than a filename.

Tabs

Open documents sit in tabs. ⌘1 through ⌘9 jump straight to a tab by position, and ⌃Tab cycles through them. A tab with unsaved changes carries a dot, and closing one asks before it discards anything.

Wiki-links and backlinks

[[Links]] resolve across every pinned root, not just the folder the current file is in, so a vault split over several directories still links up. The backlinks pane lists the documents pointing at the one you are reading, and the outline pane gives you its headings. Both dock beside the document.

Vim mode

There is a full Vim mode, motions and commands included: j and k to move, :wq to write and close. Nearly everything above is reachable without the mouse.

Editing

Can I edit files, or only read them?

You can edit. Most of the feature set is weighted towards reading, but Source mode is a real editor, and saves write to your own file in place.

Is there a backup or version history?

No. The app edits your files directly and keeps no copies of its own, so your files stay in whatever backup or version control you already use for them. There is also no autosave: writing happens when you ask for it, with ⌘S or :w. See section 5 of the Terms of Use.

Requirements

What do I need to run it?

macOS 14 or later, on Apple silicon or Intel. The app is free, and built in SwiftUI. The window has a minimum size of 920×620, which is what the sidebar, document, and docked panes need to sit side by side.

Is there an iPhone, iPad, or Windows version?

No. MarkdownRender is a Mac app only.

Privacy

Does anything leave my Mac?

There are no accounts, no analytics, and no telemetry. Rendering, highlighting, and diagrams all happen on-device, so the app works on a machine that has never been online. The one exception is a remote image: if a document you open links to an image on the web, the preview fetches it, the same way any viewer would. Your files themselves are never uploaded anywhere. The Privacy Policy is the long version.

Where are my settings kept?

On your Mac, using standard macOS mechanisms: your theme, your pinned folders, and your open tabs, so a relaunch puts you back where you were. There is no sync and no server copy.

Reporting a bug

Email markdownrenderapp@tallbottech.com.au. Include your macOS version, the app version, and what you did and expected. Because nothing is transmitted, we cannot see your document. If a rendering fault is one you can share, a small sample file that reproduces it is the fastest route to a fix.