Margin

A quiet text editor for the browser and the desktop. Open the editor

How it works

Margin keeps a list of documents in the sidebar. The first line of a document is its title. Everything is saved automatically as you type, on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere, and there is no account.

The view button in the toolbar cycles through Write (plain text), Split (text beside a formatted preview) and Read (preview only). Focus hides everything except the page. Aa sets the theme, typeface, text size and line width.

Keys

Key	Does
`Ctrl` `S`	Save the document to a file
`Ctrl` `O`	Open a file
`Ctrl` `F`	Find and replace. `Enter` and `Shift` `Enter` step through matches
`Ctrl` `B` / `I`	Bold or italic. Press again to remove it
`Tab` / `Shift` `Tab`	Indent or outdent the selected lines
`Enter`	Inside a list, starts the next item. On an empty item, ends the list
`Alt` `N`	New document
`Alt` `P`	Switch view
`Alt` `F`	Focus mode. `Esc` leaves it
`Alt` `L`	Show or hide the document list
`Ctrl` `P`	Print the formatted document, or save it as a PDF

On a Mac, use Cmd where this says Ctrl and Option for Alt.

Files

Margin reads and writes plain text: .md, .markdown and .txt. You can also drag one of those files onto the window to open it.

Where	Open and Save
Desktop app	Native dialogs. After the first save, `Ctrl` `S` writes to the same file
Chrome, Edge	The browser asks which file to use, then saves back to it
Firefox, Safari	Open uploads a copy; Save downloads one

Where your writing lives

The document list is stored on the device by the browser (or by the desktop app). It stays private, and it also means the list goes away if you clear site data or use a private window. For anything you want to keep, use Save.

Formatting

The preview understands a practical subset of Markdown:

Type	Get
`# Title` to `###### Title`	Headings
`bold` `italic` `~~struck~~`	Emphasis
`code` and ``` fences	Inline code and code blocks
`[text](https://…)`	Link
`![alt](https://…)`	Image
`- item`, `1. item`	Lists. Indent by two spaces to nest
`- [ ] task`, `- [x] done`	Task list
`> quote`	Block quote
`---`	Rule

Tables, footnotes and raw HTML are not supported. HTML in a document is shown as text, never run.

Desktop app

The desktop app is the same editor in its own window, with native file dialogs. To run it from source you need Node.js 20 or newer:

git clone https://github.com/PyMite6941/margin
cd margin
npm install
npm run desktop

The README covers development and building an installer.