New Mermaid & Graphviz diagrams in markdown preview →

The notepad you've been waiting for.

Tabs. Real syntax highlighting. Live markdown preview when you want one. No project sidebar, no workspace files, no opinions about how you organise.

Download on the Mac App Store

macOS 13 Ventura or later

Multi-tab 30+ languages GFM Markdown Diagrams Export PDF / DOCX Free
README.md — NotepadX
README.md
example.swift
notes.txt
+
B I S H 1.2.3.
1234 5678 9101112
# NotepadX
 
A clean Mac notepad. **Tabs**, syntax highlighting,
and a live markdown preview.
 
## Why?
 
Because TextEdit doesn't *do* code,
and VS Code is way too much for a quick note.
 
## What it has
 
NotepadX

A clean Mac notepad. Tabs, syntax highlighting, and a live markdown preview.

Why?

Because TextEdit doesn't do code, and VS Code is way too much for a quick note.

What it has
  • Multi-tab editing with state restoration
  • Highlight.js syntax colouring
  • GFM markdown preview
README.md Ln 8, Col 26 Markdown UTF-8
Editor

The right kind of fast.

Launch in under a second. Tabs restore exactly where you left them. Line numbers update at sixty frames per second through a hundred-thousand-line document. The editor uses NSTextView, Apple's own document engine — the same one TextEdit, Notes, and Mail are built on.

  • Per-tab state restoration across launches
  • Smart paired characters and selection-wrap
  • Find with match count and yellow highlights
  • External-file-change detection and reload
connection_pool.rs
connection_pool.rs
main.rs
1234 5678
pub struct Pool<B: Backend> {
  inner: Arc<Inner<B>>,
}
 
impl<B: Backend> Pool<B> {
  pub async fn acquire(&self) -> Result<Conn> {
    // Try the free list first.
    let mut free = self.free.lock().await;
connection_pool.rs Ln 8, Col 42 Rust UTF-8
Markdown

A live preview that actually renders.

Open a .md file and the preview pane shows the rendered output side-by-side. Full GitHub-flavoured markdown: tables with column alignment, task lists, fenced code blocks with language-aware syntax highlighting, links, blockquotes, horizontal rules. Print or export to PDF, Word, or plain text.

  • WKWebView-based renderer — same engine as Safari
  • Native cross-paragraph text selection in the preview
  • Paginated PDF export with proper page margins
  • Plain-text export strips markdown markup cleanly
recipe.md
recipe.md
+
B I S H 1.2.3.
12345 6789
# Pour-over
 
| Step   | Time |
| --- | --- |
| Bloom  | 0:30 |
| Pour 1 | 1:00 |
| Pour 2 | 1:30 |
 
**Total: 3 min**
Pour-over
StepTime
Bloom0:30
Pour 11:00
Pour 21:30

Total: 3 min

recipe.md Ln 9, Col 18 Markdown UTF-8
Diagrams

Mermaid and Graphviz, inline.

Drop a ```mermaid or ```dot block in your markdown. NotepadX renders it in the preview and includes it in Print / PDF / Word exports too.

flow.md
flow.md
+
1234 5678
# Deploy pipeline
 
```mermaid
flowchart LR
  Build --> Test
  Test --> Deploy
  Test --> Fail
```
Deploy pipeline
Build Test Deploy Fail
flow.md Ln 6, Col 22 Markdown
arch.md
arch.md
+
1234 5678
# Architecture
 
```dot
digraph {
  Client -> API
  API -> DB
  API -> Cache
```
Architecture
Client API DB Cache
arch.md Ln 5, Col 18 Markdown
Details

Small touches, everywhere.

The kind of polish you don't notice until it's missing — and can't ignore once you've had it.

Find that highlights

⌘F opens an Apple-style sheet with a match-count indicator, Match Case toggle, and yellow highlights painted on every match in the editor. ⌘G cycles.

Smart paired characters

Open a bracket and the closer's there. Select text and type ( to wrap it. Backspace inside an empty pair clears both halves.

External-file watch

Edit a file from another editor and NotepadX picks it up. Clean tab reloads silently; dirty tab asks Keep Mine or Reload from Disk.

Recent Files menu

File → Open Recent, backed by security-scoped bookmarks so it survives App Sandbox and file moves between launches.

Trim on save

Trailing whitespace stripped on ⌘S — through the text view, so the trim lives on the undo stack if you want it back.

Theme & zoom

Light and dark with ⇧⌘T. ⌘+, ⌘−, ⌘0 zoom the editor. Word wrap toggles independently. All where you'd expect.

Philosophy

What it isn't.

Not a word processor.
No bold/italic toolbar for arbitrary text. Just markdown when you want it.
Not a code IDE.
No autocomplete, no language servers, no debugger, no extension store.
Not a note-management app.
No tags, notebooks, or graph view. Files go where you put them, on disk.

The simplest place that knows how to highlight Python and render a markdown table.

Ready when you are.

Available now on the Mac App Store.

Download on the Mac App Store