CodesBeautify

Markdown Viewer

Drop an .md file and read it as a formatted page, with a contents box built from the headings.

Markdown
Document
Runs locally in your browser

About the Markdown Viewer

A .md file opened from disk shows up as raw text with hashes and pipes in the way. This viewer renders it as a page you can actually read, and adds the two things a long document needs: an anchor on every first, second and third level heading, and a contents box at the top linking to each of them. Clicking an entry jumps down the page, so a specification or a long changelog becomes navigable instead of endless.

Anchor slugs are generated from the heading text, lowercased with punctuation replaced by hyphens, and a numeric suffix is appended when two headings would otherwise collide. That matches the scheme GitHub uses closely enough that links you copy usually keep working after you publish. The reading estimate in the status bar counts words outside fenced code blocks at 220 words per minute, which is a reasonable pace for technical prose.

Drag a file onto the left pane and it loads without a dialog; nothing leaves the tab, which matters when the document is an internal design note. Tables, task lists, strikethrough and fenced code all render, and the column can be narrowed for comfortable line length or widened when the document is mostly wide tables. Download saves the rendered page with its styles and contents box embedded, which is a tidy way to send a Markdown file to somebody who will not open one. For editing rather than reading, switch to the Markdown Editor.

How to use

  1. Drag a .md file onto the left pane, or paste the Markdown text.
  2. Leave Build a contents box ticked for anything with more than one heading.
  3. Read on the right, or download the page as self-contained HTML to share it.

Common questions

Are the heading links the same as the ones GitHub generates?
They follow the same rule of lowercasing and replacing punctuation with hyphens, with a number appended for duplicates, so most copied anchors keep working.
How is the reading time worked out?
Words outside fenced code blocks are counted and divided by 220 words per minute, then rounded to the nearest minute with one minute as the floor.
Does opening a file upload it?
No. The file is read by the browser and rendered locally. Nothing is transmitted anywhere.
Will images in the document appear?
Only images referenced by an absolute https URL. Relative paths from the original folder cannot resolve inside the preview frame.