MarkSchrift is in a limited public beta. It's a live-rendering Markdown editor for iPhone, iPad, and Mac: your words stay plain Markdown on disk while the app renders them beautifully as you write, everything works offline, and your files are always yours. Live collaboration is included as an opt-in alpha — usable today, still being refined.
Want in? Email support@markschrift.com to request a spot. The beta is capped at 250 testers and closes once it's full.
Below is the full story, newest first.
0.8.7 — The first public beta
MarkSchrift's first public beta — a small, capped group of testers, with the editor full-featured and steady for everyday writing on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Live collaboration joins as an opt-in alpha: real-time, end-to-end-encrypted co-editing you can switch on when you want it, still early and evolving. Alongside it: Vim editing, sharper Scripture tools, and a tidied-up set of menus, shortcuts, and Settings.
- Collaboration, opt-in and off by default. Turn it on in Settings ▸ Collaboration when you want to write with others. As an alpha it's still being refined, so expect it to keep evolving — but it's fully end-to-end encrypted already, so the relay only ever sees scrambled data, never your words.
- See who's here, everywhere. Everyone in a session gets their own cursor color — distinct for a full room of up to twelve — and a roster shows who's present, in the app and in the web client. Tap or click a name to jump straight to where that person is writing.
- Pick up where you left off. Leave a session and reopen the document later: if the shared copy is still live, MarkSchrift offers to reconnect you. If your copy has changed in the meantime it asks first — take the shared version, save your own copy, or stay put — so nothing is ever overwritten by surprise.
- Vim keybindings. Optional modal editing on the Mac and on iPad with a hardware keyboard — normal, insert, and visual modes, counts, registers, and
: commands, with a built-in cheat sheet. Your ⌘ shortcuts and smart Return/Tab keep working in every mode. Turn it on in Settings ▸ Keyboard, or with ⌃⇧V.
- One shortcut scheme. MarkSchrift's own commands now share the ⌃⇧ family — Agenda ⌃⇧A, the task sweeps, Reading mode, and more — while the universal ones stay on ⌘. A Keyboard Help panel lists every shortcut.
- Sharper Scripture paste. Paste a passage from Logos and every verse number is caught and set as a true superscript — across English, Greek, and Hebrew — with the reference kept as a tidy link at the end and no stray blank lines.
- Tidier menus and Settings. The ••• menu is shorter and better grouped (insert-and-paste tools together, sharing up top), and Settings is reorganized by what each preference affects.
- Numbered headings join the outline. Number a heading by hand —
## 1. Work — and it takes on your outline style at heading size (Legal A. Work, Decimal 1.1.), with the lists beneath it continuing the same hierarchy. One continuous structure from your biggest heading down to the smallest item, in the editor and in every export.
- Agenda focus filters. Narrow your task Agenda to a single priority, to one person you're waiting on, or hide check-ins whose day hasn't come yet — chips that stack so you see exactly the work you mean to.
- Calmer due dates. Choose how far ahead a deadline turns red — on the day, or up to two weeks out — so "due soon" means soon, not someday.
0.8.6 — Task management
- To-dos that keep house. A one-tap sweep gathers everything you've checked off into a Completed section, date-stamped and labeled with where it came from; an Archive sweep files it away so "Completed" always means "since last time."
- Planning tags. Mark a task with a deadline, a defer-until date, a follow-up reminder, who it's delegated to, or a priority — all in plain text that travels with your file.
- Dates in your words. Write
Mon, 2Mon, 2MonDec, next week, or +3d inside a tag and MarkSchrift pins it to the real date.
- The Agenda. A live, computed view of what's due, what's next, and what you're waiting on — without cluttering your document. Open it with a tap or ⌃⇧A.
- Priority sweep puts each level of your outline in working order by deadline and priority.
- Wiki links on iPhone & iPad now open the linked note fully rendered in a reading sheet.
0.8.5 — Keyboard & care
- Fully keyboard-friendly. Shortcuts for files, export, collaboration, and view actions — including a smoother Rename — so you can work without reaching for the mouse.
- Reliable invite links. Tapping a collaboration link now carries you straight into the session, from any app state.
0.8.4 — Collaboration arrives
- Live, end-to-end encrypted editing. Share a document and write together in real time; the relay only ever sees encrypted data — your words stay between you and your collaborators.
- See who's here. Named cursors and a participant roster show everyone in the session, with a graceful "reconnecting" state when the network blips.
- Rewind & checkpoints. Roll the shared document back in time, or save named checkpoints everyone can return to.
- You set the terms. Read-only viewer links, a per-session lifetime, restart-the-clock and stop-sharing controls, and a shared look (outline style + font) so everyone sees the same page.
- A web client lets people without the app follow — or join — a session right in the browser.
- Outline block editing. Move, indent, and outdent whole subtrees with automatic renumbering; paste outlines in at the right level; click a
[[wiki link]] to open a sibling note.
0.8.3 — Outlines & a proper home
- Outline numbering. Render nested lists as Legal (I, A, 1, a, i) or Decimal (1, 1.1, 1.1.1) — in the editor and in PDF, Word, and HTML exports — while the file stays plain Markdown.
- A welcoming start. A Mac Welcome window with quick actions and a Recents list.
0.8.2 — The everyday-writing release
- One toolbar, every device, plus a unified Preferences screen.
- Export everywhere: PDF (with page numbers), HTML, and Microsoft Word (.docx); plus Print, View-as-PDF, and Share.
- Quick date & time insertion with simple
;; triggers and your choice of format.
- Highlight colors, translucent code blocks, and a typography pass.
- iCloud settings sync keeps your preferences the same across your devices.
- Reading mode, optional spell-check, line numbers, and collapsible headings.
- Full file management on iPhone: Rename, Duplicate, and Move.
0.8.0–0.8.1 — Store-ready & filling the gaps
- Live-preview concealment for a cleaner page, open-source acknowledgements, a privacy manifest, and the sandboxing and compliance work to ship on the App Store.
0.7.0 — Writing tools & tables
- Editable tables with column alignment, full keyboard navigation, rendered Markdown inside cells, and insert/delete for rows and columns.
- Keyboard shortcuts for every formatting action, an actionable Format menu, and in-app Help.
- Extended Markdown: footnotes, superscript/subscript, underline, and
[[wiki links]].
- Task lists with clear, literal checkboxes; hanging indents for wrapped list items.
0.6.5 — First light
- The foundation: a live-rendering Markdown editor that keeps your text as plain Markdown, one codebase rendering beautifully on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
How MarkSchrift was built
The engine you're using is MarkSchrift's third architecture. Before it, more than 220 commits went into two earlier rewrites built on Apple's native text framework — refined over months, and ultimately set aside. They taught us exactly what a live Markdown editor needs, and what it can't be built on: hiding and styling syntax as you type, and making tables truly editable, fought the framework at every turn. The current engine — the proven CodeMirror editor inside a native app — is the sound foundation those attempts pointed to: one codebase that renders cleanly and reliably on iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The version history above begins there.
MarkSchrift keeps your writing in plain, portable Markdown — yours to own, on every device. Questions: markschrift.com.
