Mak: a universal notepad

mak.ink    Desktop App    Documentation    @shuding_

All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
— Ernest Hemingway

Please visit https://inns.studio/mak for more information and live demos.

Join Mak User Group (中文用户群) on Telegram.

Table of Contents

• Features*
• Shortcuts
• URL / link
  • File (#file)
  • Mode (#file?mode)
  • URL Action (?action)
• Settings (set:)
• More Details
  • LaTeX
  • Gist
  • Embeding as iframe
  • Drag and drop
  • Desktop App
  • Mobile
  • iOS App
  • Open Source
• Examples
• Raw Thoughts
• Share Mak
• License & Acknowledgement

Features^*

• a “maximally minimal” design
• blazing fast
• multiple files support
• auto-saving
• works in offline
• side by side preview
• syntax highlighting
• powerful text editor
• LaTeX support
• task lists
• notepad links
• quick commands
• customization
• line number
• word counter
• URL configuration
• interactive plain text
• sync via Gists
• zoom friendly
• printer friendly
• PDF generating
• exporting
• ...

^*Some features such as offline and sync may behave differently in different browsers.

Shortcuts

Click (or click with middle mouse button) on Markdown links to open (open in new tab).
Click on Markdown checkboxes to toggle a task.
Use ⌘ + [ / ⌘ + ] to outdent / indent text.
Use ⌥/Alt + Click to position the cursor, even on links.
Use ⌘/Ctrl + Click to create multiple cursors.
Use ⌥/Alt + Drag to select a rectangle area.
Use ⌘/Ctrl + Drag to select multiple areas.
Use the middle button on mouse to open links in new tab.
Use ⌘/Ctrl + Enter over a link to “click” it. Type set: to open quick commands.
Type go: to open quick jump.

URL / link

File (#file)

Files start with a hashtag # in the URL / link.
Files can be accessed via in-document links: [my todos](#todo).
Files can be accessed via quick jump: go:todo and hit enter.

• Default file
  • mak.ink#: the default file
  • mak.ink: without the hashtag
• Built-in notepads (readonly)
  • mak.ink#list: a place to find all your files
  • mak.ink#preferences: preferences
  • mak.ink#sample: the sample document
  • mak.ink#profile: user profile
• Create a file
  • mak.ink#whatever_you_want

Mode (#file?mode)

A mode is a pre-defined way to view files, so modes must be attached to a file.
Modes start with a question mark ? in the URL / link.
Multiple modes are separated by &s: mak.ink?dark&large.
Modes are defined by the URL, and will override your settings.
For new opened files, modes attached to current file will be gone.
If you want to use a mode as default option, use settings below.

• View modes
  • mak.ink#sample?edit: open sample in editor mode
  • mak.ink#sample?read: open sample in reading mode
  • mak.ink?split: use split mode in the default notepad
• Themes
  • mak.ink?dark: dark mode
  • mak.ink?light: light mode (default)
• Other settings
  • mak.ink?large: larger text
  • mak.ink?num: show line number
• Combine
  • mak.ink?dark&large

URL Action (?action)

Actions are special modes.
Actions start with a question mark ? in the URL / link, and use = to pass parameters.
Actions will be removed from URL automatically.
Actions might do changes to your content.

• Built-in actions
  • mak.ink?gist=5d52fb081b3570c81e3a: load a Gist and create a file (#5d52fb081b3570c81e3a)
• Combine modes
  • mak.ink?gist=5d52fb081b3570c81e3a&read: load a Gist in reading mode

Settings (set:<option>)

You can type set:<option> and hit enter in the editor to change settings.
You can create a "set" link and click on it: [dark](set:dark).
Settings change preferences globally and persistently.
Settings can be override (locally) by current modes.

• View mode settings
  • set:split
  • set:edit
  • set:read
• Display settings
  • set:dark
  • set:large
• Other
  • set:print: print / download PDF
  • set:export: export data
• Other settings
  • Check out the Preferences Page.
  • You can also use the developer console to change settings :)

More Details

LaTeX

LaTeX rendering is powered by KaTeX.

You need to wrap the $ inside an inlined code block to render LaTeX inlined equations, or use $$ inside a multi-line code block to get an equation block:

$\frac{\pi}{2}$

or

$$
\frac{\pi}{2}
$$

Gist

Use ?gist=<gist_id> to load a GitHub Gist. It will be stored to #<gist_id> automatically (and replace the original context, if it exists), and mark this file as a Gist.

Other commands: set:login, set:logout, set:pull, set:push.

Embeding as iframe

Use Gist and read mode:

<iframe width="300" height="200" src="https://mak.ink?gist=5d52fb081b3570c81e3a&read" frameborder="0"></iframe>

You can easily embed Mak in other websites.

Drag and drop

You can drag your file into the editor, and its content will be inserted after your cursor automatically.

Currently all files will be read as plain text files. And the file size limit is 10MB.

Desktop App

Checkout Mak^mini for macOS and Windows.

Mobile

Currently unavailable.

For now, all basic features are available in mobile browsers. But there’re yet some known limitations:

• In Safari (macOS or iOS), localStorage is disabled in private browsing mode.
• In Safari on iOS, the screenshot functionality built on SVG foreignObject is not working dut to the iOS security model. So it’s replaced by another, simpler screenshot strategy.
• Service Worker is not fully supported on iOS. The offline feature is not working.

Technique details: due to the slow progress of the IME API implementation on contenteditable elements, we are using the native textarea as the input handler on mobile devices to make IME work. But textareas cannot do any styling or customization. So some implementations in CodeMirror (and any other in-browser editors) might be hacky which caused strange behaviours on mobile devices (such as cursor moving and copy-paste experience). The (only) solution is: make a native App.

iOS App

Currently unavailable.

WIP. You can add the Web version to your Home screen as a bookmark.

Open Source

Will do after some code cleanup & refactoring.

Raw Thoughts

@chenglou said this in ReactEurope:

Not about potential power of doing more - it’s about exploiting properties you gain by doing less.

And as I always believe: Text powers editors. Not the opposite.

Share Mak

License & Acknowledgement

Inspired and powered by CodeMirror, RxJS and other awesome open source projects.

By Shu (g@shud.in), SH 2017
https://shud.in