David Linde

I'm a mobile app developer with over 19 years of software engineering experience. I love building software, learning new things, and the never-ending pursuit of refining on improvements. Making software simple and fun to use and tackling the challenges that come along with it.

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Writing

Markdrop: A Privacy-First Markdown Editor for the Browser

I built Markdrop because I wanted a simple Markdown editor that didn't require an account, content doesn't touch a server.

The concept is simple: drop a .md file onto the page, edit it, download it. Everything happens in your browser. Nothing leaves your device.

What it does

Markdrop gives you a split editor/preview layout powered by CodeMirror 6 and react-markdown. You can drag and drop files to open them, toggle between editor-only, preview-only, or side-by-side views, and use a markdown toolbar for formatting. Code blocks get syntax highlighting. Light, dark, and system themes are all supported. The layout is mobile-friendly, so it works just as well on a phone as it does on a desktop.

It also works offline — Markdrop is a Progressive Web App (PWA), so you can install it to your home screen and use it without a connection. Your content is preserved across refreshes via sessionStorage. When you're done, save the file to your downloads — or drop in a new one to start fresh.

Why I built it this way

Most web-based markdown tools either want you to sign in, sync to a cloud service, or both. That's fine for collaboration — but for quick personal edits, it adds friction and raises questions about where your content goes. Markdrop sidesteps all of that by treating the browser as a local app runtime. The stack is React + TypeScript + Vite, deliberately minimal.

After Thoughts

This was my first PWA app. Interesting and fun little project — and one I've found genuinely useful. I'm always reaching for a quick Markdown or text editor on my phone or MacBook, and Markdrop fits that gap well.

A few things I'm considering in the near future: importing DOCX and other text formats, plus DOCX/PDF/HTML export.

If you're interested, give it a try at markdrop.davidlinde.dev.