Feel at home on a Mac

1 of 4 merged, 1 being built

Themes, Finder and Quick Look, accessibility, language quality and reliable document handling.

One of the five chapters on the way to 1.0: 1 of its 4 work areas are merged into the development code, which is not the same as verified for release. Checked against the development repository on 15 October 2026.

MostlyText development build: the corner of a native macOS window with its controls, a document bar reading “Untitled — Save As… ⌘⇧S to name this document”, the folder panel and the first lines of Markdown.
A native window and document: an untitled file offers Save As with the standard shortcut. Finder, Quick Look, themes and localisation are still ahead.

In short

The work that makes MostlyText belong on a Mac rather than merely run on one: themes that agree across the editor, preview, diagrams and export; Quick Look previews of Markdown files in Finder; Open With and document icons; accessibility; and the app in languages other than English.

The visual polish, the welcome document and the accessibility code work are merged. Ahead: at least eight bundled themes, four light and four dark, checked for contrast; Quick Look; hardening so files and settings behave under pressure; and final localisation, which comes late on purpose, after the interface stops changing.

French, Polish and Japanese starter translations exist. They’re a baseline, not finished language quality: native speakers still need to review them.

Where it stands

1 merged

1 being built

2 still required

How it will be checked

From the acceptance criteria in the plan. Merged work still has to pass these on a release build.

  • The app looks right in light and dark mode, with transparency and increased contrast on or off.
  • Every bundled theme passes contrast checks, and diagrams either follow the theme or fall back to a safe neutral style.
  • Quick Look shows a safe, static preview of a Markdown file, with equations and diagrams, and falls back safely when a file is too large to render.
  • Settings from the old MacDown come across key by key, without overwriting anything already set in the new app.
  • VoiceOver and the main journeys are checked on a real Mac, in English and in other languages.

The 4 work areas

Whole-app polish and first run

Merged

  • Native visual polish, accessibility code work, welcome/sample, fidelity tests

Implemented in the development code. Final release verification is tracked in #115.

Depends on Folder browser; Math and scientific notation; D2 and Graphviz.

Issue 16Plan reference E15

Mac integration and personalisation

Still required

  • Shared semantic palette across editor/chrome/preview/export
  • At least 8 bundled themes: 4 light and 4 dark, contrast/provenance verified
  • Independent light/dark selection and safe data-only custom theme import/export
  • Mermaid/D2/Graphviz theme coherence or explicit safe neutral output
  • Markdown-only Quick Look: static safe HTML, local math/diagrams, bounded fallback
  • Safe resource authority shared with export/HTML preview
  • Finder Open With/UTI/handler-rank audit; final production app/document icon
  • Real Quick Look security, cancellation, performance and native registration evidence

Final planned capability epic. PR #476 Mermaid and #477 Graphviz are open, not merged. D2 theming is unresolved against whole-epic neutral fallback criterion.

Depends on Everyday editor essentials; MacDown 2 → MostlyText: brand and identity crossover; HTML preview and export safety; Contributions, anchors and math correctness.

Issue 113Issue 79Plan reference E23

File, settings and native hardening

Being built

  • Legacy-compatible settings decoding, complete key-by-key legacy import, idempotence and precedence
  • External-file manual/performance matrix and conflict-close flow
  • Open/Save progress, close-label race and latency evidence
  • Navigation reveal lifecycle, TextFilter fixture ownership and sustained test reliability
  • Editor/highlighter geometry, snapshot and stale-async correctness

Depends on Everyday editor essentials.

Issue 53Issue 119Issue 120Issue 173Issue 159Issue 155Issue 459Issue 88Issue 183Plan reference safety

Final localisation and string freeze

Still required

  • Actual bundle-aware resource extraction and translation resolution
  • Plural/layout/pseudo-localisation, native-speaker QA and real non-English app journeys
  • Freeze exact source/translation/UI baseline after V1

fr/pl/ja seed catalogs and infrastructure exist; they are an interim baseline, not final language quality. Transifex access/project and reviewers need verification.

Depends on Private candidate 1 and native verification.

Issue 17Plan reference E16

Open in the development repository

Titles as the developers wrote them, on 15 October 2026.

Builds on

Leads to

Not part of this

  • Quick Look for every kind of source file, Spotlight, Share or Finder Sync extensions.
  • A theme marketplace or a remote theme gallery.

What the labels mean

Merged
in the development code, still subject to the release checks.
Still required
work or verification still needed before 1.0.
Being built
work or hardening is underway, with an open issue or pull request.