Markdown Studio is the fifth app in the Rixoffice suite, and it is deliberately the smallest: a focused editor for plain .md files, built for people who think in Markdown but do not want to babysit syntax. Under the hood it is a TipTap block editor — type, select, format, drag blocks around — while the file on disk stays plain-text Markdown you can open anywhere. Autosave keeps up with you, everything stays local, and when a note has to become a deliverable, it exports to .docx through the same engine the word processor uses.
Why a Markdown app in an office suite
Because plain text is the most portable format that exists. Markdown files open in every editor on every platform, diff cleanly in git, travel through email without corruption and outlive every app that ever touched them. What plain text does not give you is comfort — tables are fiddly, task lists invite miscounted brackets, and nobody enjoys hand-aligning code fences. Markdown Studio exists to close exactly that gap:
- Block editing — headings, lists, tables and code are structured objects you can select, move and restyle, not lines of punctuation.
- Autosave — the file on disk updates as you write; closing the app never costs work.
- Local storage — your notes live in your folders, readable by every other tool you use.
The positioning matters: Markdown Studio is not a rival to RixDocs but a complement. Documents that need styles, page layout, comments and track changes belong in the word processor. Notes, drafts, runbooks, meeting capture, README files and anything that lives in a repository belong here — and when a note graduates into a deliverable, the export path takes it across without retyping. Teams settle into a rhythm where Markdown holds the thinking and .docx holds the paperwork, with no friction in between.
Open or create your first note
- Launch Rixoffice, click New Tab and choose New Markdown — or use File, Open on an existing .md file, or drag the file onto the Rixoffice window.
- Type a title as a heading: type the text, then press the slash key or use the toolbar to apply Heading 1.
- Write a paragraph. Ordinary typing needs zero Markdown knowledge.
- Press the slash key on an empty line to open the command menu and insert a list, table or code block — the full menu is covered in slash commands.
- Keep writing. Autosave writes the file continuously; Ctrl+S saves on demand whenever you want the certainty.
- When the note is ready for someone who lives in Word, export it with File, Export to DOCX.
What you get on day one
| Capability | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Block editor (TipTap) | Click any block — paragraph, heading, list item — and edit it in place |
| Slash menu | Type the slash key on an empty line to insert any block type |
| Task lists | Checkboxes that render and toggle in the editor; see task lists and tables |
| Tables | A real table with a floating menu for rows and columns |
| Code blocks | Syntax display and one-click copy; see code blocks |
| Autosave and local files | Continuous saving to your own .md files, no account needed |
The file stays plain Markdown
This is the design rule everything else bends around: the editor is rich, the file is not. A table you build with clicks saves as a proper Markdown table; a task list saves as dashes and brackets; headings save as hashes. Open the same file in VS Code, push it to a repository, or pipe it through a static site generator — nothing breaks, because there is nothing proprietary to break. Frontmatter at the top of the document is supported through a dedicated panel, covered in frontmatter and properties.
Organizing a folder of notes
Because files are plain .md, organization is ordinary folders and ordinary names — the app adds no database, no vault, no proprietary index to maintain:
- Keep one folder per project or per area of life, with subfolders for anything that grows.
- Name files for what you will search later — the date plus a plain description works for most people.
- Let the frontmatter panel carry metadata such as status or tags, so a file's properties are visible without opening it.
- Put the folder in your sync or backup of choice; the app does not care where the files live, only that they are .md.
This is deliberately boring, and boring is the feature: notes in a proprietary app are a rental agreement, notes in a folder are real estate. Markdown Studio assumes you would rather own.
The AI panel lives here too
Press the AI button and the composer opens with your document in context: it drafts blocks, rewrites paragraphs, outlines a messy note and searches the web when a fact is missing — the details are in the Markdown AI panel. Like every AI page in Rixoffice, it runs on the provider you chose in Settings, from built-in Rix AI to fully local Ollama models.
What to explore next
- Slash commands — the fast way to insert any block.
- Task lists and tables — checkboxes and grids without syntax pain.
- Export to DOCX — turn notes into formal documents.
- Rixoffice Markdown files — the format behind the app.