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Once Bridgex converts a file, the resulting Markdown lands directly in the built-in code editor where you can review it, clean it up, and save it. The interface is intentionally minimal — a syntax-highlighted editor on the left and a live rendered preview on the right — so you can make targeted edits without the overhead of a full Markdown IDE. This page covers how the editor and preview panes work, how to save your output, the available keyboard shortcuts, and the boundaries of what the editor is designed to do.

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Editor Pane

The left pane is a CodeEditor component built into Freya. After any file conversion, the converted Markdown text is loaded into the editor automatically and is immediately editable. Key editor characteristics:
  • Language: Markdown syntax highlighting is active by default (LanguageId::Markdown).
  • Font: Consolas, 14 px.
  • Theme: GitHub Dark editor theme — background rgb(15, 18, 24), text rgb(196, 206, 219), cursor rgb(56, 139, 255), selected-line background rgb(22, 26, 36).
  • Gutter: Line numbers are hidden (gutter: false) for a cleaner reading experience.
  • Focus: The editor receives a11y_auto_focus so it is ready for keyboard input as soon as the app opens or a file is loaded.
You can type freely, paste text, delete lines, and make any edits you need. The preview pane on the right reflects every keystroke in real time.
The editor content is stored as a Rope data structure (from the text_edit crate), which is efficient for large text but is entirely in memory. Changes are not auto-saved — use Ctrl+S or File → Save to persist your work.

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Preview Pane

The right pane is a MarkdownViewer wrapped in a ScrollView. It renders the current editor rope content as formatted Markdown using the following visual styling: The preview pane scrolls independently of the editor pane. Headings, code fences, blockquotes, bold and italic text, horizontal rules, and inline code are all rendered. The preview is read-only — editing is done exclusively in the left pane.
Use the preview pane to verify that your Markdown renders correctly before saving. If headings or code blocks look wrong, the underlying Markdown syntax in the editor likely needs a small fix.

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Saving Your File

Press Ctrl+S or select File → Save from the menu bar to open the native save dialog.
1

Trigger the save dialog

Press Ctrl+S or click File → Save. The native OS save dialog opens. The dialog is pre-configured to filter for Markdown files (.md).
2

Confirm the filename

Bridgex pre-fills the filename based on the source file that was converted:
  • If a file was opened earlier in the session, the default name is the source filename as-is (e.g., report.xlsx). You can rename it in the dialog; the save filter ensures only .md is written.
  • If no file was opened (you typed directly into the editor), the default name is document.md.
Edit the filename as needed, choose a destination folder, and click Save.
3

File is written to disk

Bridgex writes the current editor content as plain UTF-8 text to the selected path. On success, the internal current_file_path is updated to the new save location, so future saves will suggest the same path.
Only Markdown (.md) format is available in the save dialog. Bridgex does not support exporting to PDF, HTML, DOCX, or any other format from the editor.

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Keyboard Shortcuts

All shortcuts use Ctrl on Windows and Linux. On macOS, Freya also accepts Meta (⌘) as the modifier. Shortcuts are registered as global key-down handlers on the root rect container, so they work regardless of which element has pointer focus.

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Limitations

Bridgex’s editor is intentionally lightweight. It is designed for quick review and small corrections to converted output — not for authoring long Markdown documents from scratch. The following features are not available in the current editor:
  • Find and replace
  • Multi-cursor or column selection
  • Undo / redo history beyond what the underlying Rope supports
  • Line numbers (gutter is disabled)
  • Folding, auto-completion, or linting
  • Drag-and-drop of text
  • Spell checking
For heavy Markdown editing, copy the saved .md file into a dedicated editor such as VS Code, Typora, or Obsidian after saving from Bridgex.