I wrote a note-taking app using Rust + egui, welcome to check it out.

[xuerenlin]

egscribe Help

egscribe is a local-first Markdown note-taking app and lightweight text editor.
The core idea is: manage notes in the note directory, while still being able to open external plain text files.

Project on GitHub

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Quick Start

1. After launch, the app automatically creates:
   • note/: notes directory
   • note/images/: pasted image storage directory
   • note/config.json: configuration file
2. Create a new note in the left Notes panel. It is saved as note/<name>.md by default.
3. Press Ctrl+S to save. If auto-save is enabled, data is saved at the configured interval.

For first-time use, open this file and follow along while trying each feature.

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Interface Overview

Top Toolbar

• UI language switch (Chinese / English)
• Theme switch (Light / Dark)
• Text brightness
• Font size
• Line number toggle
• Table style (Full border / Horizontal only / No border)
• Table row index column toggle
• Markdown heading section number toggle
• Wrap text toggle
• Indent decrease/increase
• New file

Left Side Panel

There are three tabs on the left:

• Notes: create, rename, delete, refresh, and pin frequently used notes
• Outline: show headings of the current Markdown document and click to jump
• Plugins: view plugin status, start/stop plugins, and view logs

Use Esc to quickly show/hide the side panel.

Center Editor Area

• Supports multiple tabs (notes and external files are managed separately)
• Supports drag-and-drop file opening
• Top path bar helps switch between related notes/files

Bottom Status Bar

• Shows whether the current tab is a Note or File
• Syntax highlight language switch (including Plain Text)
• Selection info display
• Line ending settings (CRLF/LF, etc.) and save
• Reopen or save with a specified encoding

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Common Shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+S	Save current document
Ctrl+F	Open find/replace window (tries to preload selected text)
Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y	Undo / Redo
Ctrl+A	Select all
Ctrl+Enter	Exit table/code block and continue normal paragraph
Esc	Show/Hide left side panel
More	Check corresponding shortcuts in the context menu

The context menu supports common Markdown insertions: headings, bold, italic, strikethrough, links, inline code, lists, TODO, quote, table, code block, horizontal rule, etc.

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Notes and Wiki Links

Difference Between Notes and Files

• Note: stored under note/*.md, managed by note name
• File: external plain text file opened by path

Wiki Link Syntax

Use [[WikiLinkedNote]] to create links between notes (without .md suffix). Click the link icon to auto-create and jump to the target note.
Wiki links are indexed in note relationships, making navigation easier in your knowledge base.

Pin Frequently Used Notes

You can pin commonly used notes for quick access in the tab area.

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Find and Replace

The find window supports:

• Find in current document
• Find all in current document
• Replace / Replace all
• Search across notes
• Case-sensitive / Whole-word / Regex

You can click results in the result panel to jump directly.

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Markdown Editing Features

You can copy the examples below directly into the editor.

Text Formatting

This is plain text.
This is bold text.
This is italic text.
This is strikethrough text.
This is inline code.

Lists (Unordered / Ordered / TODO)

• Unordered item A
• Unordered item B
  • Sub item B.1
  • Sub item B.2

1. Ordered item 1
2. Ordered item 2

• TODO item
• Done item
• Done item

Quote, Horizontal Rule, Link, Image

This is a quote block
Second quote line

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egscribe Project on Gitee

egscribe Project on GitHub

Notes:

• External links can be opened with the link icon in your system browser.
• Pasting an image (Ctrl+V) writes it into note/images/ and inserts image syntax automatically.

Wiki Link Notes

Example:

• Today I organized Rust study notes and linked [[Daily Notes]] and [[Development Plan]].

Notes:

• Wiki link syntax is [[NoteName]] without .md.
• Useful for building a navigable knowledge graph.

Tables

Basic table example:

Feature	Shortcut	Description
Save	Ctrl+S	Save current document
Find	Ctrl+F	Open find/replace
Side panel	Esc	Show/Hide side panel

Table editing notes:

• Once recognized as a table, visual editing is available (insert/delete rows and columns).
• Toolbar supports border style switching (full / horizontal only / none).
• Table row index column can be toggled.
• Pressing Enter usually continues editing inside the table. Use Ctrl+Enter to continue normal paragraph text.

Code Blocks

Plain fenced code block:

This is a plain text code block
Second line

Rust example (syntax highlight):

fn main() {
    println!("Hello, egscribe!");
}

Python example:

def add(a, b):
    return a + b

Notes:

• Fenced code block format: triple backticks + language + content + triple backticks.
• Pressing Enter continues inside the code block. Use Ctrl+Enter to return to normal paragraph text.

Auto Save and Configuration

Main config is in note/config.json, including:

• Theme, font size, wrapping, line numbers, and other display options
• Recent files, pinned notes, tab scrollbar display
• Default encoding and auto encoding detection
• Auto-save enable switch and interval (seconds)
• Table style and heading section number display

If you prefer manual control, disable auto-save. If you write frequently, auto-save is recommended.

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Plugin System

Plugin directory is plugins/ next to the executable.
Each plugin subdirectory should contain desc.json and an executable.

Built-in visible sample plugins:

• cal: auto-calculate when line starts with = or in Math fenced code blocks
• xlsx2md: converts xlsx/xlsm files to Markdown and opens them
• simple / simple_py: sample plugins

In the Plugins tab (left panel), you can view status/logs and manually start/stop plugins.

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Single Instance and File Opening Behavior

• The app runs in single-instance mode
• Launching again forwards the target file path to the running instance
• Supports command-line file path input
• Supports drag-and-drop file opening
• Some non-text files may prompt plugin-based handling

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Advanced: Password Links (Local Encrypted Text)

Supported password link format:

[Title](passwd:your_password "plain_text_content")

The app can encrypt content as cipher: prefixed data and decrypt it when the correct password is provided.
This is suitable for lightweight local privacy, but it is not a replacement for a professional password manager.