Plain files, nothing else
Every document is a Markdown file on your disk. Open it with any other program tomorrow, or in ten years. Nothing is locked in a database.
Markdown editor for Windows
Your notes stay files. On your own disk.
No account. No cloud. No subscription. EM4me edits the Markdown files you already have, in the folders where you already keep them.
Version 1.109.0 · Windows 11 · 84 MB · free
118Releases
41Manual pages
5Languages
4,187Automated checks
Works offline, always
There is no server to sign in to and no connection to lose. What you write never leaves the machine you write it on.
Open source, verifiable
The source code is public and every release ships with checksums, published in two independent places so you can actually check them.
What it does
Built for people who write a lot
Four views, one keystroke apart
Read the rendered page, edit the raw source, put both side by side, or work in the live view where formatting appears as you type and only the current line shows its Markdown.
Links that lead somewhere
Wiki links, headline and block anchors, embedded documents, tags and backlinks. Your notes become a connected set instead of a folder of loose files.
Tables that calculate and query
Data tables with typed columns calculate live: a totals row, computed columns, editing right in the rendered table. Queries embed file lists that keep themselves current, filtered by properties, tags or tasks. And all of it stays plain text inside your file.
Journals from day to year
Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly entries are created from your own folder and naming scheme, from a template if you want one. One click opens today's entry or creates it. Built-in navigation pages through the periods and connects the day to its week, its month and its year.
Many files become one book
Chapters remain ordinary Markdown files; the book sets their order and nesting, not the file name and not where they sit in folders. The table of contents shows the declared order, rearranges chapters by dragging or with the keyboard, and guided reading pages across chapter boundaries through the whole book. Rename or move a file, and links and contents follow.
Areas keep projects apart
Bind a window to a folder and it becomes a closed workspace. File dialogs, recent files and search stay inside it, so two projects never bleed into each other.
Every change kept, if you want it
Turn on document history and each save is recorded next to the file. Compare two versions line by line and restore any of them. Nothing is ever deleted.
Only the features you want
The feature set is large, but none of it is mandatory: extra functions are extensions with a switch of their own. What you turn off disappears from menus, commands and rendering instead of getting in your way. The program stays as lean or as powerful as you need it to be.
Download
Two ways to run it
Installer
Sets up EM4me with a start menu entry and optional file association for Markdown files.
Download installerPortable
A single executable. Nothing is installed, nothing is written outside its own folder. Runs from a USB stick.
Download portableCurrent version 1.109.0, released August 16, 2026 · installer 84 MB · portable 84 MB
Windows will show a warning. Here is why.
EM4me is not code-signed, so Windows flags it as coming from an unknown publisher. A certificate costs a yearly fee that a free program of this size cannot carry. Instead of asking you to simply trust it, here is what you can check.
- The full source code is public, so the program can be inspected and rebuilt.
- Every file has a SHA256 checksum, published here and in the source repository, at two places that would both have to be compromised at once.
- The publisher is a registered Swiss company with a postal address, not an anonymous account.
8d2e94659305c12603bcdbd4472e5c92a00ffd3aacf34c462cd8d9163f24aa3f EM4me-1.109.0-Portable.exe
1e329936819554f52e8e4a96b8f90ca9930f2df77996250aa4972c1ed3e3a9eb EM4me-1.109.0-Setup.exe
Windows 11 (Windows 10 should work too) · no runtime required · 64-bit
Found something, missing something?
Bugs and requests for new features belong in the issue list next to the source code. There they stay visible to everyone instead of disappearing into a mailbox.
Go to the issue listNews
Recent releases
- 1.109.0 2026-08 The mind map view
- 1.108.0 2026-08 Shelves reachable again, errors caught
- 1.107.0 2026-08 Tidied up for what comes next