Scriptorium 3.54 · for Windows, Linux and Android tablets

The word processor
that speaks Markdown.

ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini write in Markdown. Scriptorium turns it into a proper document, and lets you write it with the ribbon you already know, without a single symbol to learn. Books, exam papers, song sheets and reports, read aloud if you like, in 60 languages and on your own computer.

Download the free trial Buy it once · USD 100

14 days free with everything switched on, no account and no card. After that it stays a free Markdown reader, for as long as you like.

Scriptorium with a harvest report on an A4 page in the Pages view: a title, a short summary, a table of crops and a pie chart within the page's margins, under the Home tab of the ribbon, with Page 1 of 2 in the status bar.
Markdownthe plain text AI writes, and every computer can open
60 languagesincluding all eleven written official languages of South Africa
USD 100, onceR1,799 for each computer, and every update free
Free readerit keeps opening and showing Markdown after the trial
New in 3.54

Project plans that work out their own dates.

Scriptorium 3.54 plans projects the way Microsoft Project does, inside the report, the proposal or the slide show they belong to: the tasks, how long each takes, what each waits for and who does it. It works out every date, draws the Gantt chart with the critical path in red, and keeps the plan as a few lines anybody can read. Below it, the slide shows of 3.51 to 3.53: a narrator in a computer voice, and banners that move. Everything that’s new, with pictures.

Insert ▸ Project plan

A project plan, the way Microsoft Project makes one

A table of tasks like Project’s: how long each takes, what it comes after, who does it and how far it has got. Indent a task and the one above becomes a summary that adds up its tasks. Scriptorium works out every start and finish, over weekends and holidays, and draws the Gantt chart beside the table as you type.

  • The critical path in red: the tasks that move the finish if they slip, and every other task’s slack
  • Link, Milestone, Set baseline and Level people, with lags, leads, deadlines and a status date
  • Opens plans that Microsoft Project saved as XML, and saves yours for Project
  • Kept in the document as a few readable lines, so the assistant can write one: “Plan a school concert for 12 March”
The Project plan box over the garden report: Title Riverside Garden, east beds, Starts on 2 November 2026, Working days and As text; buttons Add task, Delete, Outdent, Indent, Move up and down, Link, Unlink, Milestone, Set baseline, Level people, Open and Save for Microsoft Project; a table of nine tasks with Duration, Start, Finish, After, People and % done, Planning and Building in bold as summaries, the critical rows numbered in red; beside it the Gantt chart of the same plan in green, the critical bars red, today a dashed orange line; Cancel and OK
The Project plan box: the tasks, and the Gantt chart beside them.
Project plan ▸ Show

A Gantt chart, a network diagram, a timeline, a board

The same plan drawn the way each reader needs it: a Summary of the dates, the cost and the budget for the report’s first page, the Gantt chart, a Timeline for a slide, a Network diagram of how the tasks hang together, a Board of what is to do, doing and done, and People, each person’s load day by day.

  • Light or dark with the page, in your language and your dates, in five colours
  • Printed, and in the PDF, web page and e-book as a sharp drawing; in Word as a picture
  • Double-click it to change it, as you would a diagram
  • The Project plan template starts you with a plan that schedules itself
Four more drawings of the same plan on a board: a network diagram of boxes with each task's start, finish, duration and slack, the critical ones red; a timeline with Planning, Building and the open day; a board with To do, Doing and Done, a card for each task; and People, each person's work day by day against what they can do
The network diagram, the timeline, the board and the people of the same plan.
Slide show ▸ Record slide show ▸ A computer voice

A narration in a computer voice, or a whole cast

Record slide show asks who speaks: you, into the microphone, or a computer voice that reads each slide’s notes into the show. It takes moments, not the length of the talk. Choose The reading cast and everyone who speaks in the notes has a voice of their own, as in Read aloud.

  • The voices on your computer, or Scriptorium’s own natural voices, offline, in 60 languages
  • Next slide when the narration ends: the show gives itself, ready to record as a video
  • Not read aloud marks words to show and print but skip when reading, such as “(see page 4)”
  • Each slide keeps its narration with its notes, to play, clear or record again
The Record slide show box over the garden report: Who speaks the narration? You, into the microphone; A computer voice, chosen, with Microsoft Zira (English, United States) in the Voice list and a button to listen to it; or The reading cast, each person who speaks in the notes in their own voice; and Cancel and Record
Record slide show: who speaks the narration.
Slide show ▸ Slide size ▸ Custom size… · Animated GIF

Banners, adverts and posts that move

A slide can be any size now: a leaderboard banner, a medium rectangle, a skyscraper, a square post or a story, from twelve ready-made sizes or your own in pixels. The words grow as big as they fit. Animated GIF saves the slides as a picture that plays itself, each slide for its time, its points coming in, a fade between them.

  • Twelve sizes for the web, social media and video, or any width and height up to 4096 pixels
  • A heading and a few lines sit in the middle, the same on every slide of the banner
  • Each slide for a few seconds, or as long as its rehearsal or narration; played again and again, three times or once
  • The same slides make a PDF and a PowerPoint file at that size too
An animated banner, 300 by 250 in dark green: Saturday market, Seedlings from Riverside Garden; then Fresh this week, with Spinach, Tomatoes and Butternut coming in one at a time; then 9 to 12, River Road, everyone welcome, each fading into the next
This banner is a GIF Scriptorium made: three slides at 300 × 250, fading from one to the next.
Slide show ▸ Animation

Animations, layouts and sixteen slide masters

Put the cursor in a paragraph, a list, a picture or a table and choose how it comes in: Fade in, Rise up, Fly in from the left, Zoom in, Wipe and more, on a click or after the one before, a list an item at a time. On the page it is a small tag over the block, and the writing stays plain Markdown.

  • Start on a click, with the one before or after it by itself, and a Speed for each
  • Layout adds a slide ready to type over: a comparison, a quotation, a big number, an agenda, a thank-you
  • Eight new masters with something of their own: Boardroom’s band, a sunrise, an aurora, squared paper, a ruled frame
  • A Presentation, a Pitch, a Lesson and a Project update to start from, under File ▸ New
The garden report on its page with the Slide show tab open: over the list What we set out to do, a small tag says animate: rise items, and the Animation menu is open beside it, Rise up ticked among nine effects, with A list’s items one at a time, Start (on a click, with or after the one before) and Speed
The Animation menu, for the list the cursor is in.
Slide show ▸ Rehearse timings · Record slide show

Rehearse it, record it, and let it give itself

Rehearse timings runs the show with a clock in the corner; keep the timings and every slide stays up as long as you gave it, each point coming in when you brought it in. Record slide show does the same with the microphone on, and puts what you said on each slide into its notes, so the show can speak for itself.

  • Next slide when the narration ends: after your recording, or after the notes have been read aloud
  • Made for video: start the show, record the screen, and the talk gives itself from the first slide to the last
  • Pause and This slide again while you record, and Clear a slide’s timing or narration afterwards
  • The timings, the transitions and the masters go into the PowerPoint (.pptx) file too
A slide being recorded, full screen in the green Forest look: Next year, two of its four points already in, and in the top corner a dark bar with a red Recording mark, Next, Pause and This slide again, the slide’s time 00:15 and the whole show’s 01:50
Recording a slide show: this slide’s time and the whole show’s.
Slide show ▸ From the beginning (F5)

From a document to a slide show, with nothing to convert

A report, a lesson or a sermon is already a slide show: each heading starts a slide, and New slide (Ctrl+M) puts a break wherever you want one. The words are laid out for the slide and made smaller until they fit, so there are no boxes to nudge; a heading alone becomes a section slide, a picture alone fills the slide, and a short line is shown big.

  • Sixteen looks, seven Transitions, slide numbers and a footer, and Lists one item at a time
  • Tables, formulas, equations, diagrams and music show on the slides as they do on the page
  • PowerPoint’s keys, and a pen, a highlighter and a laser pointer to point at what matters
  • PDF of the slides, Handouts with lines for notes, and a PowerPoint (.pptx) file with words you can still change
A slide in the show, full screen, in the green Forest look: What the beds gave, a table of five crops with their beds, harvest and what went to the school, and its Total row worked out by formulas, the 1365 kg total ringed by hand with the amber pen
A report’s harvest table as a slide, its total ringed with the pen.
Slide show ▸ Presenter view (Alt+F5)

A Presenter view, and a talk that can give itself

On your screen, the slide, the next one, your Speaker notes in big letters, a timer and the clock; on the projector, the slides full screen, opened there by themselves when a second screen is plugged in. Or switch on Read the notes aloud: Scriptorium reads each slide’s notes in the reading-aloud voice and moves on when they are done.

  • Speaker notes in a box of their own, seen only by you and on the notes pages
  • The Slide sorter: drag slides into order, duplicate, hide or delete them, and undo
  • Slides from this document makes a slide show out of a long document, a slide for each heading
  • Offline, in 60 languages, in any of the voices on your computer
The Presenter view: the pie chart slide of where the harvest went on the left, the next slide (Next year) on the right with the speaker notes under it in large type, a timer and the clock along the top, and buttons for the pen, the laser and the slides
The Presenter view: this slide, the next one, the notes and the time.
Table ▸ any cell ▸ =SORT, =FILTER, =GROUPBY…

Answers that spill into the cells around them

As in Excel 365, a formula whose answer is a block of values fills the empty cells to its right and below it. One formula sorts a list, keeps the rows that meet a condition, gives each value once, or adds a whole table up by stall, by month or by person, with totals. Change a figure and the block follows; add rows and it fills them.

  • FILTER, SORT, UNIQUE, SEQUENCE, TAKE, VSTACK, TEXTSPLIT and 12 more that give blocks
  • GROUPBY and PIVOTBY: a table summed by its groups, down and across, with totals
  • A thin blue line shows the block; if something is in its way, #SPILL! says which cell
  • =SUM(B2#) adds a whole block, however big it grows, and each value keeps its look, dates as dates, rands as rands

Spilling and LAMBDA in the formulas guide →

A market’s sales list and, under it, a summary table filled by two GROUPBY formulas: takings by stall with a Total row, and items by what they sold. The cursor is in Riverside’s takings, a thin blue line marks the block, and the formula bar shows =GROUPBY(Sales!B2:B11, Sales!D2:D11, SUM) greyed
Two GROUPBY formulas fill a summary table; the blue line marks one’s block.
Table ▸ Names ▸ =LAMBDA(…)

LAMBDA: functions of your own

Write a calculation once, with places for its values, and give it a name: WithVat: =LAMBDA(price, ROUND(price*(1+VAT), 2)). Then =WithVat(B2) works in every table of the document, and changing it in Names changes every answer.

  • MAP, REDUCE, SCAN, BYROW, BYCOL and MAKEARRAY hand each value, row or column to a LAMBDA
  • =BYROW(B2:D9, SUM) takes a function by its name, as Excel does
  • ISOMITTED lets a LAMBDA take values that may be left out
  • Excel workbooks keep the blocks, which Excel 365 spills again, and the LAMBDAs as names
A price list whose With VAT column is worked out by =WithVat(B3), a LAMBDA named in the document, shown in the formula bar, and whose Members pay column by another, every price in rands
A price list worked out by two functions the document defines itself.
Design ▸ Page setup ▸ Page colour

Colours behind the writing, which print

Give every page a colour, edge to edge, margins and all, or put a colour behind a heading, a paragraph or the cells of a table. What you see is what comes out of the printer and goes into the PDF: Scriptorium asks for every colour to be printed, which a browser leaves out unless asked.

  • Page colour on the Design tab, Shading in the Paragraph group on Home, and Shading on the Table tab
  • On a dark page the words turn light by themselves, while code and pale boxes keep dark words
  • Kept in Word (which prints it too), OpenDocument, RTF, LaTeX, web pages and e-books, and read back from Word
  • In the Markdown, a short tag: {shade:amber} before a paragraph, {cell:fill=green} in a cell
A harvest festival notice in the Pages view on cream paper, its title on a green band, its headings on amber and every other row of its table green, with the Page colour menu open on the Design tab
A notice on cream paper, with shaded headings and rows, and the Page colour menu.
Table ▸ Number ▸ Names ▸ Totals row

Number formats, names, and Excel workbooks

A table now keeps what Excel keeps with its cells: a number format for each, names for the values every formula uses, a column named by its heading and a totals row. And File ▸ Export makes an Excel workbook of your tables, each a sheet with its formulas still working; an Excel file you open comes in the same way.

  • Number format: currency in your country’s money, accounting, percentages, fractions, dates, or any of Excel’s codes
  • Names such as VAT for 15%, so =B5*VAT follows when the rate changes
  • =[@Qty]*[@Price] in each row, Order[Amount] from anywhere, and a Totals row the column stops above
  • Fill down with Ctrl+D, or drag the corner of the cells to carry a series on

Formats, names and Excel workbooks in the formulas guide →

An invoice table with the Number format menu open on the Table tab, Currency ticked, and the formula bar showing =[@Qty]*[@[Unit price]] for Order!D3
The Number format menu, and a formula that names its columns.
Table ▸ Lines

Tables with only the lines you want

Keep just the lines between the rows of an order form, only the outside line round a box of notes, or no lines at all under a signature block. Or take away one line, such as the one under a total. While you type, a line left out shows faint and dashed so you can still find the cells; on paper it is simply gone.

  • For the whole table: All lines, Outside lines only, Inside lines only, Lines between rows only or No lines
  • For the cells you select: No line above, below, on the left or on the right, or No lines round them
  • Left out of PDFs, web pages and e-books, and of Word, OpenDocument and RTF files
  • A Word table with lines left out keeps them left out when you open it

Tables without borders, step by step →

A choir uniform order form with the Table tab’s Lines menu open. Lines between rows only is ticked for the table, and the menu offers No line above, No line below, No line on the left, No line on the right and No lines round them for the cells selected. The lines left out show faint and dashed, and the signature table at the foot has none.
The Lines menu on the Table tab. A line left out shows dashed while you type.
For statistics, finance and records

Statistics, bonds and databases, as in Excel

88 more of Excel’s functions (110 with their older names), with Excel’s names: the probability distributions and the tests, the bond and security calculations, and the database functions that add up the records of a table that meet your conditions. Each was checked against LibreOffice Calc, in 2,312 cases, and where Excel gives a different answer, Excel’s is used.

  • NORM.DIST, T.TEST, CHISQ.TEST, BINOM.DIST and the rest of the distributions and tests, under Excel’s older names too
  • PRICE, YIELD, DURATION, ACCRINT, the coupon dates and Treasury bills, with every day count basis
  • DSUM, DAVERAGE, DGET and the other database functions, in a Database group of Insert function
  • CONVERT between all of Excel’s units: metres and miles, litres and gallons, Celsius and Fahrenheit, bytes and bits

Statistics, bonds and databases in the formulas guide →

The Insert function box over an orchard report, with the Database group chosen and DSUM selected: database Trees!A1:E7, field "Profit" and criteria Ask!A1:B2, each worked out under its box, and the result, R 180.
DSUM adds up the profit of the apple trees taller than 10 m.
View ▸ Markdown code

Headings in their sizes, in the Markdown too

The Markdown view draws a # heading biggest, then ##, ### and the rest, as the page does, so the shape of a document shows in its code as well. With the Markdown in colour or without it; the file itself stays plain text.

  • Side by side, the page and its Markdown stay level as you scroll, bigger headings and all
  • Find, Replace, undo and the text size work in it as before
  • Headings in their sizes, in View ▸ Markdown colours, turns it off
A borehole repair report side by side: the page on the left, and its Markdown on the right, where the # title is the biggest line, the ## headings are smaller and the ### headings smaller again, in colour, above the table, the list and the tip.
The page and its Markdown, with the headings in their sizes on both sides.
For teachers, students and engineers

Algebra with letters, answered as maths

Type =FACTOR(x⁴ − 1) and the cell shows (x − 1)(x + 1)(x² + 1), set as maths with real fraction bars and root signs. Solve equations exactly, differentiate, integrate and find limits, in a table cell or in the middle of a sentence: change a number in a formula and its answer follows.

  • SIMPLIFY, EXPAND, FACTOR, DIFF and INTEGRATE, with SOLVE and LIMIT made exact: (5 ± √13)/2 rather than two decimals
  • Every answer checked before it is shown: integrals differentiated back, roots put back into their equation
  • Set as maths in print, PDFs and web pages, and on one line in Word: (5 ± √13)/2
  • A memo whose answers are worked out, not typed

Algebra with letters, with examples →

A revision memo in Scriptorium: a table of algebra and calculus questions whose answers are formulas set as maths, such as (5 ± √13)/2, (x − 1)(x + 1)(x² + 1) and xeˣ − eˣ + C, with the formula bar above the page showing =SOLVE(x^2-5x+3=0, x) for the answer under the cursor.
A memo whose answers are formulas, set as maths.
View ▸ Pages

Your writing on real pages, as it will print

Sheets of A4, Letter or any paper, one under the other, with the margins round the writing and every page ending exactly where the printed page ends. Type, select, undo and find on them just as on the long sheet, which stays for writing without breaks.

  • Size, Orientation and Margins on the Design tab: A0 to A5, Letter, Legal and Tabloid, or a size of your own
  • A table running on to the next page shows its heading row again; a heading never sits alone at the foot
  • Page 3 of 7 in the status bar: click it to go to another page
  • White paper in every theme, with comments as notes beside the page

How the Pages view works →

A maintenance plan in the Pages view: the foot of page one and the top of page two on a grey desk, a long table carrying on with its heading row repeated, and the Design tab’s Size menu open with A0 to A5, Letter, Legal and Tabloid, each with its size.
Two pages of a long table, and the Size menu on the Design tab.
Formulas, as in Excel

Tables that add themselves up

Type =SUM(D2:D6) in a cell and the cell shows the total. Change a quantity or a price and every total that depends on it follows. The formula is kept in the Markdown, so the file still reads sensibly in any other program, and everything you print or export gets the answers.

  • Excel’s functions with Excel’s names, a formula bar, AutoSum and Insert function on a Table tab
  • A calculation in the middle of a sentence: {=Spares!D7}
  • Maths written as maths is written, =√2 and =πr² where r = 3, and maths Excel cannot do: exact fractions, solving equations, integrals and eigenvalues
  • Money, percentages and dates read and written the way your country writes them

Excel formulas in a Markdown document →

A spares budget: the formula bar above the page shows =SUM(D2:D6) for the total, with column letters and row numbers round the table and the Table tab’s AutoSum, Insert function, Show formulas and Calculate now; under the table, sentences show the total and its share of the budget.
The garden report in Scriptorium with the Insert tab open, Project plan beside Diagram: under the title and a paragraph, the plan drawn as a summary (starts 2 November, finishes 16 November, 11 working days, 50% done, 4 critical tasks, cost R 11 700 of a budget of R 20 000, 2 late) and a Gantt chart with the tasks, their durations, starts and finishes beside the bars
New in 3.54

Project plans in the report

The plan sits in the document it belongs to, its summary and Gantt chart worked out from the tasks, and changes when they do.

More about project plans →

Five slides made as adverts and posts, each at its own size: a green leaderboard banner, 728 by 90, saying Seedlings at the Saturday market; a yellow medium rectangle, 300 by 250, Fresh this week; a narrow wide skyscraper, 160 by 600, Workshops every Saturday; a square post, 1080 by 1080, Ten new beds; and a story, 1080 by 1920, Our first harvest
New in 3.53

Any size, from a banner to a story

A leaderboard, a medium rectangle, a skyscraper, a square post or a story: the same slides at the size the advert needs, saved as an animated GIF.

More about slide shows →

Six slides of the same garden report in six of the new slide masters: Boardroom’s navy title slide with a gold line, Sunrise with a sun in the corner, Aurora’s two soft lights behind a section slide, Blueprint’s squared paper under a table, Kraft paper’s ruled frame round a quotation, and Bold’s purple bar beside a list
New in 3.52

Sixteen slide masters

Boardroom, Minimal, Sunrise, Aurora, Blueprint, Slate, Kraft paper and Bold join the eight looks of 3.51, each with a band, a frame, a glow or a grid of its own.

More about slide shows →

The Slide sorter: the eight slides of the garden’s annual report as cards in rows, numbered, the fourth one chosen, with buttons to move, duplicate, hide and delete them and to present from the chosen one
New in 3.51

The Slide sorter

Every slide at once: drag them into order, duplicate one, hide one for this audience, or start the show from any of them.

More about slide shows →

A PIVOTBY formula in the corner of a table makes the whole table: the items across the top, the stalls down the side, every sum in rands, and totals along the foot and the right
New in 3.49

A summary table from one formula

PIVOTBY adds a list up by two things at once, the stalls down and the items across, with totals; empty pairs stay empty.

More about formulas →

The Markdown of a book in the Markdown view with its lines numbered: chapter two open, the other chapters folded away to one line each with a mark saying how many lines they hold
New in 3.48

Line numbers, and folding away

The Markdown has its lines numbered, and a minus beside a heading, a table or a list folds it to one line. Collapse all turns it into an outline.

More about the Markdown →

The print preview showing a report’s Markdown on an A4 page, every line numbered and in colour, with Print: The Markdown chosen in the bar
New in 3.48

Print the Markdown itself

From the Markdown view, Print and Save as PDF give the Markdown line by line, in its colours and with its line numbers, on the paper you chose.

More about printing →

File, New: the templates in groups, with Business and work showing Invoice, Quotation, Statement of account, Purchase order, Price list, Stock list, Sales report, Timesheet and Expense claim, then Money with Monthly budget, Loan repayments and Savings goal, each with a line saying what it works out.
Since 3.44

Templates that calculate

An invoice, a quotation and sixteen more that work out their own totals, VAT and dates, ready to type over.

See them →

The Newspaper template in the Pages view: Our Town Today across the top, a story in three columns with a line between them, a picture with its caption laid over its foot and a photo credit, a pull quote, three teasers in shaded boxes and a sport story with a league table.
Since 3.45

A newspaper, with a button for every part

Columns under a headline across them, pull quotes, teaser boxes, words on the pictures, and a Newspaper template.

How to make one →

The print preview zoomed to 160% on a maintenance plan: a table of months, machines and jobs filling the window, the hand chosen at the top, and in the corner the Navigator, a small picture of the whole page with a blue box round the part on screen.
Since 3.43

Zoom like a drawing program

Ctrl and the wheel zoom about the pointer, the wheel button slides the page, and the print preview has a hand and a Navigator.

How it works →

A café’s winter menu in the Pages view: the title, Winter menu, from 1 June, and tables for breakfast and lunch with rounded corners, teal lines and a pale teal heading row, under teal headings.
Since 3.45

Rounded or chamfered tables

Every table with rounded or cut-off corners, small to large, from File ▸ Appearance: on the page, on paper and in PDFs.

More about tables →

A table headed You type and You get: =√(3² + 4²) gives 5, =πr² where r = 2 gives 12.566…, =(3 + 4i)(1 − 2i) gives 11 − 2i, =2^100 gives all 31 digits, =PRIMEFACTORS(360) gives 2³ × 3² × 5, and SOLVE, FACTOR, INTEGRATE, INTEGRAL and CONVERT give theirs; the formula bar shows =INTEGRATE(x*e^x, x).
Since 3.44

Maths, as it is written

=√(3² + 4²) is 5 and =πr² where r = 2 works itself out; complex numbers, exact fractions, SOLVE and INTEGRAL too.

More about the maths →

Scriptorium’s Home page: Good morning, a row of ways to start with a blank document and templates drawn as small pages, a Projects row with New book, New exam paper, New empty project, Open a project and three projects drawn as covers, and the recent documents with when each was opened and changed.
Since 3.43

A Home page, with your projects

Templates drawn as small pages, books and exam papers as covers, and the documents you opened lately, as Word has.

More about Home →

Side by side with the Markdown in colour: on the right, the front matter in grey, the heading in blue, bold words in orange, italic in purple, a link in blue, table lines, formulas in teal, picture text in orange, a callout in green and tick boxes in blue; on the left, the same report as a page.
Since 3.45

The Markdown in colour

Headings, links, code, tables and formulas each in a colour of their own in the Markdown view: four sets, or colours of your own.

More about the Markdown →

A plan for a water-saving week pasted from an AI chat: a heading, a numbered list with bold words and a table of days, jobs and who does them, with the choices after a paste beside it: Keep formatting, Match style, Paste as plain text and As Markdown.
Since 3.42

AI answers, pasted clean

The chat’s colours, Copy buttons and citation marks stay behind; the code, the lists and the formulas come through.

How to paste an answer →

Everything that’s new, with pictures →
Built on Markdown

AI writes in Markdown. Scriptorium makes it a document.

Ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Copilot for a report, a lesson plan or a chapter, and the answer comes back in Markdown, full of #, ** and | signs. Paste it into most programs and the signs are what you get. Paste it into Scriptorium, or open the .md file the AI made, and you get the document: headings, lists, tables and code, laid out and ready to change, print or send.

For everybody, no code needed

Write Markdown without knowing Markdown

Type, and press buttons for bold, headings, lists and tables, the way you would in Word. Scriptorium writes the Markdown for you in the background, so your work is saved as plain text that any computer, phone or tablet can open, today and in fifty years.

  • An AI’s answer pastes in as a document, not as a page of symbols, and without the chat window’s buttons and icons
  • Opens .md files directly and saves them as .md, with no importing or exporting
  • See the code whenever you like: side by side with the page, or on its own
  • Copy a document out as Markdown, to hand back to an AI

New to Markdown? The plain-words guide →

Scriptorium in the side-by-side view: a lesson plan on the water cycle laid out as a document on the left, and the same lesson plan as Markdown code on the right.
Side by side: the page you see, and the Markdown it is saved as.
The assistant

An assistant that writes into the page

Connect the AI you already use and ask in plain words: turn these notes into a report, write a letter to the landlord, translate it into Afrikaans, add a summary at the top. The assistant does not hand back text for you to paste. It works on the document itself, so the headings, tables and lists are laid out by the time it answers.

  • Your Claude subscription through Claude Code: no API key and no second bill
  • Your own key for Claude, OpenAI, Gemini, Mistral, Groq or OpenRouter, at a fraction of a cent a request
  • Free and private with Ollama, on your own computer
  • Or copy the document to any chatbot and paste its answer back
  • One click to improve, correct, shorten, simplify or summarise
  • Ask how to do something and it answers from Scriptorium’s own help, with a button that opens the page

How the assistant works →

The assistant panel beside a sales report. The request reads: turn my notes into a proper report, with a summary and a table of the sales. The reply says it is done, and the page shows the finished report with its summary and table.
For writers and readers

Write a book. Read one. Hear it.

Start a new book and Scriptorium makes it a project: chapter one is ready to write in, and every chapter after it, your notes and pictures, and your conversations with the assistant stay together in one file. Jump between chapters, keep an eye on the word count, and save the finished book as an EPUB e-book, a PDF or a Word file for the publisher.

  • A whole book in one file you can copy to a memory stick
  • Reading view and focus mode, with sepia or dark pages for long evenings
  • A navigation pane to jump to any heading
  • Word count, reading time and readability as you go

How to write a book in Scriptorium →

A book project called The Keeper’s Light in the sepia theme: four chapters, a map, character notes and a conversation listed on the left, and chapter one, The storm, open on the page.
Read aloud

Hear it read like a radio play

Scriptorium reads any document aloud, sentence by sentence, highlighting as it goes. For a story, press Cast: it works out who is speaking and gives every character a voice and a manner of their own, so a novel is performed rather than recited. Put rain on the roof, a fireside or the sea underneath it, and listen.

  • 48 tones, from warm and shy to sinister and robotic, for every voice on your computer
  • Free, natural voices in more than 30 languages to download on a computer, which then work offline
  • Sixteen background sounds, made as they play rather than recorded
  • All on your own device: nothing uploaded, no account

Read aloud and Cast, step by step →

The Cast panel, Read it like a play, over chapter one of the book: the narrator, Grandpa Elias and Nomvula each have their own voice and tone, with a button to hear each of them.
Projects

Many documents, one file.

When one document stops being enough, a project keeps everything that belongs together in a single .quire file: as many documents as you need, the material you are working from, and your conversations with the assistant. Any piece can still be saved on its own as a .md file, a PDF or a Word file. Your projects wait on the Home page, as covers to click.

A book

Chapter one ready to write in, room for every chapter after it, and your research and notes beside them.

An exam paper

The question paper and its memo side by side, so the answers always travel with the questions.

Anything else

A report with its background reading, a course with its handouts, a manual in parts: start empty and add what you need.

Projects open in the free reader too, so a project you send can be read by anybody with Scriptorium, licence or not.

Made for real work

Everything you expect from a word processor. Then a little more.

Styles, tables, pictures, spelling, find and replace, printing: it is all there, on a ribbon that works the way you think it does. Then Scriptorium goes further, for the work people actually do.

For teachers and exam setters

The question paper and its memo, together

Start a new exam paper and Scriptorium makes a project with two parts: the question paper and its answer sheet. They live side by side in one file, so the memo is always one click from the paper, and the two travel together.

  • Maths set properly: fractions, powers, roots and whole equations
  • Marks in brackets, lines to write on, each section on a new page
  • Save the paper and the memo as PDF or Word for moderation
  • If you connect an assistant, it can draft questions and a memo with M1 and A1 marks
A Grade 10 mathematics exam project: the question paper and the answer sheet listed on the left, and the memo open with its working typeset.
For musicians, choirs and worship teams

Song sheets that play

Type the words with the chords in square brackets. Scriptorium sets each chord over the right word, draws the chord boxes, and keeps every verse, chorus and bridge in its place. Write a tune in ABC notation and it becomes sheet music that you can play, and hear sung.

  • ChordPro song sheets with chord diagrams
  • ABC tunes shown as notes on the staff, played and sung
  • Print a songbook, or save it as PDF for the band
A song sheet in Scriptorium: chord boxes for Cmaj7, B7, Am7 and Gmaj7, then the first verse with the chords in blue above the words.
For offices, clinics and safety officers

Wall charts and posters, on any paper

Write a policy, a procedure or a timetable as ordinary pages. When it has to go up on the wall, print all of it on one big sheet: A0, A1, A2, or a size of your own. Here the nine pages of a health and safety file become one A0 poster.

  • Any paper size, with the pages per sheet worked out for you
  • Flowcharts and charts drawn from a few lines of text
  • Coloured boxes for notes, tips, warnings and cautions
Print preview showing nine pages of a health and safety policy laid out together on one A0 sheet.
For everybody

Pictures, columns and rows where you want them

Click a picture to choose it. Drag a corner to size it, put it on the left, in the middle or on the right, and give it a frame, a shadow, rounded corners or a circle. Newspaper columns and rows of text are on the Insert tab, with sample text to type over.

  • The picture's place, size and style go with it into Word and e-books, and most of it into OpenDocument
  • Columns with a line under them; rows on the left, in the middle or on the right
A chosen picture with handles on its corners and the Picture Format tab open, showing picture styles, position and size, above two columns of text.
For programmers, students and technical writers

Code that looks like code

Code in a document shows in colour as you type, the way a programmer’s editor shows it, for HTML, CSS, JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, SQL, JSON, YAML and the shell. Colour values are shown in their own colour, and a CSS gradient is previewed under its block.

  • Code blocks, code in a sentence, and keys like Ctrl S
  • The colour is only painted on: what you copy and what you save is the code exactly as written
  • And the Markdown behind every page, whenever you want to see it
A document in the dark theme: a CSS block with its colour values shown in their own colours and a gradient previewed beneath it, and a Python script in colour below.

And everything else

The everyday things, done carefully.

Styles and templates

Title, headings and quotes on the ribbon, each one yours to change, and templates to start from: a letter, a report, a CV, an invoice, a budget, a mark sheet, a newspaper and more, eighteen of them with their sums worked out.

Tables

Numbers lined up on the right, cells merged when a heading needs the room, a table split in two when it should be two, formulas as in Excel, only the lines you want, and rounded or chamfered corners if you like.

Diagrams and drawing

Flowcharts and pie charts from a few lines of text, and shapes and a drawing canvas for everything else.

Equations

Maths typeset properly, with real fraction bars, roots and aligned working, drawn the same in print, PDFs, web pages and e-books, and simple formulas read aloud in words.

Spelling and statistics

Spelling checked as you type, with the local words of the country you write for, and a word count, the reading time and readability.

Opens what you have

Word (.docx) documents, the text of PDFs, web pages, Excel sheets, CSV, JSON, XML and RTF files come in as documents you can edit.

Saves what others need

PDF, Word, OpenDocument, RTF, EPUB e-books, web pages, LaTeX and plain text. Your own documents are saved as Markdown, plain text that any program can open.

Easy on the eyes

Light, dark, sepia and high-contrast themes, zoom and pan like a drawing program, and an outline to jump around a long document.

Help that answers

Seventy-one help pages inside the program, written in plain words and translated into all 60 languages, and an assistant that answers from them.

In your language

Sixty languages. Every word of it.

Every menu, button, message and help page in Scriptorium is translated. Change language at any time from the bottom of the window. Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Pashto and Urdu turn the whole window round to read from the right.

The same harvest report in the dark theme, with Scriptorium's ribbon and status bar in isiZulu.
The same report in the dark theme, with Scriptorium in isiZulu.
  • Afrikaans
  • አማርኛ
  • العربية
  • বাংলা
  • မြန်မာ
  • 简体中文
  • 繁體中文
  • Čeština
  • Nederlands
  • English
  • Français
  • Deutsch
  • Ελληνικά
  • ગુજરાતી
  • Hausa
  • עברית
  • हिन्दी
  • Magyar
  • Igbo
  • Bahasa Indonesia
  • Italiano
  • 日本語
  • Basa Jawa
  • ಕನ್ನಡ
  • ខ្មែរ
  • 한국어
  • Bahasa Melayu
  • മലയാളം
  • मराठी
  • नेपाली
  • Sepedi
  • پښتو
  • فارسی
  • Polski
  • Português
  • ਪੰਜਾਬੀ
  • Română
  • Русский
  • Sesotho
  • සිංහල
  • siSwati
  • Soomaali
  • isiNdebele
  • Español
  • Kiswahili
  • Svenska
  • தமிழ்
  • తెలుగు
  • ไทย
  • Tshivenḓa
  • Setswana
  • Türkçe
  • Українська
  • اردو
  • Oʻzbekcha
  • Tiếng Việt
  • isiXhosa
  • Xitsonga
  • Yorùbá
  • isiZulu

Marked: the eleven written official languages of South Africa, every one of them in full.

Your work stays yours

It works on your computer. Here is exactly what it sends.

Scriptorium needs no account and no internet to do its job. Your documents are ordinary files on your own disk, and they never depend on us.

What Scriptorium sends to Momo Designs

  • Until it has a licence, once a day when it is online: this computer's code, the day the trial began and whether it is still running, the version, the kind of computer and the language on screen.
  • With a licence, about once a week: this computer's code, to check that the licence still stands.
  • Only if you choose to register your trial: your email address and, if you give it, your name. News and offers only if you tick the box, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

The full details are in the Scriptorium privacy policy.

What it never sends

  • Your documents, or anything you type, open or print
  • Your name, unless you register or buy and give it
  • Anything to advertisers: there are none

The one exception is the assistant, if you choose to set one up: your request, the open document (it can read all of it) and anything you attach go to the AI service you picked, under that service's own terms. With Ollama they stay on your computer.

One price

Buy it once. Keep it.

No subscription and nothing to renew. Try everything for 14 days first. After that, Scriptorium stays a free Markdown reader: every document and project still opens and can be read, for as long as you like.

Scriptorium licence
USD 100once

R1,799 in South African rand, for one computer, for ever

  • Every future version of Scriptorium, free
  • All 60 languages and every feature
  • Works without the internet
  • Personal or commercial use: school, office, church or home
  • Moved to your new computer when you replace this one

Card payments are handled by Paystack, in rand: from outside South Africa your bank converts it. See the terms and the refund policy.

Buy a licence

The easiest way is inside Scriptorium: open File ▸ Licence and press Buy a licence. It knows which computer it is on.

Or buy here. A licence belongs to one computer, so type that computer's code:

You will find it in Scriptorium under File ▸ Licence ▸ This computer, with a Copy button beside it.

Paying by EFT, or for a school or office? Email [email protected] with each computer's code, and we will send one invoice and the licences when it is paid.

After you pay, go back to Scriptorium and press I have paid — fetch my licence on the Licence page. That is all. You can do it again at any time, after a reinstall for instance: the licence belongs to the computer.

Free for 14 days

Download Scriptorium

Everything is switched on for 14 days. No account, no card, no form to fill in.

Windows

Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit
InstallerThe usual choice. Adds Scriptorium to the Start menu.
.exe
PortableOne file that runs without installing, for a computer you may not install on.
.exe

Linux

64-bit (x86-64)
AppImageRuns on almost any distribution.
AppImage
Debian packageUbuntu, Debian, Linux Mint.
.deb
RPM packageFedora, openSUSE, Red Hat.
.rpm

macOS

Coming

Scriptorium for the Mac is on its way. Email us and we will tell you when it is ready.

Android tablets

Android 7 or later
Android appOpen the file on the tablet to install it.
.apk

Scriptorium 3.54.0 · Already have it? How updates work

Windows says “Windows protected your PC”

Windows shows this for programs it has not seen many times before. Choose More info, then Run anyway. If your browser holds the download back, choose Keep.

Starting the AppImage on Linux

Make it runnable once, then open it: right-click ▸ Properties ▸ Permissions ▸ Allow executing file as program, or in a terminal chmod +x Scriptorium-*.AppImage. Some distributions also need the libfuse2 package.

Installing on an Android tablet

Open the downloaded .apk file. If Android says that apps from this source are not allowed, choose Settings, turn on Allow from this source, and go back. If Google Play Protect asks, choose Install anyway.

Installing a new version over an old one

Download the new version and install it over the old one. Your documents, settings and licence stay as they were.

Samples

See what it makes

Real documents made in Scriptorium. The PDFs open anywhere; the projects and documents open in Scriptorium, where you can change them.

The first page of the Grade 10 mathematics memo, with method and accuracy marks.

Grade 10 Mathematics exam

A question paper and its memo in one exam project.

Eight pages of a sample health and safety policy on one 900 by 610 mm sheet, with the chart's title across the top.

Health and safety wall chart

A sample policy, who does what, the hazards, a flowchart and the law: eight pages on one 900 × 610 mm sheet.

A song sheet with chord boxes and chords over the words.

A song sheet

“Type It Funky”: the song map, chords over the words, and the tune in ABC.

Guides

How to do it, step by step

Short guides on the blog, from tables without borders, algebra with letters and tables that add themselves up to a newspaper front page, pasting an AI answer, setting an exam paper and printing a wall chart.

Tables

Markdown tables without borders, or with only the lines you want

Leave out a table’s outside lines, its inside lines or all of them, or one cell’s, for order forms, signature blocks and layouts. Faint while you type, gone on paper.

12 October 2026 · 4 min read Algebra

Algebra with letters: simplify, factor and solve in your document

Simplify, expand, factor, solve exactly, differentiate and integrate with letters, in a table cell or a sentence, with every answer set as maths and checked before it is shown.

12 October 2026 · 5 min read Formulas

Excel formulas in a Markdown document

Type a formula into a table cell, as in Excel, and the document does its own sums: a formula bar, AutoSum, calculations in sentences, and maths Excel cannot do.

12 October 2026 · 10 min read Newspapers

Make a newspaper or a newsletter, with words on the pictures

Stories in columns under a headline across them, tables and pictures that stay in their column, captions printed on the photos, and a Newspaper template to start from.

12 October 2026 · 5 min read Templates

Invoices and quotations that add themselves up

Every line, the subtotal, the VAT, the total, the due date and the balance due, worked out as you type over the samples. And sixteen more templates that calculate.

12 October 2026 · 5 min read Working with AI

How to paste an AI answer into a proper document

Copy an answer from ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude or Gemini, press Ctrl+V, and get a document: headings, lists, tables, code and formulas, without the chat window’s clutter.

5 October 2026 · 5 min read

All the Scriptorium guides →

Questions people ask

What is Markdown, and do I need to learn it?

Markdown is plain text with a few marks in it: # in front of a heading, ** around bold words, | between the columns of a table. It is the format ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and most other AI programs write their answers in, and any program on any computer can open it. You never need to type it: Scriptorium writes it for you as you use the buttons. If you are curious, View ▸ Side by side shows it next to the page.

Can I paste answers from ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude or Gemini?

Yes. Copy the answer and paste it into Scriptorium: the chat window’s colours, buttons, site icons and source marks stay behind, and the answer is laid out as a document, with its headings, lists, tables, code and formulas. When what came with the paste is Markdown, As Markdown in the little box after the paste draws it from that instead. If an AI gives you a .md file, open it directly. And if you ever want the symbols themselves, Paste as plain text keeps them.

Can Scriptorium do calculations, like Excel?

Yes. Type a formula such as =SUM(D2:D6) into a table cell and the cell shows the answer, which follows when the figures change. There are Excel’s functions with Excel’s names, a formula bar, AutoSum and Insert function, calculations in the middle of a sentence, and maths Excel does not do, such as exact fractions, solving equations and integrals. Since 3.46 it does algebra with letters too: it simplifies, factors and solves exactly, and differentiates and integrates, with the answers set as maths. Since 3.47 it has Excel’s statistics, bond and database functions, and CONVERT for units, and since 3.48 Excel’s number formats, names, columns by name and totals rows, and Excel workbooks out and in, formulas and all. Since 3.49 an answer that is a block of values, from SORT, FILTER, UNIQUE, GROUPBY and the rest, fills the empty cells around it, as in Excel 365, and LAMBDA makes functions of your own. The file keeps the formulas; printouts and exports get the answers. More in the guides to formulas and to algebra with letters.

Can I see the pages as they will print?

Yes. View ▸ Pages shows the document on sheets of the paper you chose, A4, Letter or any other, with its margins, and with every page ending where the printed page ends. Size, Orientation and Margins are on the Design tab.

Does Scriptorium need the internet?

No. It works on your own computer without a connection. When it is online it checks on its trial or licence now and then, and it uses the internet for things you ask for: the assistant, dictation, voices for reading aloud, registering, and pictures that a document links from the web. The first time you check spelling in a language, its dictionary may be downloaded.

What happens when the 14 days are up?

Scriptorium becomes a free Markdown reader. Every document and project still opens and can be read, in every view, the Markdown code included, for as long as you like. Writing, saving, printing and exporting, copying, the assistant and reading aloud need a licence. Enter one and everything comes back at once, with nothing to reinstall.

Is it a subscription?

No. You pay USD 100 (R1,799) once for each computer, and every future version of Scriptorium is free.

How do I get updates?

Download the newest Scriptorium from this page and install it over the old one. Your licence carries on, because it belongs to your computer, not to a version.

I am replacing my computer. What happens to my licence?

It moves with you. Open Scriptorium on the new computer and copy the code on its File ▸ Licence page. On the old computer, press Move to another computer… on the same page and paste that code; then press I have paid — fetch my licence on the new one. The licence keeps its serial, and every update is still free.

Old computer gone? Paste your licence key on the new computer and Scriptorium offers to move the licence there. Or email us the new computer's code and we will move it. The same goes if Scriptorium ever says your licence is for a different computer.

Can I use it at work or at school?

Yes. The licence covers any lawful use, personal or commercial. Each computer needs its own licence; for several, email us the codes and we will send one invoice.

Will it open my Word documents?

Yes: it opens Word documents (.docx, the kind Word has saved since 2007) and exports to Word, as well as to PDF, OpenDocument, RTF, EPUB, HTML, LaTeX and plain text, so you can swap files with anybody. Older .doc files need saving as .docx first.

What kind of files does it keep my work in?

Your documents are saved as Markdown (.md): plain text with a few marks for headings, lists and bold, which any program can open. A project (.quire), such as an exam paper with its memo, keeps its documents together in one file.

Do I need an AI subscription?

No. Everything except the assistant works without one. If you would like the assistant, you can use a Claude subscription through Claude Code, your own key for one of six AI services, or a model running on your own computer with Ollama.

Is my writing sent anywhere?

Never to us. Scriptorium sends Momo Designs only a computer's code and a few facts about its trial or licence, as listed above. If you use the assistant, your request and the document it reads go to the AI service you chose.

Is there a Mac or Android version?

For Android, yes: download the app for a tablet with Android 7 or later. The Mac version is on its way. Email us and we will tell you when it is ready.

What if it does not work for me?

Please use the 14-day trial to make sure it does what you need. If something goes wrong after you buy, email us: see the refund policy for when we refund.

Try it on your own work.

Fourteen days, everything switched on, nothing to sign up for.

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