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HTML export

Choose Main menu → Export or use the command palette. The contextual action also remains under Outline → Actions for Markdown and Topics → Actions for Writerside. HTML has no default shortcut; Ctrl+Shift+E continues to export PDF.

Markdown exports the active document’s current editor text, including unsaved and untitled content. Writerside first offers Save, Discard, or Cancel for project changes, then lets you choose a non-library instance and a dedicated output directory.

Export settings

Markdown and Writerside share the same HTML settings, independently of your editor and preview theme:

  • Content: include a heading-based table of contents, choose a depth from 1–6, and number headings. The TOC links to the existing heading anchors. Numbering changes the export only. The heading outline remains enabled by default; heading numbering is off.
  • Appearance: light, dark, or automatic theme; serif or sans-serif body text; a base size from 12–28 px; and an accent/link color. Automatic follows the browser’s light/dark preference. Code uses the export’s theme without requiring a browser highlighting library.
  • Layout: a maximum content width from 320–1920 px. Pages still adapt to smaller screens; wide code blocks and tables scroll within the page.
  • Output: a single HTML file or HTML with an assets directory, plus an optional custom stylesheet.

Defaults are a light theme, 17 px sans-serif text, a maximum width of 918 px, blue links, an assets directory when needed, and no custom stylesheet.

BusyMark remembers the last confirmed HTML settings globally, including across Markdown and Writerside exports. PDF settings are remembered separately. Reset to defaults restores the default values in the dialog. Cancelling the settings dialog leaves the remembered values unchanged.

Packaging

Single HTML file embeds the local and generated resources needed by a Markdown document, so you can copy the .html file on its own. Remote resources are not downloaded or embedded.

HTML + assets directory places images, media, downloads, and generated graphics in a companion <name>.assets directory using relative links. Keep the HTML file and that directory together when copying the export. A text-only document needs just the HTML file.

Writerside always retains separate linked topic pages and an index.html entry point. With an assets directory, pages share assets/. In single-file mode, each topic page embeds its resources; copy the entire instance directory to preserve navigation. Hidden topics retain pages without navigation entries, and work-in-progress entries retain their status. Repeated TOC references share one page. Existing topic filenames and resolved instance order are preserved.

Both modes work offline when opened directly in a browser or served by a static web server. No BusyMark installation, preview server, or original source folder is required to read them.

Custom CSS

Select Custom stylesheet… to choose a local UTF-8 .css file of up to 256 KiB. Its rules follow BusyMark’s generated stylesheet, allowing intentional overrides. Remove custom stylesheet returns to the built-in appearance.

BusyMark reads CSS directly, without running a preprocessor. Imports, resource URLs, escaped CSS, HTML, and executable CSS are rejected. No remote fonts or other resources are fetched. A missing, oversized, or invalid stylesheet must be corrected or removed before exporting. Browser scripts and template code are not supported customization mechanisms.

Custom CSS is optional. The generated document already has semantic headings, links, lists, tables, code, metadata, and accessible navigation. Built-in print styles hide navigation and expose disclosure bodies and every Writerside tab. Custom rules can override presentation, including print styling.

Resources and existing exports

Supported local images, media, equations, diagrams, and static API documentation are prepared during export. Remote video remains a link. Missing or unsupported content produces an actionable diagnostic and readable fallback where possible. HTML does not automatically export other linked Markdown documents or crawl other Writerside instances.

Choose the destination after confirming settings. BusyMark asks before replacing existing output. A Writerside destination can replace only an unmodified export created by BusyMark, protecting unrelated files. Cancellation and ordinary export failures preserve the previous output.

The result offers Open, Show in Folder, and source-associated diagnostics. When replacing an HTML document with an assets directory, old resources may be retained so earlier copies of that HTML remain usable.