☕ If you find this tool helpful & would like to support its maintenance, please consider leaving a tip on:
https://ko-fi.com/piknockyou
Thank you! :-)
🖼 For a quick impression of this script, refer to the screenshots at the bottom.
Dropbox | Slate Editor — Copy & Markdown Render
Supercharge Dropbox's plain text and Markdown editor. Adds a floating toolbar to perfectly copy text with line breaks preserved, plus live VS Code-style syntax highlighting and full HTML Markdown rendering.
Why You Need This
Viewing and copying text files (.md, .txt) in Dropbox is frustrating:
- No Markdown Support: Dropbox renders Markdown files as raw, unformatted plain text.
- Broken Copy/Paste: Selecting text inside Dropbox's readonly "Slate" editor often loses line breaks (pasting as one massive block) and includes invisible layout characters (
U+FEFF).
- No Link Clicking: URLs in text files are unclickable.
This script solves all of these issues with a sleek, bottom-right control panel.
Key Features
Three Viewing Modes
Switch effortlessly between three modes (your choice is remembered automatically):
- 📝 Raw Text: The default, untouched Dropbox editor experience.
- ✨ Hybrid Markdown: Applies beautiful, VS Code-inspired syntax highlighting directly to the text.
- Headers turn blue, bold/italic get distinct colors, inline code gets backgrounds, and code blocks are dimmed green.
- Clickable Links: URLs instantly become clickable links that open in a new tab.
- Live Updating: Highlights apply instantly as you type in Edit mode.
- 👁 Rendered Markdown: Completely hides the text editor and replaces it with a clean, fully formatted HTML reading view (rendered via
markdown-it).
Smart Copy (📋)
- Extracts the pure text from the editor.
- Preserves all line breaks perfectly.
- Automatically strips zero-width artifacts and prevents Dropbox UI elements from sneaking into your clipboard.
- Visual checkmark feedback upon successful copy.
Technical Details
- Non-Destructive: Modifies styles and overlays content without breaking Dropbox's native React/Slate save functionality.
- Dynamic Loading: Uses
MutationObserver to ensure the toolbar appears exactly when an editor is active, even when navigating folders.
- Lightweight: Fixed floating control panel stays out of your way in the bottom right corner of the viewport.
Installation
- Install Violentmonkey (recommended), Tampermonkey, or Greasemonkey.
- Install this script.
- Open any
.md or .txt file in Dropbox — the segmented control panel will appear in the bottom right.
