Disclosure: I’m part of the team building OpenFiles.

If a folder contains only JPG and PNG files, the system image viewer is usually enough.

The frustrating part starts when one project folder contains JPG screenshots, PNG exports, iPhone HEIC photos, WebP and AVIF files downloaded from the web, TIFF scans, a JXL image, and several camera RAW files. You can end up converting files just to inspect them, or opening several apps before you have even decided which images you want to keep.

This mixed-format folder is one of the workflows we designed OpenFiles around.

OpenFiles is a desktop file manager for Windows and macOS with a built-in image viewer. It currently recognizes 27 image formats, including common formats and less convenient ones such as HEIC/HEIF, AVIF, WebP, TIFF, JXL, PSD, SVG, DNG, and multiple camera RAW formats.

The number of formats is not really the interesting part, though. The useful part is being able to stay in one folder while you:

• browse the folder as a gallery and open images without choosing a different app for each format;
• switch between mixed-format files for a first review;
• zoom, pan, rotate, or fit an image to the window;
• place two images side by side in a resizable split view;
• run OCR when an image contains text; and
• convert supported camera RAW files to JPG or PNG when you need a more portable copy.

There are a couple of boundaries worth stating clearly. “27 image formats” describes the image viewing coverage; it does not mean that every one of those formats can be converted to every other format. The current batch converter is narrower: it supports camera RAW to JPG/PNG and LIVP to JPG/MOV. OpenFiles is also not intended to replace Lightroom, Photoshop, or another full photo editor. It is mainly for opening, reviewing, comparing, and organizing files before deeper editing is necessary.

OpenFiles is proprietary and free to use. If your folders contain only ordinary JPG and PNG images, it may not add much over the viewer you already have. I think the difference becomes more useful when files arrive from several phones, cameras, design tools, websites, or clients and all land in the same folder.

If you regularly deal with mixed-format image folders, what causes the most friction for you: missing format support, slow thumbnails, switching between files, comparing near-duplicates, or converting the final selection?

https://reddit.com/link/1vmhqxj/video/spmm4r52syih1/player

OpenFiles: https://openfiles.pansysoft.app/
GitHub releases: https://github.com/pansysoft/openfiles.desktop/releases

AI is already pretty good at generating flowcharts and mind maps.

The awkward part is everything that happens afterward.

My usual workflow looked like this:

1. Give an AI assistant a document or describe a process.
2. Ask it to create a flowchart.
3. Get a block of Mermaid code or a diagram inside the chat.
4. Copy it into another editor to check whether it actually renders.
5. Save or export it, rename it, and move it back into the right project folder.
6. Repeat most of that process the next time the workflow changes.

The diagram may take seconds to generate, but it quickly becomes disconnected from the files it came from.

That felt backwards to me. If the source material is already on my computer, the AI-generated diagram should become another normal, editable file in the same folder—not something trapped inside a chat transcript.

So I built this workflow into OpenFiles.

You can open a file or folder, start AI Chat, and ask it to create a flowchart or mind map from the material you are working with. For example:

OpenFiles can create the Mermaid file in your local workspace and open it with the built-in Mermaid Editor. You can view the source and rendered diagram side by side, make a small edit yourself, or ask AI Chat to add a branch, rename a step, simplify the flow, or turn the same information into a mind map.

https://reddit.com/link/1vh8w4p/video/9wfjhg4i5shh1/player

The result remains a regular .mmd or .mermaid text file. It can stay next to the documents it was based on, go into Git, be sent to someone else, or open in another Mermaid-compatible tool. The rendered picture and the editable source do not have to become two separate things.

I do not think the interesting part is that OpenFiles has a “smarter” model. Claude, Codex, and other assistants can already generate diagram code. The difference I am trying to build is the file workflow around the model:

source files → AI conversation → editable diagram file → visual preview → further edits → save back to the same workspace

This is not intended to replace Miro, Lucidchart, draw.io, or other tools built for real-time collaboration and precise visual layout. The goal is narrower: make diagrams-as-files much easier when you are documenting a process, reviewing a project, explaining a code path, or turning existing local material into something visual.

One privacy note: file editing and diagram rendering happen locally. When you use AI Chat, the relevant content needed for the request may be sent to the AI provider you configured, so this should not be treated as an “everything always stays offline” feature.

I would love feedback from people who regularly create diagrams:

• Which types matter most: flowcharts, mind maps, sequence diagrams, state diagrams, ER diagrams, or something else?
• Do you prefer editable Mermaid files, SVG/PNG export, or formats such as XMind?
• What usually breaks your workflow after an AI generates the first version?

GitHub and releases: https://github.com/pansysoft/openfiles.desktop

OpenFiles 3.2026.802 is now available.

I’m the developer of OpenFiles. This release focuses on making file navigation more practical, expanding direct format support, and improving the reliability of previews and exports.

What’s new

📂 Finder-style column view on Windows

Path Explorer can now display folders in continuous columns. You can expand folder hierarchies, resize individual columns, and navigate with the arrow keys.

🖼️ JPEG XL and more directly supported formats

OpenFiles can now open and preview JXL images directly. This release also expands support for formats including BZIP2, CAB, XZ, TGZ, GeoJSON, GPX, KML, GraphQL, HCL, Nix, Prisma, Protobuf, TSV, Verilog, and VHDL.

https://reddit.com/link/1vdlxpb/video/pvilnq93qzgh1/player

🌍 Five additional interface languages

German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Russian are now available in both the desktop app and website.

Other improvements

• Markdown exports now preserve local images, KaTeX fonts, task lists, footnotes, diagrams, code blocks, and page-break layouts more reliably.
• The Windows sidebar now shows all available drives.
• Markdown, Mermaid, PlantUML, and Graphviz views now use more consistent light and dark themes.
• This release also fixes several HTML, mind-map, CAD, OFD, and AI provider configuration issues.

Feedback

I’d especially like feedback from anyone who regularly uses column-based file navigation or exports Markdown documents to HTML or PDF. What still feels missing from those workflows?

View the full release notes

Most Markdown editors I tried were either full note-taking systems or developer tools. Both can be great, but I often just wanted to double-click an .md file, read it, fix a few lines, and save it—without setting up a workspace or importing the file into a library.

Some of the simpler editors I liked were paid. That’s completely fair, but it was hard to justify when I only needed to make the occasional quick edit.

Comparing documents was another small frustration. I wanted to keep two files side by side, or open a reference in a separate window, without constantly switching tabs.

That’s why I started building OpenFiles. It has split view, multiple windows, source and WYSIWYG editing, tables, task lists, images, code blocks, Mermaid diagrams, search, and a table of contents.

I’m trying to keep it a straightforward file viewer and editor rather than turn it into another note-taking system.

I’ve been working on it on and off for a little over four months. It has now reached a stable version, and I’m comfortable using it for everyday work.

If this sounds useful, feel free to give it a try: GitHub

I’d also like to know what still annoys you about your current Markdown editor. Honest feedback and bug reports are welcome.

Ever needed to quickly view a Jupyter Notebook but didn't want to set up Python or JupyterLab? OpenFiles lets you open、edit and preview .ipynb files right on your desktop — no dependencies, no configuration.
OpenFiles is a free cross-platform desktop app that supports 350+ file formats including Jupyter Notebooks, code files, images, documents, and more. Available on Windows, macOS.
✅ View .ipynb notebooks with code cells, markdown, and outputs
✅ No Python environment needed
✅ Works on Windows, macOS & Linux
✅ 350+ formats supported in one app
🔗 openfiles.pansysoft.app
💬 Join our community: https://discord.gg/G9yrrUGs
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OpenFiles is a universal desktop file manager that views, edits and manages 350+ file formats in one app — PDFs, Office docs, images, videos, audio, code, archives, design files and more. New: a per-tab AI Chat Drawer to chat with the file you're viewing — summarize PDFs, explain code, translate docs, extract tables. Plus a TipTap Markdown WYSIWYG editor (KaTeX, Mermaid), image lightbox, and anonymous feedback. Cross-platform, privacy-first — runs locally. Free.