A lightweight project progress tracker for research groups and graduate students,
built as a single self-contained HTML file — no install, no server, no account.

Features

• Two-row layout per project — key info on top, details below
• Priority badges — High / Medium / Low, click to cycle
• Stage tracking — Planning → In Progress → Analyzing → Writing → Under Review → On Hold → Done
• Deadline & next step — what needs to happen and by when
• Blocker categories — flag what's blocking progress
• Notes column — free-form text per project
• Filter by priority and sort by priority, deadline, last updated, or name
• Auto-saves to browser localStorage — no account, no server
• Export to Excel (.xlsx) or JSON — for backups and sharing
• Import from Excel or JSON — restore or migrate data
• Dark / light / system theme
• Export reminder banner — appears when you have changes not yet backed up

Usage

Open index.html in any modern browser. That's it — no install, no dependencies, no build step.

If you're using the hosted GitHub Pages version, just bookmark the URL. Your data lives in your browser's localStorage and is private to you.

Keyboard shortcuts

Action	Key
Finish editing a cell	Enter
New line in Notes	Shift + Enter
Cycle priority badge	Space or Enter while focused

Data & privacy

All project data is stored in your browser only (localStorage key pt-v2). Nothing is sent to any server. Data does not sync across browsers or devices — use Export → Excel or Export → JSON to back up and transfer your data.

Self-hosting

Because StepMark is a single HTML file, hosting it anywhere that serves static files works:

• GitHub Pages — URL: https://xtyangpsp.github.io/StepMark.
• Any static host — Netlify, Vercel, S3, etc. Drop index.html in and point a domain at it.
• Local — just open the file directly in a browser. Export/import still works.

Each user who opens the same hosted URL gets their own independent localStorage, so data never mixes between users.

Export compatibility

Excel exports include all fields and are compatible with Excel, Numbers, and LibreOffice Calc. JSON exports follow this schema:

{
  "exported": "ISO 8601 timestamp",
  "version": 2,
  "projects": [ { ... } ]
}

Both formats can be re-imported into StepMark.

Built with

• Vanilla HTML / CSS / JavaScript — no framework
• SheetJS (XLSX) for Excel export/import
• Plus Jakarta Sans & JetBrains Mono via Google Fonts
• Claude by Anthropic

Author

Xiaotao Yang · Purdue University, CSaT

License

AGPL-3.0 — free to use, modify, and distribute. If you modify StepMark and run it as a network service (e.g. host a modified version for others to use), you must also make your modified source available under the same license.