Calmly Writer
Formatting as you type
The Markdown shortcuts that turn into headings, lists and emphasis while you type, and the ones you can turn off.
Calmly Writer understands the most common Markdown as you type it. You write ## at the start of a line and the line becomes a heading; the marks themselves disappear, and what you see is the formatted text. Nothing is left to render later: the document on screen is the document.
| You type | You get |
|---|---|
# to ###### at the start of a line |
A heading, level 1 to 6 (the space is optional: #Title works too) |
* at the start of a line |
A bulleted list |
1. at the start of a line (any number) |
A numbered list |
- [ ] or - [x] at the start of a line |
A checklist item, unticked or ticked |
[ ] or [x] anywhere |
A single checkbox in the text |
> at the start of a line |
A quote |
``` on its own line |
A code block |
`text` |
Inline code |
**text** or __text__ |
Bold |
*text* or _text_ |
Italic |
~~text~~ |
|
--- on its own line, then Enter |
A horizontal rule |
Only * starts a bulleted list while you type; - and + do not, so a line that begins with a dash stays a line of text. Markdown files that use - for lists still open correctly: the rule is about typing, not about the files.
Turning them off
If you write about Markdown, or just like your asterisks where you put them, three of these can be switched off in :
- Start a bulleted list with *
- Start an ordered list with 1.
- To italicize and bold text with asterisks (this covers the underscores too)
The other rules stay on. To type a # at the start of a line without making a heading, or a > without a quote, press Ctrl+Z⌘Z right after the change: it undoes the formatting and keeps the character.
Beyond Markdown
The formatting shortcuts (Ctrl+B⌘B, Ctrl+I⌘I, Ctrl+1…6⌘1…6 and the rest) do the same things from the keyboard, with or without Markdown, and the toolbar does them with the mouse. Tables, code blocks, images and quotes can also be inserted from the slash menu.
For the full picture of what Calmly Writer does and does not do with Markdown, and how it differs from other Markdown editors, see Calmly Writer as a Markdown editor.
More in Writing
The small toolbar that appears over selected text, and the reminder of shortcuts that shows when you hold Ctrl or Cmd.
Six levels of heading, the panel that lists them, and the keys that move through it without touching the mouse.
Bulleted, numbered and checklist items, nesting them with Tab, and turning one kind of list into another.
Links to web pages, to other documents on your disk and to headings in the same document, and how to follow them.
Four ways to put a picture in a document, the difference between embedding and linking one, and what the editor does not do with images.
The slash menu that inserts blocks, the toolbar that edits tables, and the rules that keep them compatible with Markdown.
Notes attached to a passage, in three colours, which travel with the document and never print.
Curly quotes, dashes, ellipses and arrows written for you as you type, the quotation marks of your language, and how to turn each one off.
The spell checker and its languages on each system, adding words to the dictionary, and the language of the app itself.
Right-to-left writing for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and other scripts, per document or for every new document.
Searching the document or every open tab, and a replace that keeps the capitals of what it finds.
What happens to formatting when text comes in from elsewhere or goes out, and the two ways to copy a document as code.
