Looking for a screenwriting app? Try our new app, Calmly Script →

Writing

Lists and checklists

Bulleted, numbered and checklist items, nesting them with Tab, and turning one kind of list into another.

Starting a list

Type * for a bulleted list or 1. for a numbered one, or use the two list buttons on the toolbar (Ctrl+Shift+8⇧⌘8 and Ctrl+Shift+7⇧⌘7). Each EnterEnter adds an item; EnterEnter on an empty item ends the list.

Nesting

With the cursor on an item, TabTab moves it one level deeper and Shift+Tab⇧Tab brings it back up. It works the same in bulleted, numbered and checklists. Outside a list, TabTab inserts an em space instead, so you can indent the first line of a paragraph.

Checklists

Type - [ ] at the start of a line to begin a checklist, or Ctrl+Shift+9⇧⌘9. Each item has a box you can tick by clicking it; ticked items are drawn differently so you can see at a glance what is done. Checklists nest like the other lists.

A single checkbox can also go anywhere in the text: type [ ] or [x] in the middle of a sentence and it becomes a box you can tick.

Changing the kind of list

Right-click inside a list and choose Convert to checklist or Convert to bullet list. On a touch screen, the same two are in the format bar.

Checklists are kept in Markdown files as - [ ] and - [x] lines, the way other editors write them, so a list ticked in Calmly Writer stays ticked elsewhere.

More in Writing

Formatting as you type

The Markdown shortcuts that turn into headings, lists and emphasis while you type, and the ones you can turn off.

The toolbar and the shortcuts reminder

The small toolbar that appears over selected text, and the reminder of shortcuts that shows when you hold Ctrl or Cmd.

Headings and the table of contents

Six levels of heading, the panel that lists them, and the keys that move through it without touching the mouse.

Links

Links to web pages, to other documents on your disk and to headings in the same document, and how to follow them.

Images

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.

Tables, code and quotes

The slash menu that inserts blocks, the toolbar that edits tables, and the rules that keep them compatible with Markdown.

Comments

Notes attached to a passage, in three colours, which travel with the document and never print.

Smart punctuation

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.

Spelling and languages

The spell checker and its languages on each system, adding words to the dictionary, and the language of the app itself.

Writing direction

Right-to-left writing for Arabic, Hebrew, Persian and other scripts, per document or for every new document.

Find and replace

Searching the document or every open tab, and a replace that keeps the capitals of what it finds.

Copy and paste

What happens to formatting when text comes in from elsewhere or goes out, and the two ways to copy a document as code.