Markdown formatting

Type markdown and it becomes formatted text as you go — the ** vanishes and the words go bold. The file on disk stays plain markdown. Everything below also has a shortcut, for when you would rather not type the syntax.

Headings

Type one to six # characters and a space at the start of a line.

# Heading 1
## Heading 2
###### Heading 6

Action	Shortcut
Heading 1–6	Ctrl+Cmd+1 … Ctrl+Cmd+6

To change a heading’s level, press the shortcut for the level you want. Press the shortcut a heading already has and it goes back to being a paragraph. If a heading drops a level on its own, you pressed Backspace at the very start of it — a Heading 1 treated that way becomes a paragraph.

Naming a new file

The sidebar’s New File opens the file on an empty Heading 1 with the caret in it — type the name there. Press Return or click away and the file on disk takes that name; press Escape to leave it as untitled.md. To rename in the sidebar instead, set File name binds to title to Never in Settings > General — see [[sidebar-workspaces-and-file-types|Sidebar, workspaces, and file types]].

File ▸ New Draft (Cmd+N) does the same for an unsaved draft: what you type in the heading becomes the window title and the name the save panel offers. Turn New file starts with heading off in Settings > General to start drafts empty.

Bold, italic, and code

Format	Type	Shortcut
Bold	**text** or __text__	Cmd+B
Italic	*text* or _text_	Cmd+I
Strikethrough	~~text~~ or ~text~	Cmd+Shift+U
Inline code	`text`	Cmd+K

The formatting appears once you type the closing marker. With text selected, the shortcut wraps it instead — press it again to remove the format.

Shift+Return starts a new line inside the same paragraph.

Lists

List	Type	Shortcut
Bullet	- , * or +	Opt+Cmd+8
Numbered	1.	Opt+Cmd+7
Task	- then [ ]	Opt+Cmd+9

- Bullet item
1. Numbered item
- [ ] Unfinished task
- [x] Finished task

Inside a list:

Action	Key
New item	Return
Indent one level	Tab
Outdent one level	Shift+Tab

Those three shortcuts also convert a list you have already written, nested items included — a bullet list becomes a task list without retyping anything. Press the shortcut for the list you are already in to turn it back into plain paragraphs.

Checking things off

Click the circle to the left of a task to check it; click again to uncheck. Checked items get a check mark and a line through the text.

When a document has tasks, the status bar at the bottom shows how many are done. Click that count to hide the finished ones, click again to bring them back — nothing is removed from the file.

Quotes

Type > at the start of a line, or press Opt+Cmd+B. The same shortcut turns the quote back into a paragraph.

> Quoted text.

Code blocks

Type three backticks followed by a space or Return, or press Opt+Cmd+C. Add a language name for syntax highlighting:

```swift
let x = 1
```

If the code block is the last thing in the document and you need a paragraph after it, press the down arrow at the end of the block. The up arrow does the same above a code block at the very top.

To turn a code block back into a paragraph, choose Format > Code Block.

Horizontal rules

Type --- at the start of an empty line, or press Opt+Cmd+-. *** and ___ work too, each followed by a space.

Frontmatter

Type --- in the very first block of the document — where it would otherwise make a horizontal rule — and you get a frontmatter block to fill in:

---
title: Notes
tags: [research]
---

To remove it, delete everything inside it, then press Backspace once more.

Comments

Type <!-- at the start of an empty paragraph, then type the comment. It is written to the file as <!-- your text -->, stays visible while you edit, and is hidden wherever the markdown is rendered.

To remove one, empty it and press Backspace once more.

Tables, links, and math

Insert	Shortcut
Table	Opt+Cmd+T
Link	Opt+Cmd+K
Math block	Opt+Cmd+M

All three are in the Insert menu.

Pasting markdown

Paste raw markdown and it arrives already formatted. Text copied from a web page or another rich-text editor keeps the formatting it came with. To paste the characters exactly as they are, hold Shift while pasting, or paste inside a code block or inline code.

Formatting without typing the syntax

• The left end of the status bar reads the name of the block the caret is in — Paragraph, Heading 1, Code Block. Click that name to pick a different one.
• Right-click in the editor for a Format submenu (block types) and a Font submenu (bold, italic, strikethrough, code).

How your markdown is saved

Inkstone writes markdown in one consistent style, so a file you wrote elsewhere may come back looking slightly different. What you opened:

* Bullet
+ Another
___
__Bold__ and _italic_

What Inkstone saves:

- Bullet
- Another
---
**Bold** and *italic*