iA Writer uses Markdown syntax to format documents.

Summary

Features in Detail

Overview

John Gruber, the author of Markdown:

Markdown is intended to be as easy-to-read and easy-to-write as is feasible.

Readability, however, is emphasized above all else. A Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as plain text, without looking like it’s been marked up with tags or formatting instructions.

Markdown’s syntax is comprised entirely of punctuation characters, which have been carefully chosen so as to look like what they mean. E.g., asterisks around a word actually look like emphasis. Markdown lists look like, well, lists. Even blockquotes look like quoted passages of text, assuming you’ve ever used email.

Structure

Paragraphs

A paragraph is one or more lines of text separated by one or more blank lines.

First 
paragraph.

Second paragraph.

To insert a line break within a paragraph, write two spaces or a backslash \ at the end of the line.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat\
How I wonder what you’re at!

Headings

# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3
#### Heading 4
##### Heading 5
###### Heading 6

Lists

Unordered lists can use hyphens, pluses, and asterisks as list markers, interchangeably:

- Red
+ Green
* Blue

Ordered lists use numbers followed by periods:

1. Red
2. Green
3. Blue

To make a task list, use a space or a letter x between square brackets after a list marker:

- [ ] Milk
- [x] Bread

To make nested lists, indent list items by at least four spaces or a tab:

- Groceries
    - [ ] Milk

To make a list item with more than one paragraph, indent additional paragraphs by extra fours spaces or a tab. You can use extra spaces after a list marker to align the first paragraph with subsequent paragraphs:

-   First paragraph.

    Second paragraph.
    
-   First paragraph.    

Blockquotes

> First level, first paragraph.
>
> > Second level, first paragraph.
>
> First level, second paragraph.

Definition Lists

Markdown
: A lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax.
: A deliberate reduction in the selling price of retail merchandise.

Horizontal Rules

You can insert a horizontal rule by placing three or more hyphens or asterisks on a line by themselves:

***
---

Page Breaks

You can insert a page break for Microsoft Word or PDF export using three or more plus signs:

+++

Formatting

Bold

You can use double asterisks or underscores to make bold text:

**bold**
__bold__

Italic

You can use single asterisks or underscores to make italic text:

*italic*
_italic_

Strikethrough

You can use double tildes to make strikethrough text:

~~strikethrough~~

Highlight

You can use double equals signs to highlight text:

==highlight==

Superscript

Simple superscript, without any whitespace or punctuation:

100m^2

More complicated superscript:

y^(a+b)^

Subscript

Simple subscript, without any whitespace or punctuation:

x~z

More complicated subscript:

x~y,z~

Links

Markdown supports inline and reference links:

This is an [inline link](https://example.com).

This is a [reference link][id].

[id]: https://example.com

Reference link identifier can be omitted:

[Google][]

[Google]: https://google.com

Notes

Footnotes

Markdown supports inline and reference footnotes:

This is an inline[^Footnote text.] footnote.

This is a reference[^id] footnote.

[^id]: Footnote text.

Citations

This is a statement that should be attributed to
its source[p. 23][#Doe:2006].

[#Doe:2006]: John Doe. *Some Big Fancy Book*. Vanity Press, 2006.

You can use any text you want for the locator (e.g. p. 23), and it can also be omitted. Any citation key (e.g. #Doe:2006) format is allowed, as long as it begins with a hash sign:

This is a statement that should be attributed to its 
source[][#Doe, 2006].

Use Not Cited or notcited as the locator to include a source that was not cited:

[Not Cited][#Doe, 2006]

Images

In addition to Content Blocks, iA Writer supports Markdown image syntax and HTML image tags:

![Engineering Flowchart](Flowchart.png)
<img src="Flowchart.png">

Tables

| Name | Price | Tax |
|:--|--:|--:|
| Widget | 10$ | 1$ |
| Gift | 0$ ||
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Code

Use single backticks to indicate code within a line:

Keyword `func` indicates a function in Swift programming language.

Use three or more backticks with an optional code language on the first line on a line create a fenced code block:

```swift
class Shape {
    var numberOfSides = 0
}
```

You can also create a code block by indenting lines of text with 4 spaces or one tab:

Use class followed by the class’s name to create a class:

    class Shape {
        var numberOfSides = 0
    }

Math

iA Writer supports \(\LaTeX\) math expressions, which are typeset using \(\KaTeX\) (see supported features for more info).

Equations can be placed within a paragraph using $…$ or \\(…\\):

An example of math within a paragraph $x+y^2$.

Equations can placed on their own using $$…$$ or \\[…\\]:

$$\displaystyle \frac{1}{\Bigl(\sqrt{\phi \sqrt{5}}-\phi\Bigr) e^{\frac25 \pi}} = 1+\frac{e^{-2\pi}} {1+\frac{e^{-4\pi}} {1+\frac{e^{-6\pi}} {1+\frac{e^{-8\pi}} {1+\cdots} } } }$$