Spelling check

Misspelled words are underlined as you type. The checking is done by your system’s spell checker: macOS in the desktop app, your browser on the web. Right-click an underlined word for suggestions.

The system also picks the language; Mahfouz has no language setting. On the Mac, each paragraph is checked in the language it’s mostly written in, from your Mac’s spelling languages, so an English paragraph and an Arabic paragraph can sit in the same note. In a paragraph that mixes them, misspellings in the less-used language can be missed. English is checked as American English, so British spellings such as “colour” are underlined: add the ones you use to the vault dictionary. In a browser, the languages are the ones turned on in its spelling settings.

Words already in a note are underlined once you edit near them. In browsers, pasted text isn’t checked.

Turning it on or off

Turn Check spelling on or off in Settings → General. It’s stored on this computer only, not in the vault, so it doesn’t change anything for your collaborators.

In the desktop app, the right-click menu also has Check Spelling While Typing, but that only lasts until the app restarts. Use the setting to turn checking off for good.

Text substitutions

In the desktop app on macOS, the editor applies your Text Replacements (System Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacements) and corrects misspelled words as you type: type a shortcut or a word and a space, and it’s replaced, with the cursor after the space. Neither applies in code blocks. Since 0.14.0

The other macOS text substitutions are off: smart quotes, smart dashes and link detection. So it's keeps its straight apostrophe and -- stays two hyphens.

The right-click menu’s Substitutions submenu can turn one back on, but only until the app restarts.

What isn’t checked

Code blocks are never checked. On the web in Chrome and Firefox, inline code, links, wikilinks, tags and mentions aren’t checked either. In Safari and in the desktop app, they can be.

The vault dictionary Since 0.12.0

To stop a word from being underlined, put the cursor in it and run Add word to vault dictionary (ModAlt;, or from the command palette). Remove word from vault dictionary takes it out again; it has no default shortcut.

To see every word, open Settings → Vaults, pick the vault, and go to Dictionary. You can add and remove words there too.

The words are saved in the vault as .config/dictionary.md, one - word per line, so you can also edit the file by hand. Like the rest of the vault, the dictionary is shared with everyone who has the vault, and the words stay in its git history.

• In the desktop app, the words of the vault you’re working in apply.
• On the web, the vault dictionary works in Chrome and Firefox, not in Safari.

A dictionary entry is a single word: letters, digits and apostrophes, up to 64 characters. Hyphenated words are checked in halves, so add each half on its own. A dictionary holds up to 5000 words and 64 KB.

Vault dictionary or Learn Spelling

The Mac’s own Learn Spelling teaches only your Mac. The vault dictionary travels with the vault, to every copy of it and to everyone who has it.