The formatting toolbar

The toolbar above the editor groups its buttons, with a separator between groups. On a phone it shows only while you edit a note, as one row just above the keyboard that you swipe sideways (see Reading and editing a note). Since 0.17.0 Left to right:

• History: Undo, Redo
• Style: the Heading dropdown: Normal text / Heading 1 / Heading 2 / Heading 3 / Heading 4 / Heading 5 / Heading 6 (4 to 6 Since 0.13.0)
• Text: Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, the Subscript / Superscript dropdown, Highlight, the Code dropdown and Remove formatting (see Remove formatting). Code holds Inline code and Code block, which inserts a code block, puts the selected lines in one, or, inside a block, removes its backticks. The Code button shows pressed while the cursor is in inline code or a code block. Since 0.13.0
• Insert:
  • Link: opens a field under the selection for the URL; Enter links the selected text ([text](url)), Esc cancels
  • Tag: inserts a #tag
  • Insert media or file: opens a native multi-file picker and attaches the chosen files (see Media)
  • Table: opens the hover-grid size picker
  • Embed dropdown: inserts a block for each enabled embed plugin (such as Mermaid). If none are enabled, it links to Preferences instead.
• Paragraph: the List dropdown (Bullet list / Numbered list / Checklist), Quote (blockquote) and the Callout dropdown, for inserting or changing a callout
• Find: Find and replace
• Note look:
  • Font dropdown: whole-note font override, stored as a note attribute
  • Color dropdown: Text / Background / Highlight tabs. Each has a 100-swatch grayscale + hue grid, a native “Custom…” color picker and “Reset to default.” Like Font, these are whole-note settings stored as note attributes, not formatting for the selected text.
• Slides, when shown: Page orientation switches a slides PDF export between Landscape and Portrait, and the slides-template menu picks the note’s slides template

Table, Code block and Embed aren’t available while Suggesting; their tooltips say to switch to Editing. The same groups, in the same order and with the same labels, are in the editor’s right-click menu.

Right-aligned at the end of the toolbar:

• Attributes: shows or hides the document attributes sidebar
• ⋯ (More): the note’s action menu, the same one you get by right-clicking the note in the Sidebar (minus “Open in new tab” and the publish items, which are in the bottom bar): Present, Export…, New child note, New folder, Bookmark / Remove bookmark, Move…, Rename, Duplicate, Copy › (Name, Wikilink, ID, and Permalink Since 0.16.0), Reveal in Finder (Reveal in File Explorer on Windows, Open Containing Folder on Linux), Revisions (opens the note’s history in the Details section), and Delete (danger). Each item shows its keyboard shortcut.

The bottom bar Since 0.12.0

The bar under the open note shows where the note stands on the left and how you’re viewing it on the right. Apart from the word count and the zoom level, every control is an icon: point at one to see what it says or does. On a phone the bar doesn’t show: its controls are in the note’s ⋯ menu instead (see Reading and editing a note). Since 0.17.0 A mode that’s on (Suggesting, a published page, a Light or Dark appearance, a zoom other than 100%) is tinted. Its menus open upward.

The bar, like the formatting toolbar, is one stop for Tab: ← and → move between its controls, Home and End go to the ends, and Esc goes back to the note. F6 reaches either bar from the note (see Writing from the keyboard). Since 0.20.0

On the left:

• Word count: how many words the note has, such as 1,284 words. While text is selected, it reads 212 of 1,284 words. Point at it to see the number of characters (not counting spaces) and the reading time, at 200 words a minute. Only the text you’d read counts: Markdown markup, code blocks, HTML, URLs, the target of a wikilink (the part before |), pending suggested insertions and comments don’t. Inline code, text suggested for deletion and the text a comment is anchored to do count
• Save status: an icon for whether the note has been saved and where its changes are. A clock while it saves; a cloud once it’s saved, marked for Not committed, Not pushed, Pushing…, Pushed, Push failed or Conflict (red for the last two); a tick for a note with no remote; a floppy disk for a disk-only note; a red ! when a save fails. Point at it for the words, such as Saved 2m ago · Not pushed (see The save chip). Click it to open the note’s Status card Since 0.15.0: the same words with a line on what they mean, the note’s counts, such as 1,284 words · 6,912 characters · 7 min read Since 0.20.0, Commit… while the note has uncommitted changes (it opens Commit notes with the note checked), the note’s Auto-commit switch (see Auto-commit and disk-only notes), and who created and last edited it, and when. Open in sidebar shows the Details section, with the note’s path and history
• Publish (a globe): publishes the note to the web. Once it’s published, the globe is tinted and opens a menu of the page’s actions: Update published page, Copy public link, Open published page, QR code, Publish child notes…, Page settings… and Unpublish. A dot shows while the page is behind the note (see Publishing)
• Share… (two people): shares the note with chosen GitHub accounts or a secret link, so they can read, comment on, suggest edits to or edit it live with you (see Sharing a note with people). It shows only where sharing is on for your account Since 0.16.0
• Share (a box with an up arrow): opens the system share sheet to send the note to another app, such as Mail or Messages. It sends the note’s text as Markdown, without its attributes or a database’s view settings. Pending suggestions go as the original text (text proposed for deletion stays, insertions don’t), and comments are left out. A published note’s page link goes too; it opens the page as last published, so update the page first if it’s out of date. Share is in the macOS app and in browsers that can share: Safari; Chrome and Edge on macOS, Windows and ChromeOS; mobile browsers. An encrypted note can’t be shared: it has no Share button, and the command palette refuses it Since 0.12.0 The File menu has no Share item: use the button, the command palette or a key you set for Share in Settings → Shortcuts Since 0.14.0

On the right:

• Track changes (a pencil while Editing, a tinted pencil with a plus while Suggesting): switches between making changes and suggesting them, and reviews suggestions. It shows how many suggestions the note has (see Track changes)
• Comment (a speech bubble with a plus): comments on the selected text, or opens the comment under the cursor (see Comments)
• Source / Preview (an eye in Preview, code brackets in Source): shows the mode the note is in; click it to pick Preview, Source or Vim Since 0.20.0 (see The editor). ModShiftP (ModAltP on the web) switches between Preview and Source Since 0.20.0
• Appearance (a half circle, a sun or a moon, tinted while it’s Light or Dark): shows this note in Light or Dark whatever the app’s Color mode, or Auto (the default) to follow it. Only the note changes: its toolbar, the note and this bar, along with the menus and diagrams inside it. The sidebars and tabs keep the app’s colors. The choice is yours alone, kept for this note on this device (in the browser’s or app’s local storage), so collaborators and your other devices still see Auto, and nothing is committed. A note’s own background and text colors still apply. Cycle the active note’s appearance in the command palette steps through Auto, Light and Dark; it has no shortcut until you bind one in Settings → Shortcuts
• Zoom (the percentage, such as 100%, tinted when it isn’t 100%): point at it, click it or tab to it, and it opens into a slider in the bar. Drag the slider or use the arrow keys to step through the levels from 50% to 200%, or use − and +. Double-click the percentage to go back to 100%. Escape, moving the pointer away or clicking elsewhere closes it

A plugin with toolbar items (such as draw.io’s New diagram, Mermaid’s Insert diagram or Slidev’s Present) adds its own buttons at the right end of the toolbar, just before ⋯ (More), but only while the plugin is enabled. A toolbar button with a keyboard shortcut can be rebound or turned off in .config/settings.md under ## Shortcuts, the same way as a plugin command (see Presenting notes as slides for an example). Plugin tabs and the Settings → Plugins list both show each plugin’s icon.

All toggle-style formatting (bold, italic, lists, headings, blockquote, etc.) is a smart toggle: applying it again removes it, and applying a different list type to a line that already has one converts it in place rather than stacking markers.

Remove formatting

Remove formatting takes the text formatting off the selected text: bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, highlight, inline code, subscript and superscript. It has no keyboard shortcut.

• Only the selected text loses it. A mark that runs past the selection is split, so the text outside keeps it: in **the new**, removing formatting from “new” leaves **the** new.
• With no selection, it removes the marks the cursor is in.
• Links, tags, wikilinks, headings, lists, quotes, comments and suggestions stay.
• It isn’t available while Suggesting: switch to Editing to remove formatting.