Markdown

Markdown is a way of formatting with plain characters: # Heading, **bold**, - list item. It's handy on a BYOK, where there's no formatting toolbar. Studio reads it, shows it formatted, and writes it back as Markdown, so a file can move between the device and Studio without losing its shape.

Markdown is off unless you turn it on, for your BYOK or for one file at a time.

Markdown on your BYOK

1. Open Devices from the account menu (on mobile, Settings › Manage Devices).
2. Turn on Markdown on your BYOK.

From then on, files that arrive from your BYOK are read as Markdown: headings, bold, italic, lists, quotes, links and code appear formatted, with no symbols showing. Edits you make in Studio go back to the device as Markdown, so a heading you add here arrives on the BYOK as # Heading.

While Markdown is on, Markdown decides how line breaks work (a blank line starts a new paragraph; one Enter keeps lines together), so the Line breaks setting grays out.

One file at a time

Any text file can be set on its own, whatever the device switch says:

• In the file's options, choose On or Off under Markdown, or
• right-click it in the drawer and choose Treat as Markdown or Treat as plain text.

So a Markdown writer can keep one file of dash-led dialogue plain, and someone who never uses Markdown can have the one file that does.

Studio notices, but never guesses

If you paste Markdown into a file that isn't set to Markdown, or open one with clear Markdown in it, a bar appears above the text:

• Render it turns the symbols into formatting in this file. Formatting the file already has (bold, colors, highlights or links added with the toolbar) stays as it is.
• Treat as Markdown does that and sets the file to Markdown from now on.
• Not Markdown keeps the file plain and stops asking.

Studio never changes your text by itself, so a line of dialogue that starts with a dash is never turned into a list behind your back. Render it leaves lines that start with a dash and a space as they are; if they really are a list, click Make them a list on the Markdown rendered message that follows. Treat as Markdown reads them as a list straight away, as Markdown on your BYOK does. Undo on the same message puts the file back as it was.

The palette has the same thing as Render Markdown in this file. In a file that's already set to Markdown, it reads dash lines as a list too.

The source view

On a file set to Markdown, the </> button in the file header switches to the source view: the same file as Markdown text, lightly highlighted. Type there as you would anywhere; it saves as usual. Press Esc or click </> again to go back.

What you see in the source view is exactly what your BYOK receives. A file left in source view opens that way next time.

What carries across

Tables, tick-box lists and footnotes have no home in a Studio text file yet; they stay exactly as typed and go back to the device unchanged. Going the other way, colors, highlights, underline and alignment have no Markdown form, so they're simplified on the device. Studio's version history keeps a snapshot before every sync either way.

Import and export

• Import takes .md files. They open formatted and set to Markdown.
• Export a text file as MD and you get the same Markdown the device gets. Wikis and manuscripts export to Markdown with proper headings, lists, links and quotes.