On iPhone, tap the ⚙️ icon at the top-left of the Library to modify settings for iA Writer. It is divided into the following sections:
Appearance
You can switch the appearance of the app between Dark and Light modes. If you chose System, the app will follow iOS when it changes to Light or Dark mode.
App Icon
You can switch the appearance of the app icon between Dark and Light modes.
Interface
Show File Extensions
Shows or hides file extensions in the Library file list.
Editor and Preview Settings – Scroll in Sync
When turned on, Preview will keep the same position as the text view in the Editor. It is useful when you are working in the middle of a document.
Editor and Preview Settings – Toolbars
By default, iA Writer hides the toolbars above and below the Editor and Preview when scrolling. You can use this option to keep them always visible.
Accounts
Add new or configure existing accounts for Ghost, Medium, Micro.blog, Micropub, or WordPress
Files
Set your default plain text file extension. Common extensions are .txt, .text or .md for Markdown.
Library
Sort By
Sort files by Date Modified, Date Created, Name or by Extension.
You can as well select if the Newest or Oldest file appears on top.
Show Date
Choose between showing documents’ creation date or last modified date in the Libray file list.
Appearance: Pin Folders to Top
“Pin” folders to the top of the Library’s document list.
Appearance: Show Text Excerpts
Show or hide excerpts of your documents’ text in the Library file list.
Editor
Focus Mode
Turn Focus Mode ON or OFF.
Focus Mode: Scope
Choose how much of your text to keep focused. You can choose to blur out everything but the current Sentence or Paragraph. Choosing Typewriter won’t blur out any text, but will keep the cursor centered vertically on the screen.
Syntax
Colorize the parts of speech in your document. This can help you spot weak verbs and superfluous adjectives. You can Enable All or select the ones you need among Adjectives, Nouns, Adverbs, Verbs and Conjunctions.
Style Check
Get suggestions on how to remove unnecessary fillers, clichés, and redundancies with Style Check. You can also add your own Custom Patterns here.
Text
Typography
Select the font between iA Mono, Duo or Quattro.
Language
Select language corresponding to the typography (for CJK optimization).
Maximum Line Length
Choose the maximum number of characters on a single line before it wraps to the next.
Indent Using
Choose whether indents use Tab or Space characters.
Tab Key
Choose whether tab key always indents the current line—no matter the cursor position—or whether it always inserts a tab character at the cursor position.
Tab Width
Choose two, four or eight spaces for the appearance of tab characters in the Editor.
Indent Width
Choose two, four or eight spaces for the appearance of the indent width in the Editor.
Wrapped Line Indent Includes
Whitespace
Lines that wrap under a line that is indented with tabs or spaces will also indent to the same degree.
Markdown Block Markers
Lines that wrap under a line that begins with Markdown block markers, e.g., list markers (“- “, “1. “), will also indent to the same degree as the start of the text above.
Restore Defaults
Resets all Settings on this page to their defaults.
Appearance
Highlight Color
Text surrounded with the ==highlight syntax== will use this color in both Editor and Preview.
You can choose between yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue and green.
Completed Tasks
Modifies the appearance of completed tasks in both Editor and Preview to either Strikethrough, Fade the text, or both.
Text Input
Check Spelling
When turned on, typos in the Editor will be underlined in red.
Smart Copy/Paste
Accounts for spaces in the content so you don’t end up with two-space gaps in the text.
Smart Quotes
Automatically replaces straight quotes with curly quotes when typed into the Editor.
Smart Dashes
Automatically replaces two hyphens with an emdash.
Completions
Insert and type-over matching brackets
When opening a bracket ( [ or {, a closing bracket will automatically appear.
Wrap selection in typed brackets
When selecting a text and pressing [ ( or {, the selected text will be wrapped like [text] (text) {text}.
Keyboard
Lightning Menu
On iOS 15+, iA Writer includes a Lightning Menu in the Keyboard Bar. Here you can choose which shortcuts appear in the menu when tapped.
Hardware Keyboard
Show Keyboard Bar
The Keyboard Bar appears above the software keyboard and provides shortcuts to common functions. When a hardware keyboard is connected keyboard shortcuts are available, so you may choose to hide the Keyboard Bar here.
Command Keyboard
Choose to show or hide the Command Keyboard in the Keyboard Bar and modify its layout.
Templates
Custom Templates
Here you can add Templates , or remove any previously installed custom templates by swiping their entry in the list to the left.
Appearance
Center Headings
Choose between centered or left-justified headings in the templates.
Number Headings
Headings will be automatically numbered in the Preview.
Indent Pargraphs
Choose to indent new paragraphs or separate them with an empty line.
Invert Preview Colors
Preview will use the inverted colors of the Editor. This is useful to tell at glance whether you are in Preview mode on iPhone.
Printing & PDF Export
Configure header, footer and title page settings for exported/printed documents.
Configure paper size (print and PDF export).
Markdown
Processing
Determines how content from the Editor is processed by the Markdown parser to display content in Preview.
Smart Punctuation
When turned on, straight quotes in the Editor will automatically be converted to curly quotes in Preview. Likewise, two hypens immediately following each other will be shown as an emdash in Preview.
N.B. This is distinct from the Editor setting for Smart Quotes and Smart Dashes. Those will modify the characters themselves in the Editor, while this function only changes the appearance in Preview and PDF export.
Single Return Starts a New Paragraph
Traditional Markdown requires two returns to complete a paragraph. i.e., one empty line between paragraphs or any other element. This setting lets you use a single return instead, if you prefer.
Library Paths
You can configure how paths for Wikilinks and Content Blocks will appear in the Editor here.
- “Shortest” will use the smallest path possible in any situation, often simply the file name:
Alice in Wonderland.
- “Relative” will use a relative path, using
../ to indicate folders above: ../Classics/Alice in Wonderland
- “Absolute” will use the full explicit path to the document:
/Books/Classics/Alice in Wonderland
Output & rendering settings for wikilinks, hashtags and autolinks. You can configure HTML, Other (copying, exporting and publishing), and Preview behavior all independently.
Wikilinks
In Preview and HTML output, you can choose to show Wikilinks as the source text appearing in the Editor, text using the filename or optional title, e.g., [[Alice in Wonderland|My Optional Title]], or as a **`** element. For other output you may either choose between source text or text.
Hashtags
For HTML output, Hashtags can be shown as the source text as it appears in the Editor, as a <span> element, or removed entirely from the output.
Hashtags in Preview
In Preview, Hashtags can be shown as the source text as it appears in the Editor, a link, or removed entirely from the output. For other output, you may either show Hashtags as source text or remove them.
Autolinks
In Preview, HTML and all other output, Autolinks can be shown as the source text as it appears in the Editor or as a link.
Metadata
Add or configure existing custom Metadata that is global for all files. “Author” is the only default metadata iA Writer uses and it will be included on Title Pages in Preview and PDF export if present.
URL Commands
Enable URL Commands: Here you can turn on support for URL commands and copy or reset the Auth Token.
Settings 
