Settings Mac

Use iA Writer’s Settings panel to customize how you write, organize, and publish.

Open iA Writer → Settings, or press ⌘,.

General

Toolbar

Choose whether the toolbar fades in and out while you write (Fade In/Out), is always shown (Always Show), or is hidden (Hide).

Appearance

Choose a light or dark appearance for iA Writer’s interface. Enable Match system appearance to follow your Mac’s appearance instead.

On macOS versions earlier than 26, a separate Dock icon setting lets you choose a light or dark icon, or match the app’s appearance.

Window

• Always resize window to show Library: Make the window wider when you show the Library.
• Swipe to show Library or Preview: Swipe with two fingers on the trackpad to open the Library or Preview.
• Scroll Preview in sync with Editor: Keep Preview at the same position as the Editor.

File extensions

Enable Show file extensions to show extensions such as .txt or .md in the Library.

Title bar

Choose whether the title bar fades in and out while you write or is always shown.

Shortcuts

Get Ready-Made Shortcuts opens a gallery of shortcuts for Apple’s Shortcuts app (macOS 13 or later). See Apple Shortcuts.

URL commands

Enable Enable URL commands to use URL Commands. Manage shows the auth token, which you can copy or reset.

Publishing

Add WordPress, Ghost, Micro.blog, and Micropub accounts with the plus button, and remove the selected account with the minus button. Medium accounts you added before still work, but you can’t add new ones because Medium no longer issues API tokens. Learn more about publishing to blogging platforms.

Select an account and choose Options… to set the format of new drafts:

• WordPress and Micropub: Markdown or HTML.
• Ghost: Default, HTML Card, or Markdown Card.

Files

Preferred action

Choose what happens when you press ⌘N, or click the Dock icon with no other files open:

• New in Library: Create the file in the folder shown in the Library.
• New: Create an untitled file and choose where to save it when you press ⌘S.

Default extension

New files use this extension. Only plain text extensions are allowed, such as .txt, .text, or .md.

Open files

Files are always saved automatically.

• Ask to keep changes when closed: Ask whether to keep or revert your changes when you close a file.
• Close when quitting: Don’t restore open files when you reopen iA Writer.

Library

Navigation

Choose how the Library shows your folders: Tree or List.

Organizer

Choose which sections the Organizer shows: Favorites, Smart Folders, and Hashtags.

Files

• Sort bar and Filter bar: Show the bars above the file list.
• Pin folders to top: List folders above files.
• Text excerpts: Show a short excerpt of each file. Turn it off for a more compact list.

Sort by

Sort files by Date Modified, Name, or Extension, with the oldest or newest on top.

Editor

Typeface

Choose Mono, Duo, or Quattro for the Editor.

Typography

Choose the typography for your writing language. Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Japanese, and Korean get CJK line breaking and spacing. For these languages, Emphasis lets you show emphasis as Italic or with an Emphasis Mark.

Text size

Adjust the slider to change the text size in the Editor.

Line length limit

Set the Editor’s line width to 64, 72, or 80 characters. This changes how text wraps on screen without adding line breaks to your text.

Indentation

Indentation… opens the indentation options:

• Indent text using: Tabs or spaces.
• Tab key: Indent the line or insert a tab.
• Tab width and Indent width: 2, 4, or 8.
• Wrapped line indent includes: Whitespace and Markdown block markers.

Choose Restore Defaults to undo your changes.

Focus scope

Choose the scope of Focus Mode: Sentence, Paragraph, or Typewriter.

Syntax

Choose the parts of speech that Syntax Control highlights: adjectives, nouns, adverbs, verbs, and conjunctions.

Style check

Choose what Style Check marks: fillers, clichés, redundancies, and your own patterns. Choose Custom Patterns… to add your own. Built-in patterns cover English, French, German, and Spanish.

Authors

Choose which kinds of authors are highlighted when Authorship is on: Human, AI, and Reference. Human edits use pastel tones, and AI contributions show a colorful gradient.

Smart substitutions

• Copy/paste: Adjust spaces around words when inserting or deleting text.
• Quotes: Replace straight quotes "" with curly quotes “” as you type.
• Dashes: Convert two dashes -- into an em dash — as you type.
• Text replacement: Use the text replacements set in System Settings → Keyboard → Text Replacements.

Learn more about Smart Automation.

Spelling and grammar

Choose which macOS spelling tools to use in the Editor:

• Check spelling while typing: Mark spelling mistakes as you type.
• Check grammar with spelling: Include grammar in spelling checks.
• Correct spelling: Correct spelling mistakes automatically.
• Show inline predictive text: Suggest the rest of a word or phrase as you type.

Highlight color

Choose the color of highlighted text: yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, or green.

Completed tasks

Show completed tasks with a Strikethrough, Fade them, or both.

Completions

• Insert and type-over matching brackets: Typing [ adds the closing bracket and places the cursor between them.
• Wrap selection in typed brackets: Typing [ with text selected puts brackets around the selection.

Authors

Add, edit, or remove the authors you use with Authorship. For each author, set:

• Name: Required. The name used for annotations.
• Identifier: Optional, for example an email address or a website.
• Kind: Human, AI, or Reference. Human edits use pastel tones, AI contributions show a colorful gradient, and reference material is dimmed.
• Text Color: Automatic chooses a color based on the order of annotations. You can also choose green, blue, purple, rose, or gray.

Templates

Default and custom templates

Turn Templates on or off. Use the menu to install a template, get more templates, or open the documentation for Custom Templates, and the minus button to remove a custom template.

Web Preview

Enable Invert colors to show Preview in dark colors while the Editor is light, and vice versa. Custom templates must support night mode for this to work.

Printing & PDF Export

Choose how printed documents and exported PDFs look:

• Center headings: Center headings instead of aligning them left.
• Number headings: Number headings automatically.
• Indent paragraphs: Mark new paragraphs with an indent instead of vertical space.
• Title page, Headers, Footers: Add them to the document.

Markdown

Processing

• Single return starts a new paragraph: Press Return ↵ once to start a new paragraph. Turn it off to use traditional Markdown, which needs an empty line between paragraphs.
• Apply smart punctuation: Convert straight quotes and plain dashes to their typographic equivalents in Preview and exports.

Metadata

Add global Metadata that applies to all your files. Metadata in a file takes precedence over global metadata.

Library Paths & Links

Choose the path format for new Wikilinks and Content Blocks:

• Shortest: The shortest path that works, often just the file name: Alice in Wonderland.
• Relative: A path relative to the current file, with ../ for folders above: ../Classics/Alice in Wonderland.
• Absolute: The full path from the Library location: /Books/Classics/Alice in Wonderland.

Choose how wikilinks, hashtags, and autolinks appear in HTML output, in other output (copying, exporting, and publishing), and in Preview. Wikilinks can appear as source text, as the file name or title, as a <span>, as a link, or be removed. Hashtags can appear as source text, as a <span>, as a link, or be removed. Autolinks can appear as source text or as a link.

Account

Available in the version downloaded from our website. This section shows your iA Account and your iA Writer purchase.

Sign In

Sign in to your iA Account to access your purchase.

Manage

Opens your iA Account in a browser.

Sign Out

Signs out of your iA Account on this Mac.

Settings