Shortcuts

iA Writer for Mac provides a wide range of keyboard shortcuts to help you keep your hands on the keyboard and stay focused.

The majority of the available shortcuts are visible in the main menu.

iA Writer for macOS follows the standard macOS system shortcuts and we may update shortcuts from time to time to ensure alignment with Apple’s conventions. If you are used to Windows shortcuts or shortcuts from apps following Microsoft conventions (MS Word, IntelliJ, VS Code, Outlook…) this article will be useful to help you become faster at using Writer.

Custom Keyboard Shortcuts

Files

File creation and management options.

`⌘N`	New in Library in current window
`⌥⌘N`	New
`⇧⌘N`	New in Library
`⌘S`	Save active file
`⇧⌘S`	Duplicate active file
`⌥⇧⌘S`	Save active file as

“New in Library” files are automatically created in the currently visible folder. “New” files will ask whether you want to save them when closed. This is the standard document saving behavior in macOS. You can make this the default action of ⌘N in Settings → Files → Preferred action.

Quick Search

Global Library search for documents, Wikilinks and tags. Allows you to quickly navigate to a document by searching for specific terms.

`⇧⌘O`	Quick Search
`⏎`	Open file in current window
`⇧⏎`	Open file in new window

Navigation

Shortcuts to quickly navigate between Locations, linked and previously opened documents, and more.

Library Navigation

`⇧⌘I`	Show iCloud in Library
`⌃1–9`	Open a Favorite file or show a Favorite folder in Library
`⌃⌥1–9`	Show Smart Folder in Library

Keyboard shortcuts for Favorites and Smart Folders are shown in the Go menu.

Links

`⌘⏎`	Open a link in Editor
`⌘`-click	Open a link in Editor
click	Open a link in Preview

When You Open a Link

Wikilinks	Open a document or create a new one, ready to type
Text content blocks	Open a document or create a new one, ready to type
Hashtags	Shown in Quick Search
Links	Open in default browser
Emails	New draft in default mail client
URL commands	Run if allowed

Document History

`⌃⌘←`	Go to previous document
`⌃⌘→`	Go to next document

Interface

`⌃⌘N`	Dark or light appearance
`⌃⌘S`	Show or hide Library
`⌘R`	Show or hide Preview
`⌃⌘F`	Enter or exit full screen
`⌘W`	Close active window
`⌥⌘W`	Close all windows

Editing

Document structure, text formatting, caret manipulation, Focus modes, and more.

Structure

`⌘1–6`	Heading 1–6
`⌥⌘L`	Task list
`⇧⌘L`	Ordered list
`⌥⇧⌘L`	Ordered task list
`⌥⌘X`	Mark task as completed
`⇥`	Indent
`⇧⇥`	Outdent
`⌥⌘↑`	Move selected line up
`⌥⌘↓`	Move selected line down

Formatting

`⌘B`	Bold
`⌘I`	Italic
`⌥⌘U`	Strikethrough
`⇧⌘U`	Highlight
`⌘K`	Link
`⌥⌘K`	Image link
`⇧⌘K`	Wikilink
`⌃⌘K`	Footnote
`⌘J`	Code
`⇧⌘J`	Code block

Focus

`⌘D`	Enable or disable Focus Mode
`⇧⌘D`	Enable or disable Syntax Highlight
`⌥⇧⌘D`	Enable or disable Style Checking

Copy and Paste

`⌘C`	Copy selected text
`⌥⌘C`	Copy formatted selected text
`⇧⌘C`	Copy selected text as HTML
`⌃⌘C`	Copy selected text as Markdown (includes Content Blocks)
`⌘V`	Paste

Find

`⌘F`	Find
`⌥⌘F`	Find and replace
`⌘E`	Use selection for find
`⌘G`	Find next
`⇧⌘G`	Find previous

Move Caret To

`←`	Previous character
`→`	Next character
`↑`	Previous line
`↓`	Next line
`⌘←`	Start of line
`⌘→`	End of line
`⌘↑`	Start of document
`⌘↓`	End of document
`⌥←`	One word left
`⌥→`	One word right
`⌥↑`	Start of this or previous line
`⌥↓`	End of this or next line

Hold ⇧ while using shortcuts above to select text.

`⌥⌘←`	Start of this or previous sentence
`⌥⌘→`	End of this or next sentence

Export

Export and printing options.

`⇧⌘E`	Export
`⌘P`	Print
`⌥⌘P`	Print plain text
`⇧⌘P`	Page setup for printing and PDF export

Custom Keyboard Shortcuts

macOS allows you to map menu items to non-reserved keyboard shortcuts.

For example, say you frequently use the Show in Library option found in the File menu. Mapping this to a keyboard shortcut would save you from having to move from the keyboard to the mouse/trackpad to select the option.

Let’s map Show in Libary to ⌃ S

 → Settings/System Preferences → Keyboard → Shortcuts → App Shortcuts
Select the ＋ button and select iA Writer from the list of apps
In Menu Title: box enter the menu item exactly as it appears in iA Writer’s menu
Click Add

When successful you’ll see the shortcut added next to the menu item in iA Writer and you’ll be able to trigger the action with your shortcut.

Note that some key combinations will not work due to being mapped to system functions or other restrictions. If this happens, please repeat the steps above to re-map the menu item to a new key combination.

iA Writer includes a number of keyboard shortcuts.

On iOS devices with connected keyboards, you can press and hold ⌘ button at any time to see all available keyboard shortcuts for current screen.

Files

`⌘N`	New
`⇧⌘N`	New Window

Quick Search

`⇧⌘O`	Quick Search
`⏎`	Open file or activate action
`⇧⏎`	Open file in new window