Authorship

iA Writer for Mac helps you to distinguish between Human generated text and Other sources (such as AI).

When the feature is enabled you can quickly see the difference in a document:

• Human authors text is subtly dimmed and underlined.
  
• Other (AI in example) is dimmed.

When you make edits to text as the primary author, your text remains in full focus and you can clearly see where your text ends and externally sourced content starts.

Note: Authorship does not modify your content in anyway and your text is not sent to a server to detect authors. Everything happens locally on your device: Your data is yours, in compliance with our Privacy Policy.

Enable or Disable Authors

You can always mark a selection or paste as any type of author into a document. To see the distinction in the Editor you need to enable the appropriate Editor settings.

You can enable Authorship in one of three ways:

Pasting

Paste As

Writer relies on you defining the authorship by yourself. Pasting content from an external source with Authorship attribution is easy.

With some text on clipboard:

💡 You can map any menu item including Authors functions. To learn more please see the support article for Shortcuts

Pasting Between Existing Documents

Sometimes you may want to copy/move text from one document to another/ a new one. If your selected text contains author data, iA Writer will give you the option to Paste With Annotations or Paste:

Marking As

When editing documents you can attribute existing text to a specific author. This is helpful not only for your own documents but also for shared/collaborative documents when you wish to clearly discern between authors.

After selecting a range or ranges of text:

Keyboard Shortcuts

By default the second author (immediately following you, the primary author) is mapped to the ⇧ ⌘ V keyboard shortcut for pasting.

Since the list of Authors is flexible and unique to each user, you can map your own Paste as … and Mark selection as … to any unreserved shortcut. Here’s how:

1. Navigate to desired Authors menu option
2. Open macOS Settings
3. Search: keyboard shortcuts
4. Select App Shortcuts
5. Click ＋ and select iA Writer from the list of apps
6. In            enter the item exactly as it appears in iA Writer’s Authors menu
7. Click Done

Managing Authors

Globally

Managing a list of authors is easy in Writer. You can access this function in: Settings → Authors

In Authors settings you can:

• Add or remove an author
• Edit an existing author’s details
• Reorder added authors

Add or Remove an Author

Click on the ＋ to add a new author. You’ll be prompted to add a Name and can also add an identifier (like website, or email address). User the Kind dropdown to designate your author as Human or Other (i.e. Websource, AI, etc.).

When you are finished press return to save details.

To remove an existing author, select the author in the list and click on the －. Note the removing the author does not remove authorship assigned in existing documents. You can always re-add an author following steps in the section above.

💡 Authors sync to Writer on other devices with iCloud. If you add an author on one device, you’ll see it added everywhere, automatically.

Edit Author Details

Reorder Authors

You can reorder authors to change how they appear in menu options. Simply click (hold) and drag authors into desired order. The top author immediately following the primary author is automatically assigned to the Paste As shortcut: ⇧ ⌘ V

In a Document

You can quickly access and manage the list of authors for any active document. With the document open in Editor navigate to Authors → Edit Authorship…:

This will present a popup with the list of authors for the document as well as a character count for each author.

You can also:

In a document with existing authors you can select an author and right-click or press ••• :

Annotated Files

You can quickly distinguish between files including authorship data and those without. When a file has authorship annotations added, the file icon shows a blue Ⓐ.

iA Writer stores author related metadata at the end of a file. This metadata is tucked out of view in Writer’s editor, but is visible when the file is opened in other text editors/apps.

Export

iA Writer automatically strips author metadata on export to Markdown, HTML, PDF and MS Word.

Sharing

When sharing annotated files via macOS sharing options (AirDrop, email, from Finder, etc.), all file information including author metadata is shared.

iA Writer for iPhone helps you to distinguish between Human generated text and Other sources (such as AI).

When the feature is enabled you can quickly see the difference in a document:

• Human authors text is subtly dimmed and underlined.
  
• Other (AI in example) is dimmed.

When you make edits to text as the primary author, your text remains in full focus and you can clearly see where your text ends and externally sourced content starts.

Note: Authorship does not modify your content in anyway and your text is not sent to a server to detect authors. Everything happens locally on your device: Your data is yours, in compliance with our Privacy Policy.

Enable or Disable Authors

You can always mark a selection or paste as any type of author into a document. To see the distinction in the Editor you need to enable the appropriate Editor settings.

On iPhone you can enable Authors in 3 ways:

Configuring Authorship actions

On iPhone you can configure your Lightning menu with Authorship actions. Here’s how:

1. Long-press Lightning menu or access via Settings → Keyboard
2. Select ＋ Add → Add Actions…
3. Scroll to Authors section and select desired action(s)

Actions are added to your Lightning menu for quick access at any time.

When you are just starting out with Authorship, we recommend adding the Paste as New Author and Mark as New Author actions to help you build your list of authors.

Pasting

Paste As

Writer relies on you defining the authorship by yourself. Pasting content from an external source with Authorship attribution is easy.

Long-press in Editor → Select Paste As → {desired author}

With iA Writer 7+ you can now configure the Edit menu to add your most freqeuntly used actions, including pasting and marking text selection. To configure, long press in the Editor and select the Configure Menu option. You can also navigate to: Settings → Keyboard → Edit Menu:

Pasting options are also accessible from the Lightning menu if you have added Authors action.

Pasting Between Existing Documents

Sometimes you may want to copy/move text from one document to another/ a new one. If your selected text contains author data, iA Writer will give you the option to Paste With Annotations or Paste:

Marking As

When editing documents you can attribute existing text to a specific author. This is helpful not only for your own documents but also for shared/collaborative documents when you wish to clearly discern between authors.

When any range of text is selected in Editor, you’ll see the Mark As option present in the Edit menu. Simply tap that then select the desired author.

Marking options are also available via the Lightning menu Authors action if it is enabled.

Managing Authors

Globally

Managing a list of authors is easy in Writer. You can access this function in: Settings → Authors

In Authors settings you can:

• Add or remove an author
• Edit an existing author’s details
• Reorder added authors

Add or Remove an Author

Click on the Add Author… to add a new author. You’ll be prompted to add a Name and can also add an identifier (like website, or email address). User the Kind dropdown to designate your author as Human or Other (i.e. Websource, AI, etc.).

When you are finished press Add to save details.

To remove an existing author, swipe left on the entry. Alternatively, select the author in the list, scroll down and click on Remove Author. Note the removing the author does not remove authorship assigned in existing documents. You can always re-add an author following steps in the section above.

💡 Authors sync to Writer on other devices with iCloud. If you add an author on one device, you’ll see it added everywhere, automatically.

Edit Author Details

In the Authors settings tap on desired author to edit:

Reorder Authors

You can reorder authors to change how they appear in menu options. Press and hold the ≡ and drag authors into desired order.

In a Document

You can quickly access and manage the list of authors for any active document. With the document open in Editor tap on the filename in the toolbar then select Authorship.

This will present a list of authors for the document as well as a character count for each author. You can also:

Tapping on a specific author will give you some additional options, like the ability to save, edit, replace or delete the author.

Annotated Files

iA Writer stores author related metadata at the end of a file. This metadata is tucked out of view in Writer’s editor, but is visible when the file is opened in other text editors/apps.

You can quickly distinguish between files including authorship data and those without. When a file has authorship annotations added, the file icon shows a blue Ⓐ.

iA Writer stores author related metadata at the end of a file. This metadata is tucked out of view in Writer’s editor, but is visible when the file is opened in other text editors/apps.

Export

iA Writer automatically strips author metadata on export to Markdown, HTML, PDF and MS Word.

Sharing

When sharing annotated files via iPhoneOS sharing options (AirDrop, email, from Files, etc.), all file information including author metadata is shared.

iA Writer for iPad helps you to distinguish between Human generated text and Other sources (such as AI).

When the feature is enabled you can quickly see the difference in a document:

• Human authors text is subtly dimmed and underlined.
  
• Other (AI in example) is dimmed.

When you make edits to text as the primary author, your text remains in full focus and you can clearly see where your text ends and externally sourced content starts.

Note: Authorship does not modify your content in anyway and your text is not sent to a server to detect authors. Everything happens locally on your device: Your data is yours, in compliance with our Privacy Policy.

Enable or Disable Authors

You can always mark a selection or paste as any type of author into a document. To see the distinction in the Editor you need to enable the appropriate Editor settings.

On iPad you can enable Authors in 3 ways:

Configuring Authorship actions

On iPad you can configure your Lightning menu with Authorship actions. Here’s how:

1. Long-press Lightning menu or access via Settings → Keyboard
2. Select ＋ Add → Add Actions…
3. Scroll to Authors section and select desired action(s)

Actions are added to your Lightning menu for quick access at any time.

When you are just starting out with Authorship, we recommend adding the Paste as New Author and Mark as New Author actions to help you build your list of authors.

Pasting

Paste As

Writer relies on you defining the authorship by yourself. Pasting content from an external source with Authorship attribution is easy.

Long-press in Editor → Select Paste As → {desired author}

With iA Writer 7+ you can now configure the Edit menu to add your most frequently used actions, including pasting and marking text selection. To configure, navigate to: Settings → Keyboard → Edit Menu:

You can also access pasting option from the Lightning menu if you have added Authors action.

Pasting Between Existing Documents

Sometimes you may want to copy/move text from one document to another/ a new one. If your selected text contains author data, iA Writer will give you the option to Paste With Annotations or Paste:

Marking As

When editing documents you can attribute existing text to a specific author. This is helpful not only for your own documents but also for shared/collaborative documents when you wish to clearly discern between authors.

When any range of text is selected in Editor, you’ll see the Mark As option present in the Edit menu. Simply tap that then select the desired author.

Marking options are also available via the Lightning menu **Authors** action if it is enabled.

Managing Authors

Globally

Managing a list of authors is easy in Writer. You can access this function in: Settings → Authors

In Authors settings you can:

• Add or remove an author
• Edit an existing author’s details
• Reorder added authors

Add or Remove an Author

Click on the Add Author… to add a new author. You’ll be prompted to add a Name and can also add an identifier (like website, or email address). User the Kind dropdown to designate your author as Human or Other (i.e. Websource, AI, etc.).

When you are finished press Add to save details.

To remove an existing author, swipe left on the entry. Alternatively, select the author in the list, scroll down and click on Remove Author. Note the removing the author does not remove authorship assigned in existing documents. You can always re-add an author following steps in the section above.

💡 Authors sync to Writer on other devices with iCloud. If you add an author on one device, you’ll see it added everywhere, automatically.

Edit Author Details

In the Authors settings tap on desired author to edit:

Reorder Authors

You can reorder authors to change how they appear in menu options. Press and hold the ≡ and drag authors into desired order.

In a Document

You can quickly access and manage the list of authors for any active document. With the document open in Editor tap on the filename in the toolbar then select Authorship.

This will present a list of authors for the document as well as a character count for each author. You can also:

Tapping on a specific author will give you some additional options, like the ability to save, edit, replace or delete the author.

Annotated Files

iA Writer stores author related metadata at the end of a file. This metadata is tucked out of view in Writer’s editor, but is visible when the file is opened in other text editors/apps.

You can quickly distinguish between files including authorship data and those without. When a file has authorship annotations added, the file icon shows a blue Ⓐ.

iA Writer stores author related metadata at the end of a file. This metadata is tucked out of view in Writer’s editor, but is visible when the file is opened in other text editors/apps.

Export

iA Writer automatically strips author metadata on export to Markdown, HTML, PDF and MS Word.

Sharing

When sharing annotated files via iPadOS sharing options (AirDrop, email, from Files, etc.), all file information including author metadata is shared.