Peppered throughout iA Writer’s documentation for Mac and settings you will see references to various “Smart” features. As a rule, these provide some form of automatic text completion or transformation so you can keep focused on writing instead of dealing with minutiae.
These options are found in Settings → Editor → Smart substitutions
When Smart Copy/Paste is turned on, spaces are added around content pasted into the Editor automatically.
When activated, Smart Quotes will automatically replace any straight quotes written in the Editor with curly quotes, as you write.
Smart Dashes works in a similar way, substituting a dash in the Editor whenever two hyphens are written consecutively.
When Text Replacement is activated, the text replacements you have set up in MacOS will be available in iA Writer.
Note that Smart Substitution will have effect in both the Editor and in the Preview.
This option is found in Settings → Markdown → Processing
When turned on, it will convert straight quotes and doubled hyphens in the Editor into curly quotes and dashes in the Preview.
Unlike Smart Substitution, Smart Punctuation will not affect text in the Editor, it only makes the change in the Preview as the Markdown is processed.
Once you begin writing a list in iA Writer, a list marker of the same type will be created automatically when you hit return. Hitting return twice in a row removes the empty list item and exits the list so no further items will be created.
Blockquotes behave the same way.
You can use the syntax =(…) to perform mathematical calculations in your tables.
| Editor Input | Preview Output |
|---|---|
1 |
1 |
=(2 + 2) |
4 |
=(51 / 3) |
17 |
=(B1 + B3) |
18 |
=(TOTAL) |
40 |
N.B. To avoid formatting and calculation errors in Smart Tables, please use spaces on either side of arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /).
Additionally, you can make use of metadata variables:
---
Var: 1
---| Editor Input | Preview Output |
|---|---|
=([%Var] + 0) |
1 |
=([%Var] + 1) |
2 |
=([%Var] + 2) |
3 |
You can also perform unit conversion:
| Editor Input | Preview Output |
|---|---|
=(25 m/s to km/h) |
90 km / h |
=(2.2046226218487757 lbs to kg) |
1 kg |
=(460 V * 20 A * 30 days to kWh) |
6624 kWh |
Peppered throughout iA Writer’s documentation for iOS and settings you will see references to various “Smart” features. As a rule, these provide some form of automatic text completion or transformation so you can keep focused on writing instead of dealing with minutiae.
These options are found in Settings → Editor → Text Input
When Smart Copy/Paste is turned on, spaces are added around content pasted into the Editor automatically.
When activated, Smart Quotes will automatically replace any straight quotes written in the Editor with curly quotes, as you write.
Smart Dashes works in a similar way, substituting a dash in the Editor whenever two hyphens are written consecutively.
Note that Smart Substitution will have effect in both the Editor and in the Preview.
This option is found in Settings → Markdown → Processing
When turned on, it will convert straight quotes and doubled hyphens in the typed in the Editor into curly quotes and dashes in the Preview, respectively.
Using this option will not affect text in the Editor, it only makes the change in the Preview as the Markdown is processed.
Once you begin writing a list in iA Writer, a bullet/list marker of the same type will be created automatically when you hit return. Hitting return twice in a row removes the empty list item and exits the list so no further items will be created.
Blockquotes behave the same way.
You can use the syntax =(…) to perform mathematical calculations in your tables.
| Editor Input | Preview Output |
|---|---|
1 |
1 |
=(2 + 2) |
4 |
=(51 / 3) |
17 |
=(B1 + B3) |
18 |
=(TOTAL) |
40 |
N.B. To avoid formatting and calculation errors in Smart Tables, please use spaces on either side of arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /).
Additionally, you can make use of metadata variables:
---
Var: 1
---| Editor Input | Preview Output |
|---|---|
=([%Var] + 0) |
1 |
=([%Var] + 1) |
2 |
=([%Var] + 2) |
3 |
You can also perform unit conversion:
| Editor Input | Preview Output |
|---|---|
=(25 m/s to km/h) |
90 km / h |
=(2.2046226218487757 lbs to kg) |
1 kg |
=(460 V * 20 A * 30 days to kWh) |
6624 kWh |
Peppered throughout iA Writer’s documentation for iPadOS and settings you will see references to various “Smart” features. As a rule, these provide some form of automatic text completion or transformation so you can keep focused on writing instead of dealing with minutiae.
These options are found in Settings → Editor → Text Input
When Smart Copy/Paste is turned on, spaces are added around content pasted into the Editor automatically.
When activated, Smart Quotes will automatically replace any straight quotes written in the Editor with curly quotes, as you write.
Smart Dashes works in a similar way, substituting a dash in the Editor whenever two hyphens are written consecutively.
Note that Smart Substitution will have effect in both the Editor and in the Preview.
This option is found in Settings → Markdown → Processing
When turned on, it will convert straight quotes and doubled hyphens in the typed in the Editor into curly quotes and dashes in the Preview, respectively.
Using this option will not affect text in the Editor, it only makes the change in the Preview as the Markdown is processed.
Once you begin writing a list in iA Writer, a bullet/list marker of the same type will be created automatically when you hit return. Hitting return twice in a row removes the empty list item and exits the list so no further items will be created.
Blockquotes behave the same way.
You can use the syntax =(…) to perform mathematical calculations in your tables.
| Editor Input | Preview Output |
|---|---|
1 |
1 |
=(2 + 2) |
4 |
=(51 / 3) |
17 |
=(B1 + B3) |
18 |
=(TOTAL) |
40 |
N.B. To avoid formatting and calculation errors in Smart Tables, please use spaces on either side of arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /).
Additionally, you can make use of metadata variables:
---
Var: 1
---| Editor Input | Preview Output |
|---|---|
=([%Var] + 0) |
1 |
=([%Var] + 1) |
2 |
=([%Var] + 2) |
3 |
You can also perform unit conversion:
| Editor Input | Preview Output |
|---|---|
=(25 m/s to km/h) |
90 km / h |
=(2.2046226218487757 lbs to kg) |
1 kg |
=(460 V * 20 A * 30 days to kWh) |
6624 kWh |
Peppered throughout iA Writer’s documentation for Windows you will see references to various “Smart” features. As a rule, these provide some form of automatic text completion or transformation so you can keep focused on writing instead of dealing with minutiae.
This option is found in the menu bar Edit → Snippets
The snippets feature enables you to assign a shortcut that substitutes for a word, sentence, or more. In the Editor, just type the designated shortcut and press the Tab key.
Some rules to keep in mind:
Note that Snippets will have effect in both the Editor and in the Preview.
In order to be even more powerful, snippets can contain variables. There are three predefined variable types:
iA Writer provides 2 different date variables:
$DATE$ inserts the current date and time$DATE("d")$ where a custom format can be specifiedThe full list of possible date formats can be found here.
Replaces the $CLIPBOARD$ variable with the clipboard content if the clipboard contains text.
Sets the caret position at $CARET$ after applying the substitution.
If you include a variable with internal text other than DATE, CLIPBOARD or CARETa placeholder section will be added to your snippet. These sections will be written out in the Editor with the internal text as the placeholder.
Placeholder sections can then be overwritten at the time of writing. Jump between placeholders with the keyboard using the Tab key. If you’ve ever added a table in iA Writer for Windows, you’ll recognize these placeholders and how easy they make adding text.
Editor 
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A more structured view of your document will help you improve your writing style.
Knowing keyboard shortcuts will greatly improve your performance with our app.
From word count to estimated reading time, document stats help you stay on top of things.
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A simple key-value format for storing additional information about a document, only visible in the Editor.
Auto text completion and transformation: focus on your writing, without getting bogged down by minor details.