Import, Export, Share
iA Writer is a plain-text editor but, with a plethora of ways to export your text, it helps you produce beautiful and professional documents.
Export Formats
iA Writer for Mac lets you export a document to various formats.
| Format | Notes |
|---|---|
PDF | .pdf |
Universal format that’s great for sharing and for printing at a later time. Template styling is applied and locked in so you can share beautiful finished documents |
MS Word | .docx |
Widely recognized and accepted document format. Great for sharing content that will later be edited, formatted or styled in Word. |
HTML | .html |
The language of the web. Great for sharing a document’s content to popular blogging or content management systems (CMS). |
Markdown | .md |
Unformatted, unstyled, plain-text file format which can be opened across a wide range of systems and apps. Preserves your original MD syntax so you can work with this in other Markdown editors/apps. |
Project Archive | .zip |
All encompassing export which includes not only your document (as you see in Editor) but also any embedded Content Blocks. Great for sharing an entire project or even for creating a duplicate/backup of an in-progress project in Writer. |
You can export your file in 2 ways:
– from the menu File → Export…
– with the shortcut ⇧⌘E
PDF Export Options
PDF documents exported via File → Export… use the same options as File → Print…. To change these formatting syntaxes like adding title page, headers, or footers, go to: Preferences… → Templates → Printing & PDF Export
Sharing Text
iA Writer for Mac allows you to share drafts of your text to various blogging platforms such as Medium, WordPress, or Ghost. For more details about this, please check our dedicated page.
MacOS provides a system service to share any text selection via email, Twitter, Facebook, and Messages. The easiest way to use this is to select the text you want to share then:
– right-click → Share
– or File → Share
Printing Text
You have the choice between printing your formatted text (as you see it on Preview, the most common situation) or as plain text.
| Print (Formatted) | Print Plain Text |
|---|---|
| File → Print | File → Print Plain Text… |
| ⌘P | ⌥⌘P |
Just like for the PDF Export, you can include page numbers (footers), title page, and headers from: Preferences… → Templates → Printing & PDF Export
Importing Text
Import a Microsoft® Office document
iA Writer for Mac lets you import Microsoft Word .docx documents, and will convert basic formatting to the equivalent Writer flavored Markdown formatting.
You can import .docx documents in 2 ways:
– File → Open… and select the .docx file
– Drag and drop the .docx file onto the iA Writer icon in the Dock (please convert .doc to .docx format using Microsoft® Office 2007 or later before importing).
The following formatting can be converted when importing from or exporting to .docx files:
| iA Writer Formatting | Markdown | Conversion | MS Word Formatting |
|---|---|---|---|
| Emphasis | * or _ | ↔ | Italics |
| Importance | ** or __ | ↔ | Bold |
| Underline | Doesn’t exist | ← | Underline |
| Strikethrough | ~ | ↔ | Strikethrough |
| Inline code | ` | → | Code character style |
| Links | []() | ↔ | Hyperlinks |
| Reference links | [][] | → | Hyperlinks |
| Image alt text | ![…]() | → | “[…]” |
| Headings | #–###### | ↔ | Heading 1-6 styles |
| Unordered lists | * or - or + | ↔ | Bulleted list style |
| Ordered lists | 1. | ↔ | Numbered list style |
| Blockquote | > | ↔ | Quote style |
Import From Ulysses
Ulysses stores its files in a proprietary database format –a format unique to this software– so these files must first be exported to plain text to be readable by other apps, like iA Writer.
- In Ulysses’ left-hand panel, add a new external folder (e.g., “Ulysses Export” on the Desktop)
- Select storage you have added in the left-side panel; click the first sheet and then issue ⌘A to select all the sheets
- Drag the sheets to the external folder you previously created in step 1
- Each sheet will be converted into a plain text file in that folder
- Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all storages you have added
When the export to plain text is finished, you can manipulate these files however you wish.
Drag this folder into iA Writer’s Library (iCloud container for example, if you wish the files to be synced with iOS).