iA Writer 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.
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
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
⌥⌘←
Start of this or previous sentence
⌥⌘→
End of this or next sentence
Text Size
⌘+
Make text larger
⌘-
Make text smaller
⌘0
Default text size
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.
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 be mapped to system functions or other restrictions. If this happens, please retrace the steps above to re-map the shortcut to a new sequence.
