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description: "Jotaid's source-mode Markdown editor — the formatting toolbar, the syntax and shortcuts for headings and emphasis, and how formatting differs between macOS and iOS."
---
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# Note Formatting

Jotaid's editor is **source mode**: what you see is the Markdown itself. The syntax markers stay visible and are highlighted live — the asterisks around `**bold**` remain, and the words between them are already bold. A WYSIWYG editor asks you to guess what it stored; source mode does not.

Press **⌃⇧P** to preview at any time; **⌘E** switches between the edit and preview tabs.

## The Formatting Toolbar (macOS)

The formatting toolbar sits in the middle of the editor's top bar. It adapts to the width it is given and **always keeps the most-used buttons first**:

| Priority | Buttons |
|----------|---------|
| Always shown | Heading menu (H1–H6), paragraph, bold, italic, strikethrough, highlight |
| Appears when wider | Bullet list, numbered list, task list, link, image |
| Appears when widest | Superscript, subscript, footnote, quote, inline code, code block, clear formatting |

**⇧⌘T** collapses or restores the whole toolbar.

**iOS has no such toolbar** — there is no room for eighteen buttons, so you write the Markdown directly. Every piece of syntax below works on both platforms.

## Headings

Start the line with `#`. The number of hashes is the level, up to six:

```markdown
# Heading 1
## Heading 2
### Heading 3
```

The toolbar's heading menu maps to **⌘1** through **⌘6**; the **paragraph** button (or deleting the hashes) turns it back into body text.

## Emphasis

| Effect | Syntax | Shortcut |
|--------|--------|----------|
| **Bold** | `**text**` or `__text__` | ⌘B |
| *Italic* | `*text*` or `_text_` | ⌘I |
| ***Bold italic*** | `***text***` | — |
| ~~Strikethrough~~ | `~~text~~` | — |
| Highlight | `==text==` or `<mark>text</mark>` | ⌘⇧H |
| <u>Underline</u> | `<u>text</u>` | ⌘U |

Highlight renders as the same vivid yellow in all three themes, with the text colour following the theme — see [Appearance & Themes](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/appearance).

## Quotes

One `>` at the start of the line:

```markdown
> A quoted paragraph.
```

Shortcut: **⌘⇧.**

## Pasting

Text from a web page or another app usually arrives dressed in formatting. Jotaid tidies it before it lands.

**Rich text becomes plain text** (macOS): paste styled HTML and Jotaid extracts the words rather than dumping tags into your note; past a size limit it falls back to plain text outright. Images take the [attachment path](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/insert-images) instead.

**Auto-format on paste** (Settings → Formatting / Import & Paste) is on by default, and its four rules can each be turned off:

| Rule | What it does |
|------|--------------|
| Normalize blank lines | Collapses runs of blank lines into one |
| Clean up spaces | Removes leading, trailing and excess spaces |
| Fix list formatting | Repairs the broken line breaks in lists copied from AI chat windows |
| Chinese–English spacing | Inserts a space between Chinese and Latin text |

> **"Fix list formatting" exists because of AI chat windows**
>
> Lists copied out of ChatGPT or Claude routinely arrive with broken line breaks that collapse into a blob in any editor. That rule is aimed squarely at them. To bring in a whole conversation, [importing from the clipboard](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/capture) beats copy-and-paste.

## Clear Formatting

Select a passage and click the last toolbar button to strip its Markdown markers, leaving plain text.

> **Smart Format is not clear formatting**
>
> **⇧⌘F** runs **Smart Format**, an AI re-format: it turns a wall of text into something with headings and lists rather than removing formatting. See [Smart Format](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/smart-format).

## What Else You Can Insert

| | What you write |
|---|---------------|
| [Links](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/insert-links) | `[text](url)`, `[[node]]` |
| [Images](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/insert-images) | Paste directly, or `![alt](path)` |
| [Lists](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/insert-lists) | Bullet, numbered, task — nestable |
| [Tables](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/insert-tables) | `\| col \| col \|` |
| [Math](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/insert-math) | `$inline$`, `$$display$$` |
| [Code](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/insert-code) | `` `inline` ``, fenced blocks |
| [Annotations](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/insert-annotations) | Super/subscript, footnotes, abbreviations, keys |

## Next Steps

- [Insert Links](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/insert-links) — Plain links and `[[backlinks]]`
- [Quick Capture](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/capture) — Templates and every fast way in
- [Shortcuts](https://docs.jotaid.com/en/guide/shortcuts-faq) — Every shortcut in one table