Writing in the editor
Open editor/index.html straight from disk. There is no server to start, because the editor has nothing to talk to.
The loop
The whole writing loop is o, type, Enter, type, Enter — never leaving the home row. One keystroke restyles the line under the cursor, and the line wears its style as you write it.
- o — new line below, straight into editing
- Enter — commit this line and open the next one
- D — remove the line
- J and K — move the line itself up and down
- ^Z and ^⇧Z — undo and redo, one writer's action at a time
- ? — every key, and every command
One key per type
| key | type |
|---|---|
| 1 2 3 | headings |
| p l q n | paragraph, list, quote, note |
| t | table row |
| c s u | code, CLI, output |
| r f m | rule, figure, meta |
Tab cycles the dialect of a code or CLI line, and :lang php picks one by name, which is quicker once you know there are fifty-eight of them. A CLI dialect also picks the prompt the line is drawn with — $ for bash, PS> for PowerShell, >>> for a Python session.
The document, and what it is called
The topbar has the three things that act on the whole document, and nothing else: Open .md, New .md and Clear. There is no save button, because there is nowhere to save to.
The tab bar shows the name the file will have, and only the name. Click it to type a new one, or press R. Until you set one it follows the title, so naming a post is usually just writing its heading. The directory is not shown there because it is not something you set there — it comes from the category: meta line, and E shows the two together as the path the file belongs at.
$ ls content/guides/
output 1 line
index.md install-in-five-minutes.md publishing-is-a-file-copy.md writing-in-the-editor.md
The command line
: opens it, Tab completes, Enter runs. Everything the editor can do is there — set, lang, move, fold, name, title, cat, meta, open, newdoc, clear, undo, export, size, theme. Press ? for the full table; it is generated from the commands themselves, so it is never out of date.
Split screen
Press b to split the window: the lines on the left, the page as a reader will see it on the right, both updating as you type. B swaps the sides. The panes stack vertically on a narrow window.
Content size
+ and − step the document size, and 0 puts it back to 100%. It applies to both panes, and it is remembered for next time. The buttons in the tab bar do the same thing for the mouse.
Folded output
A run of output lines under a code block is that block's result, and it is folded by default so the commands stay readable.
$ rsync -az content/ deploy@example.com:/var/www/example.com/site/content/
output 3 lines
sending incremental file list content/guides/writing-in-the-editor.md sent 4.2K bytes received 95 bytes 2.86K bytes/sec
Press z to fold or unfold the output of the block under the cursor. The cursor never gets stuck inside something folded: moving onto a hidden line unfolds it rather than leaving you typing into nothing.
Getting the file out
Press E. You get the markdown, the path it belongs at, and a copy button — the editor's only output is a file. It never had a connection to anywhere.