Writing Desk has two places you’ll spend your time: the home screen, where you choose what to work on, and the editor, where you write. Everything sits on soft, floating panels, so your words stay at the centre.
The home screen
When you open Writing Desk you’ll see three buttons, with your recently opened files listed underneath.
- Projects opens a window with two tabs. Projects holds your long-form work, such as a novel. Documents holds your shorter writing, such as essays, blog posts and notes.
- New File creates a new markdown document and asks where to save it.
- Open File opens any Writing Desk document (.wddoc), Word file (.docx) or markdown file (.md) on your Mac.
Click any file under Recent to pick up where you left off.
The editor
Your writing sits in the middle of the screen, with the toolbar floating above it.
Along the top
- The file title, top left, shows what you’re working on. Click the arrow beside it to switch between open files. The badge next to it shows the file type, such as
.MD. - The toolbar holds the paragraph style menu (Normal, Heading 1 and so on), formatting, alignment and lists. The ⋯ button opens more formatting options.
- The menu (☰), at the left of the toolbar, holds export, Send to Formatter and your other file options.
- Comments (the speech-bubble icon) opens the comments sidebar.
- Analysis opens the proofreading and editorial tools.
- The Writing Tracker sits at the top right, alongside the autosave status.
The left sidebar
The sidebar changes depending on what you’re working on.
- In a project, it holds your chapters, The Pad for chapter notes and Story Plotter, with the Resource Hub at the bottom.
- In a document, it shows an Outline of your headings at the top and References at the bottom, where you can pin the files, folders and links you’re drawing on. The control below that shows whether the document belongs to a project, and lets you add it to one.
Hide or show the sidebar with ⌃⌘S, or the sidebar button at its top right.
Writing without distractions
Press ⇧⌘F to enter Focus Mode, which hides everything except your writing. Press ⇧⌘F again, or Esc, to come back.
Shortcuts and help as you go
Press ⌘/ at any time to see every keyboard shortcut. For formatting as you type, such as ## for a chapter heading, open Help → Markdown Reference from the menu bar.