Your Mac is the home of your work. Edits you make on your phone come back in a way that suits each kind of file.
Manuscripts (books)
Phone edits arrive as suggestions, highlighted in your text. Open the comments panel to accept or reject each one. Comments you add on your phone arrive as comments, labelled From mobile.
Markdown documents
Edits merge by paragraph.
- Different paragraphs changed: Writing Desk merges them and shows a card with an Undo button. Undo is available for the current session.
- Same paragraph changed on both sides: you see a conflict card. Choose the Mac version or the phone version for each paragraph, or choose Keep both. Keep both saves the phone version as a separate file named “(from phone)”.
- File open with unsaved typing: the merge waits until you finish. The phone shows why.
After a merge, the result goes back to your phone so both devices match.
Writing Desk documents (.wddoc)
Phone changes arrive as suggestions in the comments panel and are highlighted in the text, labelled Edited, Added or Removed on your phone. Accept or reject each one. Nothing in the file changes until you accept, and formatting such as italics is kept.
When you’ve decided on the last suggestion, your phone takes the Mac version. If Writing Desk can’t find a paragraph, choose Keep the phone’s version as a copy. Edits inside lists are handled through the copy route.
Word files
Phone edits merge back by paragraph, like Markdown. Complex formatting such as tracked changes may not survive, so keep a copy of any file that relies on it. Writing Desk saves a backup copy when you switch sync on for the file.