Editing

SuperMD's editor is hybrid: your document always looks typeset, and the raw Markdown appears exactly where — and only where — you're working. There is no separate source mode to switch into and no preview pane to keep in sync. The page is the editor.

Markers reveal where you touch

Click inside a bold phrase and the ** markers appear around it; click away and they fold up again. The same applies everywhere:

• Headings show their # marks while your cursor is on the line.
• Links display as their text; touch one and the [text](url) form opens for editing. Links between notes — [[wiki links]] included — get completion, backlinks, and a graph: see Links, Tags & Graph.
• Blockquotes, lists, and inline code all reveal their markers on contact.
• A horizontal rule (---, *** or ___) draws as a line; put your cursor on it and the characters come back.

You always edit real Markdown — SuperMD never rewrites your file behind your back. What lands on disk is exactly the plain CommonMark you typed.

Checkboxes, tables, and code

• Task lists — click a checkbox to toggle it, in the editor or the rendered preview (⌘E). - [ ] becomes - [x], one undo step.
• Tables — rendered as proper tables. Click a row and the whole table dissolves into editable pipe syntax; click away and it re-renders.
• Code fences — syntax highlighting for 78+ languages, live as you type. The ``` fence delimiters hide while you're outside the block.
• Images — display inline; click one to edit its ![alt](path) source.
• Frontmatter — a --- metadata block at the very top of a note shows as small, quiet text and stays out of the outline. It must close with --- (or ...); anywhere else, --- is a horizontal rule.
• HTML — SuperMD doesn't render raw HTML. An HTML block shows as its literal source in both views, so nothing you paste disappears. <!-- comments --> stay hidden in the preview, as in any Markdown renderer.

Diagrams work the same way — see Diagrams.

Lists that keep up

Press ⏎ inside a list and the next item is ready: bullets carry over, numbers increment, task items continue unchecked. Press ⏎ on an empty item to end the list. Tab and ⇧ Tab indent and outdent the current item.

Tables you can Tab through

Inside a table, Tab jumps to the next cell with its content selected — from the last cell it adds a fresh row. ⇧ Tab goes back. Whenever you hop cells or leave the table, the pipes re-align so the source stays tidy without you ever counting spaces.

Paste images straight in

Copy an image anywhere and paste it into a document: SuperMD saves it as assets/pasted-<timestamp>.png beside the file and inserts the ![](…) link for you. The document folder stays portable — move it and its images move too.

Formatting toolbar

Select text with the mouse and a small toolbar appears above the selection: bold, italic, code, strikethrough, link, heading level, and blockquote — each a single click, each one undo step. Toggles work both ways: bolding a bold selection unbolds it.

⌘ B (Ctrl+B) and ⌘ I (Ctrl+I) do the same from the keyboard while text is selected. Without a selection, ⌘ B keeps its usual job of toggling the sidebar.

Typing a marker key over a selection wraps instead of replacing: select a word, press *, and it's italic — press * again for bold. The same works for `, _, and ~.

Preview and focus

• ⌘ E (Ctrl+E) toggles a fully rendered read-only preview of the current document — useful for a final read-through.
• ⌃ ⌘ F (Ctrl+Alt+F) enters focus mode: chrome fades away, just you and the text.

Saving is not your job

SuperMD autosaves shortly after you stop typing, and ⌘ S (Ctrl+S) saves immediately if you want the reassurance. If a file changed on disk while you had unsaved edits — say, from a git checkout — SuperMD never silently overwrites either side: the disk version is backed up first, every time.