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Marginal

The editor

The editor is a plain-text markdown editor. It highlights markdown syntax, wraps long lines, and marks the current line. What you type is what ends up in the file, byte for byte.

The editor alone, showing a markdown document with highlighted headings, a tip block, and a tableThe editor alone, showing a markdown document with highlighted headings, a tip block, and a table
Editor view (⌘1). Headings, emphasis, code, and tables are tinted as you type.

Folding

Section titled “Folding”

Every heading can fold the section below it, up to the next heading of the same or a higher level. Click the chevron in the gutter next to a heading, or use the commands in the View menu and the command palette: Fold All Sections, Fold Level 2, Fold Level 3, Fold Level 4, and Unfold All Sections. A folded section shows as ⋯.

The editor with every section folded, showing only the top heading and a fold markerThe editor with every section folded, showing only the top heading and a fold marker
Fold All Sections collapses the document to its top heading.

Only #-style headings fold. Headings underlined with === or --- do not.

The /fold and /expand commands in the AI bar fold and expand from the keyboard: /fold folds the current section, /fold 2 every level-2 section, /fold all everything; /expand and /expand all undo it.

Find

Section titled “Find”

⌘F opens the search panel with find and replace. ⌘G jumps to the next match. The panel’s text follows the interface font size in Settings ▸ General ▸ Font.

In the Emacs scheme, C-s and C-r open the panel, the first match after or before the cursor is selected as you type, and, once you are in the panel, the same keys step to the next and previous match; C-g closes it with the match still selected, as Escape does. In the Vim scheme, / and ? search forward and backward, n and N step through the matches, and Escape cancels the prompt. The Keybindings page has both schemes in full.

Task lists

Section titled “Task lists”

A task list item looks like - [ ] something in the editor. You can tick it from the preview: clicking the checkbox there flips [ ] to [x] in the source, and that is a normal undoable edit.

Images

Section titled “Images”

Drop an image file on the editor or the preview, or paste one from the clipboard, and Marginal copies it into an assets folder next to the document and inserts a link such as ![name](assets/name.png) at that spot. A drop on the preview lands at the matching line of the source.

The document needs a file for this to work; with a new, unsaved document the status bar says Save the document first to attach images.

Zoom

Section titled “Zoom”

⌘= and ⌘- zoom the text of both the editor and the preview, from 50 % to 300 %; ⌘0 goes back to 100 %. A pinch on the trackpad or Ctrl plus the scroll wheel does the same. The zoom is remembered, applies to the text only, and does not scale mermaid diagrams.

The font sizes themselves are in Settings ▸ Editor and Settings ▸ Preview.

Line numbers and git changes

Section titled “Line numbers and git changes”

Two gutters are off by default and live in Settings ▸ Editor ▸ Gutter:

  • Line numbers, to the left of the fold chevrons.
  • Git changes, which marks lines that differ from the committed file: green for added, blue for changed, red where lines were removed. It can compare against the last commit or the staging index, and refreshes when you open, save, switch tabs, or come back to the window, never while you type. Files outside a repository show nothing.

Keys

Section titled “Keys”

The editor follows the keymap scheme in Settings ▸ Editor ▸ Keybindings: Default, Emacs, or Vim. You can also bind your own shortcuts to editor and application commands. Both are described in Keybindings.