Writing and formatting

Noughtpad notes are written in Markdown, a simple way to format text with ordinary characters. You don’t have to learn it: plain text works fine. But if you use it, Noughtpad shows the result straight away.

What you see as you type

The Markdown symbols are hidden except on the line you’re editing. Move the cursor away and the line looks finished.

Type this	You get
`# Heading`	A large heading (`##` and `###` for smaller ones)
`bold`	bold
`italic`	italic
`- item`	A bullet list
`1. item`	A numbered list
`- [ ] task`	A checkbox you can click
`> quote`	A quote
`code`	Code, in a fixed-width font
`[text](https://example.com)`	A link

Titles are optional

You don’t need a title. Noughtpad uses the first line of the note as its name in lists. If you’d like a separate title, move the pointer over the top of the note and add one.

Paste and copy

Paste from the web, Google Docs or Word. Headings, lists, links and tables come across as tidy Markdown.
Paste plain text only. Press ⌘⇧V (Ctrl+Shift+V).
Paste a link over selected text to turn that text into a link.
Paste an image (for example a screenshot) and it’s saved in an attachments folder inside your notes folder and shown in the note.
Copy from Noughtpad and paste into an email or document: you get formatted text. Paste into a Markdown app and you get Markdown.

Diagrams and maths

To draw a diagram, write it in Mermaid inside a code block marked mermaid:

```mermaid
graph LR
  Idea --> Note --> Thread
```

For maths, use LaTeX: $E = mc^2$ inside a line, or $$ … $$ on lines of their own. Diagrams and maths show rendered when the cursor is outside them.

Deleting a note

Move the pointer over the top of the note and click the bin icon. The note goes to a trash folder inside your notebook (.noughtpad/trash), so you can get it back from there if you need to.

The sidebar and toolbar appear when the pointer nears the edge of the window and hide again when you type. Press ⌘\ (Ctrl+\) to keep them on screen, and again to hide them.