Help

The live Markdown editor

Write plain Markdown and see it rendered as you type — no lock-in, no proprietary format. Switch between Edit, Split, and Preview whenever you want to see the source, the result, or both.

1. Open any document — you start in the rendered editing view. Standard Markdown works directly: # headings, **bold**, *italic*, lists, > quotes, and fenced code blocks.
2. Use the view switcher in the toolbar to flip between Edit, Split (Markdown source and rendered result side by side), and Preview.
3. Paste or write a fenced code block — the language is auto-detected and syntax-highlighted for you; you can also pick the language on the block.
4. Raw HTML in your Markdown renders GitHub-style, so existing README-grade content looks right out of the box.
5. Drop in images (Premium) by pasting or uploading — each image can be up to 10 MB; export any document from the Export menu as PDF or Markdown (.md).

Good to know

• Tables support dropdown-select columns plus per-column sort and filter.
• Version history (the clock icon) keeps snapshots you can restore — Free keeps your last 10, Premium keeps everything.
• Focus mode dims everything but the paragraph you are writing; word goals track progress toward a target count.
• Select text to comment on it — threads support replies, emoji reactions, and resolve.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Slash commands & rich blocks

Type "/" and insert anything — headings, callouts, multi-column layouts, diagrams — without memorizing syntax.

1. Put the cursor on an empty line and type "/" to open the slash menu.
2. Keep typing to filter (e.g. "/call" for callouts) and press Enter to insert.
3. Insert callouts for notes and warnings, 2- to 4-column layouts for side-by-side content, mermaid blocks for diagrams that render live, and a table of contents that stays in sync with your headings.

Good to know

• The outline rail beside the editor mirrors your heading structure — click any entry to jump.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Find & replace

Search inside a document and replace one match or all of them — right from the keyboard.

1. Press Ctrl/Cmd+F inside a document to open the find bar.
2. Type a query — matches highlight live and the bar shows the match count; use the arrows to step through them.
3. Expand to Replace to swap the current match or Replace all in one go.

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Anchor links — deep-link to any spot

Link to an exact heading, section, or line inside a document — like a hyperlink, but pointing inside the same doc. Share the URL and it opens scrolled right to that spot, and the links keep working as the document is edited.

1. Hover any heading — a small link icon appears in the left margin; click it to copy a link straight to that heading. The address bar updates with a #section fragment.
2. To link an arbitrary block, select some of its text and click the "Link" pill in the pop-up (or press Ctrl/Cmd+Shift+A). DotMD attaches a stable anchor to that block and copies its link.
3. Paste an anchor link into any document with Ctrl/Cmd+K → type "#" to pick a heading or existing anchor from the list.
4. Click any internal link (or open a shared anchor URL) — the page scrolls to the target and briefly flashes it so you can see where you landed.

Good to know

• Heading links use the heading text, so renaming a heading changes its link; block links (the Link pill / Ctrl+Cmd+Shift+A) are sticky and survive edits, moves, and collaboration.
• The same idea works across surfaces: Slides use #s2 for slide 2, and Sheets use #Sheet2!A1 for a cell or range.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Creating documents & templates

Start from a blank page, a slides deck, a sheet — or skip the blank page entirely with the template gallery.

1. Click "+ New" in the top bar (or the dashboard quick-action cards) and pick Document, Slides, or Sheet.
2. Choose "Templates" to browse the gallery with a live preview — meeting notes, specs, decks, and more.
3. Everything saves automatically as you type; organize documents into folders from the sidebar.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

A tour of the formatting toolbar

Everything you need to format a document sits in one toolbar above the page — no hidden menus, no memorizing Markdown if you don’t want to.

1. Select some text and use the toolbar to make it bold, italic, or struck through — or press Ctrl/Cmd+B and Ctrl/Cmd+I.
2. Use the heading control to turn a line into a title, section heading, or sub-heading. Your headings automatically build the document outline in the side rail.
3. Create bulleted, numbered, or checkbox to-do lists from the list buttons — press Tab inside a list to indent a level.
4. Insert a table from the toolbar, then click any column header for sorting, filtering, and column options.
5. Use the code button for inline code, or insert a code block for longer snippets — the language is detected and highlighted for you.
6. Select text and click the link button (or press Ctrl/Cmd+K) to turn it into a link.

Good to know

• Prefer typing? Standard Markdown works as you type: # for headings, - for lists, ** for bold, and ` for code.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Version history — save, compare, restore

DotMD quietly keeps snapshots of your document as you work. If something goes wrong — or you just liked yesterday’s draft better — you can look back, compare, and restore.

1. Open a document and click the clock icon in the top bar to open Version history.
2. Browse the list of snapshots — each shows when it was saved. Click one to preview the document as it was at that moment.
3. Use the comparison view to see exactly what changed between then and now — additions and removals are highlighted line by line.
4. Click Restore to bring that version back. Restoring never destroys anything: the state you restored from becomes a snapshot too, so you can always change your mind.

Good to know

• The Free plan keeps your last 10 snapshots; Premium keeps every version for as long as you want.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Folders & keeping documents organized

Group related documents into folders — projects, teams, topics — and find anything again from the sidebar or the ⌘K search.

1. Create a folder from the "+ New" menu (or the sidebar’s new-folder button) and give it a name.
2. Drag documents into folders in the sidebar, or use a document’s "…" menu → Move to pick a destination.
3. Nest folders inside folders to build whatever structure fits your work.
4. Can’t remember where you filed something? Press Ctrl/Cmd+K and type part of its title — search finds it wherever it lives.

Good to know

• Folders can be shared and can even sync two-way with a GitHub repository (see the GitHub section below).

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Export to PDF or Markdown

Your content is never locked in. Any document, deck, or sheet exports to a file you can send, print, or open anywhere.

1. Open the document and choose Export from the top-bar menu.
2. Pick PDF for a print-ready file, or Markdown (.md) for the raw text — the same Markdown you see in the editor, readable in any text editor.
3. For sheets, the choices adapt: PDF exports the whole workbook (one page per sheet), and Markdown offers a "With formulas" option that re-imports losslessly — upload the file later and you get your working spreadsheet back.
4. Slides decks export the same way — the Markdown file keeps your "---" slide separators, so it stays a deck.

Good to know

• Want everything at once? Settings → Account → Export your data downloads a bundle of all your documents.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Sharing & real-time collaboration

Everyone edits the same live document — you see collaborators’ cursors move and an "N viewing" presence count while they are in it.

1. Open the Share dialog from the editor’s top bar and invite people by email.
2. Give each person a role: Viewer (read only), Commenter (read + comment), or Editor (full editing). Change or revoke roles later from the same dialog.
3. Turn on link sharing to let anyone with the link view the document — guests can read shared documents without an account.
4. Collaborate live: cursors, selections, and the presence count update in real time as people join.

Good to know

• Collaboration is included on Free with no fixed collaborator limit per document (fair use).
• A document can be open in at most 2 places at once per account, and each account supports up to 5 active sign-ins (devices).

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Comments & @mentions

Discuss the work right next to the work. Select any text (or any sheet cell), leave a comment, and pull a teammate in with an @mention.

1. Select the text you want to talk about and choose Comment — your note attaches to that exact spot.
2. Type @ inside a comment to mention a teammate. They get a notification that links them straight to your comment.
3. Reply to keep the conversation in one thread, and add emoji reactions for quick acknowledgements.
4. When the discussion is settled, click Resolve — resolved threads tidy away but are never deleted.

Good to know

• Your role decides what you can do: Editors and Commenters can write comments; Viewers can read but not comment.
• In sheets, comments attach to individual cells — @mentions work there too.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Share links for people without an account

Need to show a document to someone who doesn’t use DotMD? Turn on link sharing and send them the link — no sign-up needed to take a look.

1. Open the Share dialog and turn on link sharing, then copy the link.
2. Anyone who opens the link can read the document — no account required. Guests are always view-only: they can’t edit, and they can’t comment.
3. A guest gets a free 5-minute preview per visit, with a small countdown in the corner. When it ends, they’re invited to create a free account (or sign in) to keep reading.
4. Turn link sharing off at any time from the same dialog — the link stops working immediately.

Good to know

• Want someone to comment or edit? Invite them by email from the Share dialog instead — invited people sign in and get the role you choose.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

When do others see my changes?

Short answer: people who can write see your changes instantly; people who can only read see the page as it was when they opened it, with a gentle nudge to refresh when it changes.

1. Editors and Commenters are fully live: while you type, they see your changes appear in real time, along with your cursor and the "N viewing" presence count.
2. Viewers see the document as it was when they opened the page. If the document is updated while they’re reading, a "This document was updated — refresh" bar appears so they can load the latest version when they’re ready.
3. People reading through a shared link work the same way as Viewers: they see the page as opened, plus the refresh bar when something changes.
4. Everything you type is saved automatically as you go — there is no Save button to forget, and nobody ever sees a half-saved document.

Good to know

• Presenting slides is the exception for viewers: during a live presentation, everyone’s screen follows the presenter slide by slide in real time.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Namespaces — personal vs team

A namespace is a separate home for documents, folders, and people. Everyone gets a Personal one; teams get shared ones.

1. Personal is your private namespace — you are its only member. Documents there stay private unless you share them individually.
2. Namespace roles control namespace management and capabilities; they do not grant blanket document access.
3. Admins manage the namespace but do not automatically get access to every document.
4. A member, including an Admin, sees a document only through owner, direct-share, shared-folder, namespace-visibility, or link access rules.
5. Switch between namespaces with the switcher in the top-left — the sidebar, documents, and folders all change to match.
6. On Premium, create a team namespace from the switcher, then invite members by email and set each person’s role from the namespace’s member settings.

Good to know

• On the Free plan you can join team namespaces you’re invited to as a reader, but creating documents in them is a Premium capability.
• Documents can be moved between your namespaces from the document’s "…" menu.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

A tour of Settings

Everything about your account lives in one place — profile, appearance, billing, AI keys, and connected apps.

1. Open Settings from your profile menu in the top-right.
2. Account — your name and email, plus the big levers: export all your data, or delete your account.
3. Appearance — pick one of the 6 themes or follow your system’s light/dark setting.
4. Editor — writing preferences like typewriter scrolling and default behaviours.
5. Billing — during customer beta, this shows Premium included and explains when payment options open; after launch, it also holds your plan, usage meters, and subscription controls.
6. AI — connect your own AI key (Bring Your Own Key) and watch your monthly AI usage meter.
7. Apps & MCP — connect AI assistants like Claude or ChatGPT to DotMD, and manage API keys for scripts and integrations.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Edit with AI — you stay in control

Ask AI to improve, shorten, translate, or continue your writing. Nothing changes until you’ve seen the proposal and said yes — every AI edit arrives as a reviewable suggestion, never a silent rewrite.

1. Select some text (or place your cursor) and click the ✦ AI button in the editor.
2. Pick a preset — Improve writing, Fix spelling & grammar, Make shorter, Make longer, Humanize, Change tone, Translate, or Continue writing — or type your own instruction in plain words.
3. The AI proposes changes as a highlighted before/after suggestion right in your document. Read it, then accept or reject — you can accept some parts and reject others.
4. Not editing, just curious? Use the Summary tab to ask questions about the document — Summarize, Key points, Action items, or Explain simply — without touching the text.

Good to know

• The first time you use AI, DotMD shows you exactly what will be sent before anything leaves the app — nothing is shared without your consent.
• Included DotMD AI uses trusted AI service providers to process your requests.
• Bounded edits send selected text and surrounding context. Whole-document and explicitly referenced-document operations send the scope you requested.
• AI output can be inaccurate; review it before applying any suggestion.
• AI editing is a Premium feature; see "Your AI allowance" below for how usage is counted.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Add an AI teammate — your own AI subscription, no API keys

Bring the AI you already pay for — Claude, ChatGPT, or Cursor — into DotMD as a teammate. You sign in once with OAuth (your AI subscription, not an API key), and from then on your AI can answer questions about your docs and contribute to them directly, appearing in the document like a human collaborator with its own live moving cursor.

1. In your AI app (Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or any MCP client), add DotMD as a connector — Settings → Apps & MCP shows the exact steps (Premium).
2. Approve the OAuth screen once. No API keys to create or paste — the connection uses your existing AI subscription and respects your DotMD permissions.
3. Now treat it like a teammate: ask it questions about a doc, have it draft or restructure sections, sync GitHub, or build sheets and slides for you.
4. When it edits a doc you have open, you can watch it work — it joins as a live collaborator with a moving teal "(MCP)" cursor, just like a person typing.

Good to know

• In-editor AI: "Edit with AI" proposes changes as a reviewable diff with per-hunk accept, "Ask AI" answers questions about your document, and staged suggestions never touch your text until you approve them.
• Bring your own key under Settings → AI: OpenAI, Anthropic, or Gemini. A usage meter shows consumption, and a consent disclosure tells you exactly what is sent before anything leaves DotMD.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Your AI allowance & bringing your own key

Premium includes a generous monthly AI allowance out of the box. If you want more, connect your own AI provider account — then your provider’s limits apply instead of ours.

1. During customer beta, DotMD-hosted AI includes 100,000 tokens per month. At general launch, Premium includes 250,000 tokens per month. Tokens are the units AI providers count work in, and both what you send and what DotMD AI writes back count.
2. Edit with AI and Ask AI / Summary use the hosted allowance. MCP uses the connected assistant’s own model and subscription, so MCP work does not count against it.
3. Watch your usage any time: the meter lives in Settings → AI, and a small usage pill appears near the AI tools in the editor.
4. Want more than the included allowance? Bring your own key: paste an API key from OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google Gemini into Settings → AI. DotMD auto-detects the provider and uses your key from then on.
5. BYOK sends the requested content to the provider you configure; that provider’s terms and data-processing practices apply.
6. With your own key connected, the monthly cap no longer applies — your usage is billed by your provider under their limits. Your key is stored encrypted and never shown again.

Good to know

• The allowance resets monthly. If you hit the cap mid-month, connecting your own key lifts it immediately.
• Remove your key any time from the same pane — DotMD switches back to the included allowance.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Connect an AI assistant (MCP) — OAuth or API key

DotMD speaks MCP, the open standard AI assistants use to work with your tools. Connect Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, or any MCP client two ways: a one-click sign-in (recommended), or an API key for tools that prefer one.

1. Open Settings → Apps & MCP. Your personal connection address is shown there — it ends in /api/mcp (Premium).
2. Option 1 — sign in with OAuth (recommended): in claude.ai or ChatGPT, go to Settings → Connectors, add a custom connector, and paste your DotMD address. A DotMD sign-in screen appears once; approve it and you’re connected — no keys to manage. Claude Desktop and Cursor work the same way with a small copyable config (shown on the page): the first use opens a browser window to sign in and approve.
3. Option 2 — use an API key: under the Advanced section of the same page, create an API key and copy it (it is shown only once). Then use the provided config snippet, which sends the key as an "Authorization: Bearer" header — useful for scripts, servers, or MCP clients that don’t support the sign-in flow.
4. Either way, the assistant acts as you: it can only see and edit what your account can, and everything it does shows up under its own name in the document.
5. Manage connections any time from the same page — disconnect an app or delete an API key and its access ends immediately.

Good to know

• Prefer OAuth when your tool supports it: nothing to copy, nothing to leak, and revoking is one click.
• You can rotate an API key (get a fresh secret without reconfiguring permissions) from the keys table.
• Fair-use quota: each API key allows up to 100 requests per minute and 20,000 calls per month.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Markdown → slides

Separate slides with "---" lines and you have a deck. Themes, layouts, and backgrounds are one directive away.

1. Create a deck from "New slides" (or the slides template) — slides are separated by "---" lines in the Markdown.
2. Pick one of the 4 themes — light, dark, midnight, or paper — in the deck settings.
3. Add layout directives for title, section, and two-column slides, and set per-slide backgrounds.
4. Write speaker notes under a slide — only you see them while presenting.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Present mode & live presentations

Full-screen presenting with a twist: present to your viewers over the internet and their screens follow you slide by slide.

1. Click Present to go full-screen. Navigate with the arrow keys or Space; press B to blackout the screen, Esc to exit.
2. Choose "Present to viewers" to go live — everyone with the document open auto-follows your current slide.
3. Viewers can browse ahead on their own; manual navigation breaks the follow and a "Re-follow" control snaps them back to you.
4. Another presenter can take over mid-session, and you always see the live audience count.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Sheets & formulas

80 formulas across 8 categories (Math, Statistics, Logic, Information, Conditional, Text, Lookup, Date) — from SUM and VLOOKUP to SUMIFS, TEXTJOIN, and DATEDIF — with an assist panel that guides every argument.

1. Create a sheet from "+ New" → Sheet, or add one to a workbook with the multi-sheet tabs along the bottom.
2. Type "=" in a cell to start a formula — the ƒx assist panel lists all 80 functions by category and walks you through each argument.
3. Format cells (including strikethrough), sort and filter columns, and freeze the header row for long tables.
4. Comment on any cell and @mention teammates; collaborate live with per-cell cursors showing who is where.
5. Import a CSV, TSV, XLS, XLSX, or Markdown file from the Download menu (or drop it onto the sheet). Excel and downloaded sheet .md files restore full workbooks as new tabs or replacements; CSV/TSV moves one sheet. Paste blocks straight from Excel or Google Sheets to spill across cells.
6. Export the workbook as PDF (one page per sheet) or Markdown — the "With formulas" .md re-imports losslessly, and uploading it from the dashboard recreates a sheet.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Two-way GitHub sync

Link a DotMD folder to a repo path and edits flow both ways. Concurrent changes 3-way-merge automatically; real conflicts get a visual side-by-side resolver.

1. Connect GitHub under Settings → GitHub by installing the DotMD GitHub App.
2. Link a folder to a repository, branch, and path — the repo’s existing Markdown imports as documents so you start in sync.
3. Click "Sync now" to reconcile both directions: your edits push as commits, changes from GitHub pull into your docs, and concurrent edits merge automatically with a 3-way merge.
4. When both sides changed the same lines, the file gets a conflict badge — open the visual MergeView to pick the final text, which then pushes back.

Good to know

• Status badges on each linked folder show synced / pending / conflict at a glance.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Themes & preferences

Six themes plus System auto-switching, per-category notification controls, and editor preferences tuned to how you write.

1. Open Settings → Appearance and pick one of the 6 themes, or choose System to follow your OS.
2. Tune notifications per category (comments, shares, mentions, …) under Settings → Notifications.
3. Adjust editor preferences — behaviors like typewriter scrolling and defaults — under Settings → Editor.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Install the app & own your data

DotMD is an installable PWA that works like a native app — and your account is fully yours: export everything, or delete it all, any time.

1. Install DotMD from your browser’s install prompt (or the address-bar install icon) to get a windowed, dock-launchable app.
2. Export all your data as a portable bundle from Settings → Account; account deletion (GDPR) erases everything on request.
3. Create API keys under Settings → Apps & MCP to script DotMD or connect agents.
4. On Premium, create team namespaces — shared spaces with member management.

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care

Your data — export everything, or delete it all

Your words are yours. Take a complete copy of everything whenever you like, and if you ever leave, deletion is real deletion.

1. Open Settings → Account.
2. Export your data downloads a portable bundle of all your documents — plain Markdown files you can open anywhere, no DotMD required. Large accounts are prepared in the background: we notify you when the bundle is ready, and its download link stays live for 7 days.
3. Delete account permanently removes your documents, comments, namespaces you own, API keys, and personal data. Documents you shared with others stop being yours to manage.
4. Deletion takes effect immediately; residual copies in backups are removed as those backups expire. If you have an active team subscription it is cancelled as part of deletion.

Good to know

• Deleting a single document? Use its "…" menu — you don’t need to touch your account for that.
• Export first if you’re unsure: the bundle is yours to keep either way.
• You can request one export per day — Settings shows your last export (with its download link while it lasts).

Still stuck? Contact Customer Care