Formatting & Prettify

Keyboard Shortcuts

Feather supports standard formatting shortcuts. Select text first, then press the shortcut to wrap it in the appropriate markdown syntax.

Additional Syntax

• Highlight: ==text== renders with a colored background (color matches your preview theme)
• Subscript: ~text~
• Superscript: ^text^

Heading Cycle

Pressing Ctrl+Shift+H cycles through heading levels on the current line:

1. First press: # Heading 1
2. Second press: ## Heading 2
3. Third press: ### Heading 3
4. Fourth press: Plain text (heading removed)

Format Toggle

Applying a format shortcut to already-formatted text removes the formatting instead of doubling it.

• Bold text + Ctrl+B = plain text (removes **)
• Italic text + Ctrl+I = plain text (removes *)
• Links: Pressing Ctrl+K on [link](url) unwraps it back to plain text
• Images: Pressing Ctrl+Shift+I on ![alt](url) unwraps it the same way

This works for all toggle-style formats: bold, italic, strikethrough, code, links, and images. List commands toggle the same way — see Lists below.

Lists

Select any number of lines and apply Bulleted, Numbered, or Task List — every selected line gets a marker, not just the first one.

• Convert between kinds: applying a different list type to an existing list swaps the markers (bullets to numbers, numbers to tasks, and back)
• Remove markers: apply the same list type again to strip the markers off
• Numbered lists renumber themselves sequentially, and continue an ordered list that sits directly above your selection
• The whole change is a single undo step, so Ctrl+Z puts it back exactly as it was

List commands are also available while editing a block in the preview. See Edit in Preview.

The Lists Toolbar Button

The toolbar's Lists button is a split button. Click the button to re-apply the last list type you used — the icon and tooltip follow it, so it always shows what a click will do. Click the chevron for the full menu: Bulleted List, Numbered List, Task List, and Definition List.

Prettify (Markdown Formatter)

Prettify cleans up your markdown in three tiers, each building on the previous one.

Tier 1: Format Tables (Ctrl+Shift+P)

• Aligns table columns with consistent padding
• Preserves alignment markers (:---:, ---:, :---)
• Only affects tables, leaves everything else unchanged

Tier 2: Clean Up Document

Everything in Format Tables, plus:

• Normalizes list markers to dashes (-)
• Trims trailing whitespace from all lines
• Ensures blank lines around headings and block elements

Tier 3: Full Format

Everything in Clean Up Document, plus:

• Normalizes indentation
• Collapses three or more consecutive blank lines down to two

Auto-Format Table on Tab

When your cursor is inside a table row, pressing Tab will:

1. Auto-format the entire table (align columns, add padding)
2. Move the cursor to the next cell

This lets you build and format tables as you type without running Prettify manually.