Writing in blocks,
saving plain text.
Every paragraph, list, table and diagram is a block you drop in with a slash and drag wherever you like — and all of it lands in an ordinary .md file.
Type a slash,
get anything
# for a heading, - for a bullet, > for a quote, - [ ] for a task, --- for a divider, ==text== for a highlight. Three backticks and a language opens a code block — and three backticks and mermaid opens a diagram.- Headings, bullet, numbered and task lists
- Tables, quotes, dividers and code blocks
- Callouts, toggles and multi-column layouts
- Images, file attachments, video and bookmarks
- Mermaid diagrams, charts, math and calc
- Saved AI prompts, with Ampersand Pro
Rearranging is
a drag or a keystroke
A block is a paragraph, a heading, a list item, a table, a diagram — anything with its own line.
Drag the handle
Hover a block and a grip appears in the left margin. Drag it to move that block — or that single list item — and a line shows where it lands. Shift-click to take several at once.
Or use the keyboard
Cmd + D duplicates the block you are in, Cmd + Shift + ↑ and ↓ move it past its neighbours. Both work on a multi-block selection, and both count as a single undo.
The block menu
Click the grip for duplicate, move, delete and a background tint. A tinted paragraph, heading or quote round-trips through your file; a tinted list item is editor-only.
## Launch week
- [x] Lock the feature list
- [ ] Draft the announcement
- [ ] Brief support
<details>
<summary>Ideas we rejected</summary>
Out of the way, still in the file.
</details>
Lists, tasks,
toggles and columns
<details> element GitHub and Obsidian both understand — collapsed in the editor, complete in the file. Columns sit blocks side by side in a small marked-up wrapper; a reader that ignores it sees them stacked in order, which is the worst case we were willing to accept.- Checkboxes that survive the round trip
- Toggles you can nest and drag
- Two or three columns, resizable
A table that
does the arithmetic
Insert one with / → Table, or paste a Markdown table straight in. Tab moves across cells and Enter moves down a row; Enter in the last row adds another, so a table grows as fast as you can type into it.
Hover the top of a column or the left of a row and a handle appears. Click it for insert, delete, alignment and Summarize; drag it to reorder. The + bars on the right and bottom edges add one more, and dragging a column edge resizes it. Alignment is ordinary GitHub table alignment, so it travels; a width you set by hand rides in a small comment after the table, and only once you have actually resized something. Row heights never leave the editor.
Type = at the start of a cell and Ampersand offers SUM, AVG, COUNT, MIN and MAX, already filled in with the numbers above. Formulas understand units and currency — a column of 15 weeks and 4 weeks totals 19 weeks — and a circular reference is caught rather than looped. The formula is the cell’s text, and exporting to PDF, Word or HTML resolves each one to its value first.
| Phase | Estimate | Cost |
| :------- | :------- | ------: |
| Research | 2 weeks | €8,000 |
| Build | 6 weeks | €24,000 |
| Launch | 1 week | €3,000 |
| **All** | =SUM(B2:B4) | =SUM(C2:C4) |
<!-- colwidths=220,120,120 -->
---
title: Pricing research
tags: [product, pricing]
---
Findings feed [[Launch plan]] directly, and
contradict [[Q2 forecast|last quarter’s model]].
Anchor pricing wins on every panel. #pricing
Notes that
know about each other
[[ and a picker of your notes appears; pick one, or let it create the note you just named. Add a pipe for different link text. Links are indexed as you write, so any note shows what points at it — the Backlinks list in the right-hand panel, or ⌘⇧B. Tags work the same way: write one inline or list them in frontmatter, and typing # in vault search lists every tag with a count. Renaming one rewrites it across the vault.- Autocomplete on [[ with create-as-you-type
- Backlinks for every note, always current
- Inline #tags and frontmatter tags, one index
One note,
or all of them
Two searches, two shortcuts — the distinction is worth learning early.
In this document — Cmd + F
Highlights every match at once with a 3 / 17 counter, and toggles for case, whole word and regular expressions. Cmd + Alt + F adds a replace field, and replace-all is one undo. The bar never takes focus from the text.
Across the vault — Cmd + Shift + F
Results grouped by file with line numbers; click one to jump to that line. Filters are remembered between sessions, and a query starting with # switches to tag mode with a count beside each tag.
Vault search reads notes you have encrypted while the vault is unlocked and skips them entirely while it is locked. Nothing decrypted is ever written back to disk to make searching faster.
Three ways to
get the room quiet
Independent of each other — turn on as many as help, and none of them touch your file.
Focus — Cmd + Shift + J
Dims every block except the one your cursor is in, so the paragraph you are working on is the only lit thing on the page. A setting narrows that to the current sentence.
Typewriter
Keeps the line you are typing at a fixed height on screen instead of letting it sink to the bottom. Switch it on in Settings → Editor → Writing, or from the palette.
Zen — Cmd + Shift + Enter
Hides the sidebar, tabs and status bar and goes full screen. Escape steps back one level at a time. It is per-session on purpose: you never relaunch into a window with no chrome.
Every shortcut is yours to change
It is still Markdown, all the way down
Good to know
How do I insert a table in Ampersand?
Type a forward slash on an empty line and choose Table: Ampersand inserts a three-by-three table with a header row. Tab and Shift + Tab move across cells, Enter and Shift + Enter move down and up a row, and Enter in the last row adds another. Pasting a Markdown table works too.
Can I use formulas in a Markdown table?
Yes. Type = at the start of a cell and Ampersand offers SUM, AVG, COUNT, MIN and MAX, pre-filled with the numbers above that cell. A formula like =SUM(B2:B4) is stored as the cell’s plain text, so the file stays a normal Markdown table; the value is shown in the editor and resolved on export.
How do wiki-links work in Ampersand?
Type two square brackets and a picker of your notes appears; choose one and it becomes a link like [[Pricing research]]. Use [[Note|different words]] for other link text, and if nothing matches, the picker offers to create that note. Links are indexed, so every note lists what points at it under Backlinks, on Cmd + Shift + B.
What is the difference between Cmd + F and Cmd + Shift + F?
Cmd + F searches the note you have open, highlighting every match, with case, whole-word and regex options; Cmd + Alt + F adds replace. Cmd + Shift + F searches every note in your vault, grouping results by file so you can jump to a matching line. Cmd + P is faster when you know the note’s name.
Does Ampersand rewrite my Markdown when it saves?
No. What you edit is what is written: headings, lists, tables, quotes and task lists are standard Markdown, and saving a file you have not changed leaves it byte-for-byte identical. Only features Markdown has no syntax for — toggles, columns, coloured text — use small documented HTML, and any reader still shows the content.
How do I move a paragraph up or down without dragging it?
Put the cursor in it and press Cmd + Shift + Up or Cmd + Shift + Down: the block swaps with its neighbour, as one undo step. Cmd + D duplicates it instead. Both work on a selection spanning several blocks, and both are rebindable in Settings.
How do tags work in Ampersand?
Write a hashtag anywhere in a note, or list tags in the YAML frontmatter, and Ampersand indexes them across the vault. Typing # in vault search lists every tag with how many notes use it; clicking one drills into those notes, and renaming a tag rewrites it everywhere at once. A # starting a line is still a heading.
The fastest way
to find out is to type.
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