Writing Modes

Wander has one way to write and three ways to look at the page while you do. They change what is on screen, never what is in the file. The two buttons in the status bar, Focus and Typewriter, are these modes.

Standard

The whole note, at full strength, with the sidebar and panels where you left them. This is the default and where most reading and editing happens.

Focus

Everything except the paragraph you are in fades to a quarter. The rest of the note is still there, you can see its shape, but only the current block is at full strength. Good for a first draft or a hard passage, when the paragraph above keeps pulling your eye.

Toggle it with the Focus button in the status bar, View ▸ Focus Mode, or ⇧⌘F.

Typewriter

The line you are typing on stays at one height, about two fifths down the window, and the page scrolls under it as you write. Your eyes never travel down to the bottom edge and back; the text comes to you, the way paper did in a typewriter. It pairs well with Focus.

Toggle it with the Typewriter button in the status bar or View ▸ Typewriter Scrolling. It has no shortcut of its own.

Zen

Only the page. The sidebar, the right panel, the column headers, the toolbar and the status bar all go, and the note glides to the middle of the window at your Content Width. Move the pointer to the top edge for the toolbar and the traffic lights, or to the bottom edge for the status bar; they fade out again a second after you leave. ⌘. enters zen, and ⌘. brings everything back where it was.

The status bar can also go on its own, outside zen: View ▸ Status Bar, remembered across launches.

Remembering a mode

Settings ▸ General ▸ New Windows Open In decides how a new window opens: Standard, Focus, Typewriter, or the mode you used last.

Next: Keyboard Shortcuts · Getting Started