Write documents

Documents are for authored work that needs headings, lists, links, formatting, and sharing. Notes remain the Markdown-first option for quick writing and reference.

Select New document from Documents. Choose Blank or a document template. The editor opens immediately on the page you are writing.

The command bar

The editor works the same way the Spreadsheets editor does. Four menus sit above the page:

• File — all documents, duplicate, import, export, print, page setup, PDF download, attachments, and delete.
• Edit — undo, redo, find and replace, and save now.
• Insert — link, picture, table, horizontal rule, page break, section break, table of contents, footnote, endnote, equation, citation, bibliography, cross-reference, and bookmark.
• Format — paragraph style, bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, inline code, lists, and clear formatting.

Below the menus is a toolbar with the commands used in every paragraph: undo and redo, the paragraph style, the four text marks, the two list types, and buttons for a link, a picture and a table. Word count, character count and reading time sit under the page.

Working on one thing

Right-click something in the document to get the commands for that thing. Right-click a table cell to insert or delete a row or column, turn the first row into a header, or delete the table. Right-click a picture for its alt text and caption, to replace it, or to remove it. Right-click a table of contents to refresh it, and a footnote or bookmark to remove it.

Keyboard shortcuts

The same shortcuts work here as in Spreadsheets: Ctrl/⌘ S saves now, Ctrl/⌘ F opens find and replace, Ctrl/⌘ Z and Shift Ctrl/⌘ Z undo and redo, Ctrl/⌘ B, I and U apply the text marks, and Ctrl/⌘ K links the selected text. Tab moves between table cells. Escape closes any drawer.

Links and bookmarks

Select some text and choose Insert → Link. Web addresses, mailto: addresses and #bookmark names are accepted; anything else is refused. A bookmark is a named place in the document: add one from Insert → Bookmark, then link to it with #name.

Advanced authoring

Use Insert → Equation to store a structured equation expression with a description for screen readers. Magpie does not execute equation input. Use Insert → Endnote to enter notes collected at the end of the document, and Insert → Citation to keep author, title, publisher, year, URL, and DOI metadata. Choose APA, MLA, or Chicago in the citation drawer. Insert → Bibliography generates a reference list from the citations in the document.

Use Insert → Cross-reference to link to a heading, figure, table, or bookmark. Figure and table captions receive stable display numbers, and references point at the canonical block rather than a character offset. Format → Custom styles defines a reusable paragraph style; changing the style definition updates paragraphs that use it.

Choose Format → Accessibility check for deterministic checks for missing alt text, heading level jumps, table headers, equation descriptions, empty links, and broken references. The checker finds common problems but does not certify a document.

Choose Format → Mail merge to create a new copy from placeholders such as {{ '{{First Name}}' }}. Supply a JSON object of values. The merge is local to Magpie, bounded, and does not send document content to an external service.

Pictures, tables and contents

Pictures come from your Magpie image library and keep their alt text and caption in the document structure. A table of contents is built from the headings in the document and updates as you write. Footnotes are numbered by their position, so removing one renumbers the rest.

Attachments

Choose File → Attachments to add a PDF or ZIP from your Magpie file library. Attachments follow the document's access rules and are not public by default.

Import and export

From Documents, choose Import to create a new document from a .docx, .odt, .md, .html, .htm, or .txt file. Word paragraphs, headings, basic formatting, lists, tables, links, page settings, comments, and tracked changes are mapped into the structured Document model where the source format provides them. Imported comments and tracked changes appear as Magpie comments and suggestions. Embedded Word images are reported as warnings and can be added from the Magpie image library.

Use File → Export to download the current document as DOCX, ODT, Markdown, semantic HTML, or plain text. These formats intentionally have different capabilities: plain text loses formatting, Markdown cannot represent every page-layout feature, and ODT export currently focuses on document content. Equations, notes, citations, references, and captions retain readable text or semantic HTML where the target format supports it. DOCX comments and review changes are included when they are represented by the current document model. Choose Export clean DOCX to omit review markup. PDF remains the format for distributing the current Pages layout.

Imports are bounded and sanitized. Scripts, active HTML, unsafe links, macros, and external resources are not executed. Private Documents and their exports keep the document's normal access rules.

Sharing

Documents belong to the selected Personal or team context, and team access follows the team's access settings. Select Share in the page bar to give one Magpie username view or edit access to this document alone, without adding that person to the team.

Saving

Changes save automatically, and the page bar reports Saving, Saved or Save failed. Wait for Saved before closing after a large edit, or press Ctrl/⌘ S.

Continuous and Pages mode

Documents open in Continuous mode for ordinary web writing. There are no paper boundaries, so long text, images, and wide tables use the available screen. Choose Pages in the toolbar when the physical layout matters. Pages mode uses the document's paper size, margins, orientation, columns, headers, footers, page numbers, and explicit breaks.

Choose File → Page setup to set Letter, Legal, A4, or A5 paper; portrait or landscape orientation; one, two, or three columns; and narrow through wide margins. You can also show an optional ruler in Pages mode. Header and footer text and page-number placement are preserved in the document even when you switch back to Continuous mode. Press Tab in ordinary document text to insert a document tab; Tab moves between table cells when the caret is in a table. Insert → Page break starts a new printed page. Insert → Section break records a new page-layout section for later section-specific layout.

Use File → Print for the browser print dialog or File → Download PDF for a private PDF generated from the structured document. The PDF includes the document's headings, lists, links, tables, images, footnotes, page breaks, headers, footers, and page numbers. The PDF is not a public link unless the document is separately published or shared through Magpie.

Comments and review

Select Comment after selecting text to start a thread. Comments keep the selected text, paragraph and offsets as an anchor, so nearby edits do not immediately detach the discussion. Replies stay in the same thread. Resolve a thread when it no longer needs attention.

Share a document as Can review when someone should be able to comment and suggest wording without changing the accepted document. Choose Suggesting in the editor, select text, enter the proposed replacement, and submit it. An editor can accept or reject the suggestion. Review decisions are recorded as document operations.

The editor shows notices for a document shared with you, replies, mentions and review decisions. Mentioning a username does not grant access to a private document.

Version history

Open Format → Version history to name a checkpoint such as Before client review. Restoring a version creates a new revision; it does not erase the work that happened afterward. The current editor revision and operation history remain available for later collaboration features.

If a document will not save, print, or export, copy any unsaved writing somewhere safe before reloading, then Contact support.