Writing Articles

An article is a page to write on, in Illustrate Mode. Where an infographic page is a sheet you lay out freely, an article page is for writing: a title, paragraphs, headings and lists, with pictures, charts and drawings sitting in the text. When the writing runs past the bottom of a page it flows onto a new one, and when it shrinks, the empty pages go again.

Starting an Article

On a new tab: the first page of a tab in Illustrate mode asks What Is This Page For? while it is still empty. Choose Article and the caret lands in the title. Choose Infographic, or start putting things on it, and it stays an infographic page.
After other pages: press the + after the last page (or the + at the end of the toolbar strip, in the Toolbar layout) and choose Article.
From a template: the Article template (under Projects, and in Popular) starts with a short project brief you can write over.

A page keeps its kind once you start: an article page cannot become an infographic page, or the other way round.

Writing

Click anywhere on the page to put the caret there and type. The writing sits inside the page's margins; there are no text boxes to draw.

Enter starts a new paragraph, Shift+Enter a new line in the same one.
Markdown shortcuts as you type: #, ## and ### for headings, - or * for a bulleted list, 1. for a numbered list, [ ] for a to-do, > for a quote, three backticks for code, --- for a divider. Backspace straight after undoes the shortcut.
Type / at the start of a line for the block menu: headings, lists, quote, code, divider, page break, and pictures, tables, charts and drawings.
Paste from a web page, Google Docs or Word: headings, lists, links, bold and italic come with it. Paste Markdown and it is turned into formatted blocks.
Tab and Shift+Tab indent and outdent a list item.

While you write, a toolbar sits at the top of the page, inside it: hover any article page and it shows there too.

Style: Text, Title, Subtitle, Heading 1 to 3, Quote or Code.
Bold, Italic and Underline (⌘B, ⌘I, ⌘U).
Colour: text colour and highlight, from the article's colours.
Link (⌘K): add, edit or remove a link on the selected words.
Lists: bulleted, numbered or to-do, and indenting.
Alignment: left, centre, right or justified.
More formatting: strikethrough, inline code, superscript, subscript, clear formatting, and the article's style.
Insert: a picture, a table, a chart, a divider, a page break, a quote, a code block or a callout.
Comment and Assign Action, with words selected (see below).

Pages That Grow

Writing flows from page to page like a word processor: when a page is full the next line starts on a new page, added for you, and pages the writing no longer reaches are removed. A heading never sits alone at the foot of a page: it moves over with the line after it. A page break (from Insert, or /) starts the next page early.

All the pages of an article share its size, orientation and background: change them from any of its pages and they all follow. The page navigator under each page takes you to the previous or next page.

Pictures, Charts and Drawings in the Text

Anything you add from the palette, the toolbar's Insert or the / menu sits in the writing, and the text makes room for it.

A picture, chart, table or sticky note sits on its own line by default. Select it and the bar underneath chooses how it sits: In line (on its own line, aligned left, centre or right), Wrap left or Wrap right (the text runs down beside it), or Float (in front of the text, anywhere on the page).
Drag it to move it: a blue line with a ring at each end shows where it will land between paragraphs; let go and it moves there. Or drag the grip at the left of its bar.
A drawing: drop a shape on the writing and it starts a drawing area, a space between the paragraphs to draw and connect shapes in with every tool. Drag its edges or corner to make it bigger or smaller. Whatever pokes past its edge is cut off, on screen and in exports.
When the writing above them changes, they move with the text, onto another page if they need to.

Comments and Actions on Words

Select some words, then press Comment (⌘⌥M) or Assign Action in the toolbar. The words are tinted (amber for a comment, blue for an action) and a small marker appears in the page's margin beside them, showing the comment count, or a tick for an action. Comments, mentions, assignees, due dates and the Activity page all work exactly as they do on shapes.

Click the marker, or the tinted words, to open the thread or the action.
The marker moves with its words as you write above them. Several on the same line stack down the margin.
Delete the words and the comment or action goes with them (Undo brings both back). Delete the marker and the tint goes.
Exports leave the markers and tints out.

The Article's Style

Press the cog above an article page for its panel, which has three tabs:

Page: size, orientation and background, for every page of the article.
Style: a Look to start from (Clean, Classic, Report, Notebook or Bold), the Accent colour and whether headings take it, the Margins (Narrow, Normal or Wide) and Page Numbers.
Text: the Fonts for headings and body, then Text Size, Line Spacing, Paragraph Spacing and Lines Under Text (under the title, or under every heading).

Hover any choice to preview it on the page; press it to keep it. With the Lines pattern from the Page tab, an article page becomes lined paper, the lines sitting under the text.

Exporting, Presenting and Leaving

Article pages export, print and present like any page: the writing, the pictures and drawings in it, and page numbers if they are on. See Exporting and Presenting Pages.
Leaving Illustrate mode: Diagram and Draw modes do not show article pages. Switching a tab with articles to either asks first: Turn Into Pages makes every article page a Page element on the canvas, holding that page's writing (one step, so Undo brings the articles back); Keep as Articles switches and leaves them for when you come back to Illustrate.

Good to Know

Collaborators see each other's writing as it is typed, and can write in the same article.
People who can only view a tab can read the articles but not edit them.

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