Write in the editor

Open a guide and its Pages tab is the editor: the page tree on the left, the page in the middle, and the page's settings and history on the right.

Only people with the Editor, Reviewer or Admin role can edit. Viewers see the same screen with View only in the bar. See Members and roles.

Above the text, every page has:

• an icon, shown beside the page in the sidebar
• the title (Page title), the page's heading and its name in the sidebar and search
• a description: one sentence shown under the title and in search results

The Visual / Markdown switch in the bar changes how you edit, not what's saved. Markdown shows the page as the file it is: a front matter block with title, description and icon, then the body. Markdrop Guides remembers your choice in this browser.

The Markdown is the same format docs.markdrop.in is written in: callouts are :::note, steps are ::::steps, tabs are ::::tabs and so on. Anything the visual editor can't show as a block, it keeps exactly as written and labels "Edit it in Markdown mode".

Preview opens a quick look at the draft. Callouts, steps and tabs render fully on the published guide.

Type / on a new line, or after a space, to insert a block. Keep typing to filter, like /tip or /code, then press Enter. (It doesn't open inside code blocks and tables.)

You can also use the + beside any block (Add a block below), or drag the grip beside it to move it. Click the grip for Move up, Move down, Duplicate and Delete. Alt + Shift + ↑ or ↓ moves the block with the keyboard.

Select text for the formatting bar: bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code, keyboard key, link, heading and subheading. A link can be a page of the guide (/guides/alert-rules), a section (#install) or any https:// address.

The menu also lists Video, Clip, Embed and API endpoint. They come from the engine Markdrop's own docs use. On a guide, an embedded page shows as a link card, and an API endpoint shows as a card with the method and path you type. With an API reference, the block offers your file's endpoints, and the card links to the endpoint's page.

Add an Image block, then Upload an image, drop one onto it, or paste an image address. A file can be up to 25 MB. Select the image for its tools:

• Alt text: what the image shows, for people who can't see it. "(missing)" means there's none yet.
• Add a caption under the image.
• Replace uploads a new image in its place.
• Add dark version: an image to show instead when the reader has the guide in the dark theme, like a screenshot taken in dark mode. Readers see the one that matches their theme.

There's no Save button. Drafts save themselves a moment after you stop typing, and the bar says where the draft is: Draft · editing, Saving…, then Draft · saved with the time. Not saved · retry means the save didn't go through: choose it to try again. Every save is a version in the page's history.

Saved drafts aren't public. Readers see a change after the next publish. A dot beside a page in the tree marks unpublished changes.

While you have a page open, it's yours to edit. Anyone else who opens it sees Read only, a lock beside the page in the tree with your name, and a note that it opens for editing when you're done. Leaving the page lets go of it. If your browser closes without leaving, the page frees itself two minutes later.

A Guides admin can choose Take over. The other person's unsaved typing is lost, and they see a banner saying who took over the page, with Copy my text (their text to the clipboard), Load their version and, for admins, Take it back.

If the page was saved by someone else since you opened it, Markdrop Guides stops and asks, in Someone saved a newer version:

• Keep mine saves your text as the newest version. Theirs stays in the history.
• Use their version drops your unsaved changes.
• Copy my text puts your text on the clipboard first.