The editor is the center of Nodes. It's a native macOS text editor that speaks plain markdown - clean to look at, quick to type in, and out of your way.

Write in markdown

You write with the same simple marks you already know:

# Heading for titles and sections
**bold** and *italic* for emphasis
- for lists, and 1. for numbered ones
> for quotes
` code ` for inline code, and fenced blocks for longer snippets
| pipes for tables - cells wrap long text, and a wide table breaks out of the reading column to use the full window
$…$ and $…$ for inline and block LaTeX math

There's nothing to toggle and no rich-text surprises - what you write is what's saved.

Prefer not to type the marks? Right-click in the editor and choose Format to insert bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code, a blockquote, a link, a heading, or a list - it writes the same plain marks for you, so the file stays pure markdown.

The editor also lends a hand as you type: it closes brackets for you and keeps lists going - Tab indents, Enter continues a list (or clears an empty marker), and --- expands to a rule. You can turn either helper off in Settings ▸ General.

Make it comfortable

Zoom the text with ⌘+ and ⌘−, and return to Actual Size with ⌘0.
Find in Document with ⌘F to jump around inside a long note; use ⌘↓ and ⌘↑ to step through matches, and Esc to close.
Lock for Editing with ⇧⌘R when you want to read a note without changing it by accident.
Flow clears everything but the words when you need to concentrate - a writing stream just for markdown notes. Enter it from View ▸ Flow or the sidebar's Flow chip, and press Esc to leave.
Delete Note with ⌘D (also in File ▸ Delete Note) when a note has run its course - Nodes asks before anything is removed.

Inspect a note

Open the Node Inspector with ⌘I to see a note's details at a glance. Its heading stays in view, and three numbered sections unfold beneath it - 01 Tags, 02 Description, and 03 Links - open the ones you care about and Nodes remembers your choice. A quiet footer notes when the note was created and last edited. It's the quickest way to understand how a note sits within the rest of your library.