Summary

The web content provides an overview of hidden features and keyboard shortcuts within the Medium Editor, enhancing the writing experience with tools like word count, placeholders, and formatting.

Abstract

The article titled "Tricks In The Medium Editor You Didn’t Know About" unveils a variety of lesser-known functionalities available in the Medium Editor, such as a built-in word count, the use of emoticons, and a placeholder denoted by "TK." It explains how to access a "magic box" of keyboard shortcuts using Ctrl + ?, which can facilitate tasks like formatting text, creating lists, and inserting media. The author emphasizes the utility of the "TK" placeholder as a reminder for incomplete sections before publishing. Additionally, the article highlights other convenient features like mentioning people with an "@" symbol and provides a brief tutorial on embedding links directly onto text. While some of these features are documented in the editor's help resources, the author shares personal discoveries, such as the word count feature activated by selecting all text (Ctrl + A) and the ability to insert emoticons using specific codes. The overall goal of the article is to simplify and enhance the writing process for Medium users.

Opinions

The author finds the "TK" placeholder particularly useful for marking sections of the text that need further attention before publishing.
The discovery of the keyboard shortcuts cheat sheet was a pleasant surprise for the author, who believes these tools are not widely known among Medium users.
The author expresses appreciation for the undo functionality (Ctrl + Z) in the Medium Editor, highlighting its reliability in recovering from accidental deletions.
There is a sense of excitement about the ease of including emoticons in articles, which adds a playful and expressive element to the writing.
The author admits to not being aware of certain features, such as the notification sent to users when mentioned, suggesting that even experienced writers can learn new tricks.
The article conveys a positive sentiment towards the Medium Editor's capabilities, suggesting that these features contribute to a more efficient and enjoyable writing experience.

Writing

Tricks In The Medium Editor You Didn’t Know About

Build-in word count, emoticons, “TK”, and many more goodies

Sometimes my fingers have their own minds and press different keys than I intend to. So, one time when typing away, in the Medium Editor, this box on the bottom of the page popped up.

Chock full with keyboard shortcuts — a cheat sheet. Who would have known? Well, I am going to spill the beans and tell the world about it.

The Appearance of the Magic Box

The box, full of keyboard shortcuts will pop up with: Ctrl + ?. If you are in the Medium Editor. To remove it repeat or click the cross (top right of the ‘cheat’ box).

Another way to get there is to press the three little dots next to publish. And, all the way at the bottom just above ‘More help’ it says ‘Hints and keyboard shortcuts’. Turns out the “magic box” is hidden in plain sight.

What’s inside?

I am fairly sure you can read, so below is a screenshot of the shortcuts. It includes everything from making things bold to headers and lists.

Click to the right and you will get even more goodies, see below. My personal favourite is ‘TK’. If you write this a bright yellow ‘TK’ will pop up next to your written text.

Now if you hit publish it will remind you that you still have a ‘TK’ note in your story. I use ‘TK’ when I still have to include sources or have to look at it again. It’s a great tool and will even prevent you from publishing your story with parts undone. Awesome.

Some extra’s

Apart from keyboard shortcuts the ‘magic’ box also contains information on some other basics:

How to include images or other media.
How to mention other people by simply writing ‘@’. Oh, by the way, they will get a notification about this. I wasn’t aware of this, oops.
etc. Have a look at it yourself :-)

What is not mentioned in the ‘cheat sheet’

There are two more tricks that I often use. Hopefully, this is not just common knowledge, that will leave me feeling fairly stupid. Anyway I found them by accident too.

The first one is a handy shortcut that will provide you with the number of words you have written. After pressing Ctrl + A , the number will show up in the left top corner — next to the Medium logo.

Be sure not to press delete afterwards. Then it will all be gone. No, don’t worry Ctrl + Z works in the Medium Editor. Saved me a billion times.

The second trick is that if you want to make an embedded link — one that makes a line under the word, you can simply copy the link on the word. Does that makes sense, probably not.

Differently put, select the word(s) where you want to have the link and just pressctrl + V . Be sure to ctrl + C the link first.

I almost forgot…

There is another trick that is not mentioned in the ‘magic box’. I never use this, but if you would like to include emoticons you can do this by typing : followed by a shortcode for the desired emoticon, ending with : again.

For example :smiley: will give you: 😃. Of course, there are more options than a smiley face, here is a list with the codes for various emoticons.

Happy Writing

The above-mentioned shortcuts and tricks definitely made my life writing in the Medium Editor a whole lot simpler. Hopefully, for you too. Now all that's left is writing. Enjoy!