Write anything

There is one editor in dotby, and you meet it everywhere: a task description, a comment, a chat message, a wiki page. Learn it once and it works the same in all four places.

This guide is the whole thing in one read.

Type / on an empty line and a menu appears. Keep typing to filter it, press Enter to insert.

Block	What it is
Heading 1, 2, 3	Section titles. They also build the page outline.
Bulleted list	The everyday list.
Numbered list	When order matters.
To-do list	Checkboxes you can tick inside the text.
Quote	A pulled-out passage.
Code block	Syntax-highlighted code, with a language picker.
Callout	A colored box for a warning, a note, a tip.
Toggle	A collapsible section. Hides detail without deleting it.
Table	A real table — rows, columns, and header cells.
Math	A LaTeX formula, inline or as its own block.
Divider	A horizontal rule.
Image	Upload or paste a picture.
Whiteboard	A canvas, embedded right in the text.

The last two entries only appear where they make sense. A whiteboard block is offered on pages, not in a two-line chat message.

Turn anything into anything

Every block can become a different block. Select the text, open Turn into from the toolbar, and pick.

A paragraph becomes a heading. A bulleted list becomes a to-do list. A quote becomes a callout. Nothing is retyped, and nothing is lost — the words stay, the container changes.

Move blocks by hand

Hover the left edge of any block and a grip appears. Drag it and the block moves — above, below, into a toggle, out of a list.

This is the fastest way to restructure a long description. Write everything down first, order it afterwards.

Mentions: one key, four things

@ is the only key you need to link anything into your text. Press it again to go one level deeper, or click the tab in the popup.

You type	You get
`@`	People — teammates, teams, `@everyone`
`@@`	Tasks — by number or title
`@@@`	Pages — any doc in the workspace
`@@@@`	Files — anything already attached

What you drop in stays live. A task mention shows the task’s current title and status, not a snapshot of what it was called the day you typed it. Rename the task and every mention of it updates.

Mentioning a person notifies them, wherever the mention lives — a task, a comment, a chat message, a wiki page. They get a preview of the exact paragraph they were pinged in, so they know what it is about before they click.

Text formatting

Select any text and the toolbar appears above it.

Control	Notes
Bold, italic, underline, strikethrough	The usual, with the usual shortcuts.
Text color	Eight colors, first-click swatches.
Highlight	Eight highlight colors, separate from text color.
Link	Paste a URL over selected text to link it.
Turn into	Change the block type.
Alignment	Left, center, right.
Create task	Turns the selected text into a new task.

That last one is worth knowing. Select a sentence in a meeting note, click Create task, and you get a real task with the title prefilled and a link back to where it was said.

If you would rather keep the toolbar visible all the time, pin it. The choice follows you across devices.

Typing shortcuts

The editor rewrites common patterns as you type, so you rarely reach for the menu.

You type	You get
`#`	Heading 1
`##`	Heading 2
`-` or `*`	Bulleted list
`1.`	Numbered list
`[]`	To-do item
`>`	Quote
```	Code block
`--`	An em dash
`"quote"`	Curly quotes
`:` then a name	Emoji picker — `:tada`

Paste behaves itself

Paste is where most editors let you down. This one tries not to.

A URL over selected text becomes a link on that text.
A bare URL on its own line becomes a preview card, with title and favicon.
A table copied from Excel or Sheets arrives as a real table, not as tab-separated mush.
An image from your clipboard uploads and lands inline.
A multi-line list, pasted into quick-create, becomes one task per line. See Files and attachments for the file side of this.

Code and math

A code block has a language picker and real syntax highlighting. It is the right home for a stack trace, a config snippet, or a query someone needs to run.

Math uses LaTeX. $E = mc^2$ inline, or a math block for a full equation. It renders as you leave the block.

Your writing survives a reload

Long descriptions and half-finished comments are kept as a local draft while you type. Close the tab by accident, come back, and the text is still there.

Wiki pages also show a live character count, which is useful when you are writing to a length.

Files and attachments — images, PDFs, and Office files in the same editor.
Pages and wiki — where long-form writing lives.
Team chat — the same editor, in conversation.