Markdown editor for writers, with a touch of AI.
Simple. Customizable. Empowering

Yes, for Mac and Windows. It's the same icanwrite in its own window, and it works whatever your usual browser is. It works offline too: after one launch with a connection, you can open, edit and save your files with no internet. Only AI needs a connection.

Markdown is a lightweight way to format text using simple symbols — headings start with #, bold text is wrapped in **asterisks**, and lists are just lines starting with dashes. It's the standard format for many writing apps because the files are tiny, portable, and readable even without any special software. It's also great for AI. icanwrite is a markdown editor at its core, so every file you create or open is a .md file.

Compile it to EPUB and import. EPUB carries chapter boundaries and inline formatting, so the book comes across in one go. In Scrivener: File → Compile…, set Compile for to ePub 3, check that your chapters use a section layout that outputs a heading, and compile. Then click import EPUB here — each chapter becomes its own file.

Yes — Scrivener can sync your draft into an ordinary folder and read your edits back in. And that folder is all icanwrite needs. In Scrivener: File → Sync → with External Folder…, tick Sync the contents of the Draft folder, and set the format for external Draft files to Plain Text (.txt). Then add the Draft subfolder Scrivener created here. The trade-off is formatting: plain text carries none, so you'll lose it.

icanwrite isn't as feature-rich as Scrivener but we strive to cover the basics and add more and more in the future. If you're writing a book, consider setting up a separate folder for your drafts. icanwrite will allow you to reorder them, show you word count per folder and even export all the files as one ePub file. When you switch between files, icanwrite even saves your cursor position — just like Scrivener does!

Yes, 100%! You can add the root vault to icanwrite as a folder — or one or a few folders from your vault. Everything will be synced. Whenever you make a change in Obsidian and then return to icanwrite, these changes will be reflected in the editor. And vice versa. One small thing to note: for any added folder, icanwrite will ignore its subfolders and non-markdown files.

icanwrite doesn't make backups. The best way to secure your files and keep track of your changes is by using the app with a Dropbox, Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive folder. For example, if you give icanwrite access to a Dropbox folder, Dropbox will be saving changes in the cloud making sure you can revert changes if things go terribly wrong (but we do hope they never will).