What the studio leaves out

The dialect is small on purpose, and it does not complain: what it does not read, it shows as you typed it, or drops. This page lists all of it, so that a document never surprises you. The examples are source only — this guide’s own pages read several of them the other way.

1. Shown as typed#

These are Markdown in other places, and plain characters here:

You type	Elsewhere	In the studio you see
`#### Heading`, and deeper	a heading	the line, `####` and all
a heading underlined with `===`	a heading	the words and the `===`, as one paragraph
`## Heading {#id}`, `{.class}`	an address or a class	the braces, in the heading
a fence of three backticks, code, and another fence	a code block	the lines joined into one paragraph, the backticks mangled
a line indented four spaces	a code block	the line, its indentation dropped
`_x_`, `__x__`	italic, bold	the underscores
`~~x~~`	struck through	the tildes
`\*`, `\_`, `\[`	the character	the backslash and the character
`&`, `©`	`&`, `©`	the entity as typed
`<b>html</b>`	bold	the tags, as text
`<!-- a comment -->`	nothing	the comment as text — and the `->` of its `-->` read as an arrow
`<https://…>`, a bare `https://…`	a link	the address, as text
`[text][ref]` and `[ref]: https://…`	a link	both lines, as text
`![a map](images/map.png)` inside a sentence	a picture	`!a map`: the caption, after an exclamation mark
`- [ ] a task`	a checkbox	`[ ] a task`
`Term` and `: its definition` under it	a definition list	`Term : its definition`
$x^2$ , `$x$`, `$$…$$`	a formula, on some sites	the characters — write `[x^2]{math}`
`:::note` … `:::`	a note box, on some sites	the lines, as a paragraph — only `:::exercise` and `:::math` are fences
`{{< figure … >}}`	a Hugo shortcode	the braces, as text
`:smile:`	an emoji	the word between colons — type the emoji
`"quotes"`, `--`, `...`	curly quotes, a dash, an ellipsis	on the screen, as typed; on paper `--` and `---` become – and —, and `"` prints as ” on both sides (Paragraphs)
`[word]{red}`, any name not among the five colours	—	the brackets and the braces, as typed
`[bello]{it}` in a Persian document	—	as typed: only the document’s own code marks its language
`[…]{la}` inside a sentence	—	as typed: a Latin block is a whole paragraph
`[[name]]` outside a fill-in exercise	—	as typed

2. Dropped without a word#

Front matter keys: other than title, subtitle, note, lang and target (Front matter).
Rules: : a line of ---, *** or ___. The sections give a document its shape.
A # heading: when the front matter has a title, and every # heading after the first when it has none.
A subtitle and a note: when there is no title.
The ending = *…* of a ## section title: that is not a vocabulary entry.
Options a mark does not take: : font= for a language without that face, vertical and height= for Persian, Arabic, Hindi and the Latin-script languages, or inside a line; any word in the braces the mark does not know ({tl bogus=1}); a bg= that is not one of the five tints.
The kana of a language without a reading: : kept in the file, shown nowhere.
start= and end= on a picture: , which has no stretch to play.
The cells of a table row beyond the header’s number.
A second paragraph of a footnote: : the note stops at the blank line, and the next paragraph is one of the document’s.

3. Read differently#

A > line is a box: , not a quotation, and a line without > ends it (Boxes).
Lists: : one level of nesting (every deeper item is on that level, and a nested item is always a bullet); the numbers of a numbered list are the studio’s, from 1; a blank line between items makes two lists; a list takes the kind of its first marker (Lists).
A [^name] cited twice: is two notes, not one note cited twice (Footnotes).
Lines are joined with a space: , which Japanese and Chinese do not want: keep each sentence of theirs on one line.
A code span is still read: : `**b**` is a bold b in typewriter type.

4. What swallows the rest#

Three openings run to their closing line, and without one they take everything after them:

Opening	Closed by	Unclosed
the front matter’s `---`	`---`	the whole document is taken into the front matter, and nothing is drawn
`:::math`	`:::`	the rest of the document becomes one formula
`:::exercise`	`:::`	the rest of the document becomes the exercise, which says exercise is missing its closing ::: line

A box that starts with > --- does the same inside the box: it reads the lines to the next > --- as a front matter of its own, and drops them.

5. Rough edges#

A few things do not work as they should yet. Each has a way round:

What happens	The way round
a straight `"` prints as ” on both sides of a word in the PDF, and `--`, `---` as – and — (on the screen all show as typed)	type “ ” – — yourself
a formula after a bracket that is only prose — `[sic]`, `[1]` — in the same paragraph takes the prose into itself (Mathematics)	put the formula first, or on its own
`✗` before a word with letters beyond the Western European accents (`✗gelmiş`) reddens only its first letters	mark the form: `✗[gelmiş]{tl}` in a Latin-script target
`[](https://…)`, a web link with no text, is invisible	give every web link its words
`*both*` draws its bold and italics wrongly nested	choose bold or italic
the notes of one paragraph are numbered with the ones written in place first	keep the two kinds of note in separate paragraphs

A few words the studio shows are Italian, where English would be expected: a wrong picture path’s immagine non valida, a wrong video address’s video non valido, dal and fino a (from, until) on a recording’s card on paper, the heading Note over the list of notes at the end, and the small grey Nota tecnica that ends every document, naming the faces it is set in.