Tips and tricks

Using the editor to make your story stand out.

Create lists. You can start a bulleted list by typing a dash or asterisk, and then your first item. Once you hit Enter, the list will be reformatted for you. (To start a numbered list, type “1.” and your first item.)

Two types of quotes. Select any text in the editor and click on the quote icon in the menu to make it a block quote. Click the icon again to make it a pull quote.

Drop caps. Select the first letter of a paragraph, and an option to turn it into a drop cap will appear in your formatting menu.

Mention people. Type @ and then the name of the person you want to mention. Mentioning someone will link to their profile and send them a notification when you publish.

Embed tweets. In the Medium editor, you can embed a tweet in your story by pasting in its link and pressing Enter.

Embed other Medium stories. In the Medium editor, you can embed another Medium story by pasting in its link and pressing Enter.

Keyboard shortcuts in the editor. Use the Medium editor like a pro: Press Ctrl+? or ⌘+? while editing to see the list of keyboard shortcuts.

Leave yourself TK notes. Write “TK” anywhere in your story as a placeholder and reminder to yourself to finish something later. Medium will warn you if you have any TKs left before you hit Publish.

See word count. In the Medium editor, select the entire story (Ctrl+A or ⌘+A) or any of its parts to see the word count at the top of the page.

Write or edit from mobile. Download Medium’s iOS app or Android appand write — or edit — on the go.

Images

Image options. In the Medium editor, click on any image to bring up the menu that allows you to change the size and position of the image.

Image grids. You can create an image grid if you insert two or more images in your Medium story at the same time. Do this by holding Ctrl/⌘ or Shift while selecting image files.

Drag and drop images. You can drag and drop an image — or multiple images at once — from your desktop or other windows to place them in your story.

Link images. Click on an image in the editor and press Ctrl+K or ⌘+K to turn the image into a link.

Feature an image on your story. Click on an image and press ⌘+Opt+8 to make sure this image will show up in a preview on various Medium listings.

Publishing your story

Revision history. Click on the […] in the upper right corner of the editor, and then on Revision history to see the version history of your story. You can then view or revert to an earlier version of your story.

Publish as unlisted. Did you know? You can publish a story as unlisted on Medium. It will be visible only to those who have its link, and it won’t appear on your profile or on Medium’s public pages.

Customize title and subtitle of your story. After finishing your story, click the […] button and select Title/subtitle. Select Custom title. You must have a title, but a subtitle is optional.

Checking on/Influencing your story’s impact

Feature a story on your profile. Click on the down arrow next to any story on your profile page to feature it so that it occupies the top spot.

Tag a story. When you add a tag to your story, it will appear in the streams of people following that tag and on that tag’s page.

Your stats page. Go to your stats page to see an up-to-date summary of how your stories are doing (including the number of people who viewed, read, and recommended them).

Referrers on your stats page. On your stats page, click Referrers below the title of any story to see the websites your readers are coming from.

See the Twitter conversation about your story. When you click onReferrers below any story on your stats page, you may see Twitter as a referrer. If you click on Twitter, you can see tweets about that particular story.

Text shots. Use text shots to share the best parts of your story on Twitter. Stories shared with text shots have been shown to have 3–5× more engagement than stories without them.

Input/output

Share your draft to get feedback. Send drafts of stories you’re working on to your friends by clicking on Share. They’ll be able to read your draft (and leave private notes if they have a Medium account).

See all the recommends. On any published story, click the number next to the heart icon to see a list of everyone who has recommended the story.

Import your story from elsewhere. Use our import feature (accessible from the dropdown menu after clicking your avatar) to bring a story you published somewhere else to Medium automatically. You can preview and edit it before publishing it.

Export your stories. At any point, you can download an archive of all your stories from the export page (accessible from your settings).