Syntax Highlight

Syntax Highlight on iOS offers an organized perspective of your document and can help refine your writing style.

This feature applies diverse colors to various parts of speech to make them stand out:

Adjectives in brown
Nouns in red
Adverbs in purple
Verbs in blue
Conjunctions in green

You can then easily identify instances of repetition or awkward phrasing.

Syntax Highlight does not modify your content in any way, and the highlighted parts of speech will not be visible in Preview, exported or printed documents. This feature is visible in the Editor only.

What For

Foreign language teachers love it, and so do writers who understand the power of parts of speech. Syntax Highlight is a pro tool that helps you refine your style by drawing attention to:

Adjectives and adverbs: Spot overuse and cut back for sharper writing. Kill the monsters.
Repetitive nouns: Too much repetition makes text feel dull. Repeat nouns consciously.
Conjunctions: Expose weak links and ensure they follow clear logic. Conjunctions seem harmless but they can ruin your text.
Weak verbs: Phrases like “to be” often signal passive voice or nominal style. "To Be or Not to Be" is not the question: Pump up the Jam!

We’ve written a full article on the parts of speech you can spot with Syntax Highlight. It is packed with advice from great authors, practical examples, and tips for applying this feature to your own work. Take 5 minutes to read and improve your style: Using Parts of Speech to Improve Your Writing.

Enable Syntax Highlight

On iOS devices you can enable (or disable) Syntax Highlight via:

AA menu	`Show Syntax`
Settings pane	`Editor` → `Syntax` `Enable All \| Last Used`
Keyboard shortcut	`⇧` `⌘` `D`

Screenshot of Writer for iOS showing the Syntax Highlight menu options.

Parts of Speech

You can specify which parts of speech are highlighted by selecting/deselecting options found in Settings.

In the example below, only adjectives and adverbs have been enabled from the Focus dropdown. This will help you spot clutter or repetitions.

Screenshot of Writer for iOS showing the Syntax Highlight menu options with only Adjectives and Adverbs enabled. Screenshot of Writer for iOS with Syntax Highlight enabled

Languages

Syntax Highlight is available for documents/text in the following languages:

En De Fr Es It Ru

Working With Syntax Highlight

There is no right or wrong way to work with this feature, but from the user's feedback, it seems that enabling Syntax Highlight during the editing phase is the most common. Of course, you can keep it ON at any time in your writing process.

Syntax Highlight pairs effectively with Focus Mode, helping you grasp the structure down to the sentence level.

A similar feature to Syntax Highlight that can be activated concurrently is Style Check, crossing out fillers, clichés, and redundancies.

Screenshot of Writer for iOS with Syntax Highlight and Focus Mode enabled

For further tips on how to write, you can check those various blog posts from our website, grouped in our Writer How To.

Editor

Authorship

Highlight the text you craft yourself and keep track of your sources, artificial or natural.

Focus Mode

Style Check

A personal editor-in-chief on your device, carefully reviewing your text for redundancies, clichés, and filler words.

Stats

Metadata

A simple key-value format for storing additional information about a document, only visible in the Editor.

Smart Automation

Auto text completion and transformation: focus on your writing, without getting bogged down by minor details.