Power tips
Keyboard tricks, name shadowing rules, conditionals, and drafts.
Keyboard and mouse
Start typing a variable name and a suggestion list appears with current values; Tab accepts. Click any result pill to insert a reference to that line. Click a variable chip below the editor to insert its name at the cursor. The Insert menu in the toolbar drops any example from these docs straight into your document.
Your names always win
If you name a variable total, km, today, pie, or anything else the language uses, your variable takes over from that point on. Three deliberate exceptions keep things sane: 45k stays 45,000 even if k is a variable (write 45 k with a space to multiply), a conversion like 5 km a millas still converts even if a is a variable, and date phrases like days until keep working even if days is one.
Conditionals
Decisions read like sentences. Only the branch that applies is evaluated, and a comparison on its own gives true or false.
Sliders
Write slider(min, max) anywhere a number would go and it becomes a draggable control. The line, and anything that depends on it, recalculates live as you drag. Add a step as a third number, like slider(0, 100, 5). A tip = slider(0, 30, 1, 15) line starts at 15 and lets you sweep the tip from 0 to 30. The current value is stored right in the text, so a shared link, a fork, or an exported image all keep exactly where you left the handle. To change the range or the step, or to remove a slider, click on its line: the slider(...) text reappears so you can edit it, and it turns back into a control the moment you move off the line.
Drafts, templates and errors
The ✨ button opens the assistant: describe a problem in plain words and it writes the document for you — every number still computed live by OtterCalc, every line editable, and you can keep asking for changes. Your work on the home page saves itself locally as you type and survives closing the tab. The Templates gallery gives you a working document to bend. Error messages point at the exact problem: Unknown means a name is not defined (check for typos), and Units do not match means you asked for math across incompatible kinds. A word sitting right after a quantity is just a label: 4 nights or 180 EUR per person compute on the number and leave the word alone, as Soulver does.