diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 067e4f6b..0325cb84 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@
 [![codecov](https://codecov.io/gh/vkbo/novelWriter/branch/master/graph/badge.svg)](https://codecov.io/gh/vkbo/novelWriter)
 [![Documentation Status](https://readthedocs.org/projects/novelwriter/badge/?version=latest)](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/latest/?badge=latest)
 
-novelWriter is a markdown-like text editor designed fro writing novels and larger projects of many smaller plain text documents.
+novelWriter is a markdown-like text editor designed for writing novels and larger projects of many smaller plain text documents.
 
 The documentation is available here: [novelwriter.readthedocs.io](https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/).
 
@@ -20,6 +20,34 @@ If you do use it for real projects, please run backups frequently to avoid data
 There is a built in backup feature that can pack the entire project into a zip file on close.
 Please check the documentation for further details.
 
+## Markdown Flavour
+
+novelWriter is **not** a full-feature Markdown editor.
+It allows for a minimal set of formatting needed for writing text documents for novels.
+These are currently limited to:
+
+* Headings level 1 to 4 using the `#` syntax only.
+* Bold, italic and underline text.
+* Hard line breaks using two or more spaces at the end of a line.
+
+That is it.
+Features not supported in the editor are also not exported when using the export tool.
+
+In addition, novelWriter adds the following, which is otherwise not supported by Markdown:
+
+* A line starting with `%` is treated as a comment and not rendered on exports unless requested.
+  Comments do not count towards the word count.
+* A set of meta data keyword/value sets starting with the character `@`.
+  This is used for tagging and inter-linking documents.
+* Non-breaking spaces are supported as long as your system is using at least Qt 5.9.
+  For earlier version, non-breaking spaces are converted to normal spaces when saving the document.
+  This is done by the Qt library.
+* Tabs may be rendered, depending on export format.
+
+The core export format that should render properly all supported features is the HTML export.
+This format also forms the basis of conversion to Office type document formats with Pandoc.
+Note that Pandoc itself strips some formatting from the document during conversion, so the final result may be different than expected.
+
 ## Implementation
 
 The application is written in Python3 using Qt5 via PyQt5.
diff --git a/nw/convert/text/tomarkdown.py b/nw/convert/text/tomarkdown.py
index c9ea57b7..da65d863 100644
--- a/nw/convert/text/tomarkdown.py
+++ b/nw/convert/text/tomarkdown.py
@@ -85,7 +85,8 @@ class ToMarkdown(Tokenizer):
             # indicating a new paragraph.
             if tType == self.T_EMPTY:
                 if len(thisPar) > 0:
-                    self.theResult += "%s\n\n" % " ".join(thisPar)
+                    tTemp = "\n".join(thisPar)
+                    self.theResult += "%s\n\n" % tTemp.rstrip()
                 thisPar = []
 
             elif tType == self.T_HEAD1:
@@ -104,7 +105,7 @@ class ToMarkdown(Tokenizer):
                 self.theResult += "%s\n\n" % tText
 
             elif tType == self.T_SKIP:
-                self.theResult += "\n\n\n\n"
+                self.theResult += "\n\n\n"
 
             elif tType == self.T_TEXT:
                 thisPar.append(tText)
diff --git a/nw/convert/text/totext.py b/nw/convert/text/totext.py
index fa528199..1f98d5e2 100644
--- a/nw/convert/text/totext.py
+++ b/nw/convert/text/totext.py
@@ -122,8 +122,8 @@ class ToText(Tokenizer):
                     tText = self._centreText(tText,self.wordWrap)
                 self.theResult += "%s\n\n" % tText
 
-            elif tType == self.T_SEP:
-                self.theResult += "\n\n\n\n"
+            elif tType == self.T_SKIP:
+                self.theResult += "\n\n\n"
 
             elif tType == self.T_TEXT:
                 thisPar.append(tText)
diff --git a/nw/gui/dialogs/configeditor.py b/nw/gui/dialogs/configeditor.py
index 8d3d4b0f..89bf6992 100644
--- a/nw/gui/dialogs/configeditor.py
+++ b/nw/gui/dialogs/configeditor.py
@@ -44,7 +44,6 @@ class GuiConfigEditor(QDialog):
         self.setWindowTitle("Preferences")
         self.guiDeco = self.theParent.theTheme.loadDecoration("settings",(64,64))
 
-        self.theProject.countStatus()
         self.tabMain   = GuiConfigEditGeneral(self.theParent)
         self.tabEditor = GuiConfigEditEditor(self.theParent)
 
diff --git a/nw/gui/dialogs/export.py b/nw/gui/dialogs/export.py
index 15a8ed7a..8d580f87 100644
--- a/nw/gui/dialogs/export.py
+++ b/nw/gui/dialogs/export.py
@@ -50,7 +50,6 @@ class GuiExport(QDialog):
 
         self.guiDeco = self.theParent.theTheme.loadDecoration("export",(64,64))
 
-        self.theProject.countStatus()
         self.tabMain   = GuiExportMain(self.theParent, self.theProject, self.optState)
         self.tabPandoc = GuiExportPandoc(self.theParent, self.theProject, self.optState)
 
diff --git a/nw/gui/elements/doceditor.py b/nw/gui/elements/doceditor.py
index c8b69df7..3e0aba3c 100644
--- a/nw/gui/elements/doceditor.py
+++ b/nw/gui/elements/doceditor.py
@@ -229,6 +229,14 @@ class GuiDocEditor(QTextEdit):
 
         return True
 
+    def replaceText(self, theText):
+        """Replaces the text of the current document with the provided
+        text. This also clears undo history.
+        """
+        self.setPlainText(theText)
+        self.setDocumentChanged(True)
+        return
+
     def saveText(self):
 
         if self.nwDocument.theItem is None:
diff --git a/nw/guimain.py b/nw/guimain.py
index 853b3e33..95e0c6a3 100644
--- a/nw/guimain.py
+++ b/nw/guimain.py
@@ -417,17 +417,20 @@ class GuiMain(QMainWindow):
         )
         if inPath:
             loadFile = inPath[0]
-            self.mainConf.setLastPath(loadFile)
         else:
             return False
 
+        if loadFile.strip() == "":
+            return False
+
         theText = None
         try:
             with open(loadFile,mode="rt",encoding="utf8") as inFile:
                 theText = inFile.read()
+            self.mainConf.setLastPath(loadFile)
         except Exception as e:
             self.makeAlert(
-                ["Could not read file. The file cannot be a binary file.",str(e)],
+                ["Could not read file. The file must be an existing text file.",str(e)],
                 nwAlert.ERROR
             )
             return False
@@ -451,7 +454,7 @@ class GuiMain(QMainWindow):
             else:
                 return False
 
-        self.docEditor.setText(theText)
+        self.docEditor.replaceText(theText)
 
         return True
 
diff --git a/nw/project/project.py b/nw/project/project.py
index 49105ce8..041029a1 100644
--- a/nw/project/project.py
+++ b/nw/project/project.py
@@ -582,6 +582,9 @@ class NWProject():
         return True
 
     def countStatus(self):
+        """Count how many times the various status flags are used in the
+        project tree.
+        """
         self.statusItems.resetCounts()
         self.importItems.resetCounts()
         for nwItem in self.projTree.values():
diff --git a/nw/project/status.py b/nw/project/status.py
index 3edd417a..6e15f5b9 100644
--- a/nw/project/status.py
+++ b/nw/project/status.py
@@ -41,6 +41,8 @@ class NWStatus():
         return True
 
     def lookupEntry(self, theLabel):
+        if theLabel is None:
+            return None
         theLabel = theLabel.strip()
         if theLabel in self.theMap.keys():
             return self.theMap[theLabel]