Abstract: Technologies are described herein for content authoring based on user intent. During content authoring, intent data can be obtained along with content data. The intent data may be obtained directly from the author or inferred from documents related to the content data. The intent data indicates the author's intent as to how to present the content data without utilizing explicit formatting instructions. A layout may be generated for the content data based on the intent data. Additional data may be utilized to generate the layout, such as the capabilities of a display device and the preferences of the content consumer.