diff --git a/src/RichText.js b/src/RichText.js
index aebd6f5765..31d82ee349 100644
--- a/src/RichText.js
+++ b/src/RichText.js
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@ const MARKDOWN_REGEX = {
     BOLD: /([\*_])\1([\w\s]+?)\1\1/g,
     HR: /(\n|^)((-|\*|_) *){3,}(\n|$)/g,
     CODE: /`[^`]*`/g,
+    STRIKETHROUGH: /~{2}[^~]*~{2}/g,
 };
 
 const USERNAME_REGEX = /@\S+:\S+/g;
@@ -121,7 +122,7 @@ export function getScopedRTDecorators(scope: any): CompositeDecorator {
 }
 
 export function getScopedMDDecorators(scope: any): CompositeDecorator {
-    let markdownDecorators = ['HR', 'BOLD', 'ITALIC', 'CODE'].map(
+    let markdownDecorators = ['HR', 'BOLD', 'ITALIC', 'CODE', 'STRIKETHROUGH'].map(
         (style) => ({
             strategy: (contentBlock, callback) => {
                 return findWithRegex(MARKDOWN_REGEX[style], contentBlock, callback);
diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposer.js b/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposer.js
index fdb6e4e169..fc80bf8a90 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposer.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposer.js
@@ -178,12 +178,11 @@ export default class MessageComposer extends React.Component {
     onToggleFormattingClicked() {
         UserSettingsStore.setSyncedSetting('MessageComposer.showFormatting', !this.state.showFormatting);
         this.setState({showFormatting: !this.state.showFormatting});
-        this.messageComposerInput.focus();
     }
 
-    onToggleMarkdownClicked() {
+    onToggleMarkdownClicked(e) {
+        e.preventDefault(); // don't steal focus from the editor!
         this.messageComposerInput.enableRichtext(!this.state.inputState.isRichtextEnabled);
-        this.messageComposerInput.focus();
     }
 
     render() {
@@ -292,13 +291,13 @@ export default class MessageComposer extends React.Component {
                 const active = style.includes(name) || blockType === name;
                 const suffix = active ? '-o-n' : '';
                 const onFormatButtonClicked = this.onFormatButtonClicked.bind(this, name);
-                const disabled = !this.state.inputState.isRichtextEnabled && ['strike', 'underline'].includes(name);
+                const disabled = !this.state.inputState.isRichtextEnabled && 'underline' === name;
                 const className = classNames("mx_MessageComposer_format_button", {
                     mx_MessageComposer_format_button_disabled: disabled,
                 });
                 return <img className={className}
                             title={name}
-                            onClick={disabled ? null : onFormatButtonClicked}
+                            onMouseDown={disabled ? null : onFormatButtonClicked}
                             key={name}
                             src={`img/button-text-${name}${suffix}.svg`}
                             height="17" />;
@@ -319,7 +318,7 @@ export default class MessageComposer extends React.Component {
                             {formatButtons}
                             <div style={{flex: 1}}></div>
                             <img title={`Turn Markdown ${this.state.inputState.isRichtextEnabled ? 'on' : 'off'}`}
-                                 onClick={this.onToggleMarkdownClicked}
+                                 onMouseDown={this.onToggleMarkdownClicked}
                                 className="mx_MessageComposer_formatbar_markdown"
                                 src={`img/button-md-${!this.state.inputState.isRichtextEnabled}.png`} />
                             <img title="Hide Text Formatting Toolbar"
diff --git a/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposerInput.js b/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposerInput.js
index b7a9494a2c..040afe7103 100644
--- a/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposerInput.js
+++ b/src/components/views/rooms/MessageComposerInput.js
@@ -83,7 +83,6 @@ export default class MessageComposerInput extends React.Component {
     constructor(props, context) {
         super(props, context);
         this.onAction = this.onAction.bind(this);
-        this.focus = this.focus.bind(this);
         this.handleReturn = this.handleReturn.bind(this);
         this.handleKeyCommand = this.handleKeyCommand.bind(this);
         this.setEditorState = this.setEditorState.bind(this);
@@ -378,13 +377,10 @@ export default class MessageComposerInput extends React.Component {
         }
     }
 
-    focus(ev) {
-        this.refs.editor.focus();
-    }
 
-    setEditorState(editorState: EditorState) {
+    setEditorState(editorState: EditorState, cb = () => null) {
         editorState = RichText.attachImmutableEntitiesToEmoji(editorState);
-        this.setState({editorState});
+        this.setState({editorState}, cb);
 
         if (editorState.getCurrentContent().hasText()) {
             this.onTypingActivity();
@@ -402,19 +398,20 @@ export default class MessageComposerInput extends React.Component {
     }
 
     enableRichtext(enabled: boolean) {
+        let contentState = null;
         if (enabled) {
             const html = mdownToHtml(this.state.editorState.getCurrentContent().getPlainText());
-            const contentState = RichText.HTMLtoContentState(html);
-            this.setEditorState(this.createEditorState(enabled, contentState));
+            contentState = RichText.HTMLtoContentState(html);
         } else {
             let markdown = stateToMarkdown(this.state.editorState.getCurrentContent());
             markdown = markdown.substring(0, markdown.length - 1); // stateToMarkdown tacks on an extra newline (?!?)
-            const contentState = ContentState.createFromText(markdown);
-            this.setEditorState(this.createEditorState(enabled, contentState));
+            contentState = ContentState.createFromText(markdown);
         }
 
-        this.setState({
-            isRichtextEnabled: enabled,
+        this.setEditorState(this.createEditorState(enabled, contentState), () => {
+            this.setState({
+                isRichtextEnabled: enabled,
+            });
         });
 
         UserSettingsStore.setSyncedSetting('MessageComposerInput.isRichTextEnabled', enabled);
@@ -447,6 +444,7 @@ export default class MessageComposerInput extends React.Component {
                 bold: text => `**${text}**`,
                 italic: text => `*${text}*`,
                 underline: text => `_${text}_`, // there's actually no valid underline in Markdown, but *shrug*
+                strike: text => `~~${text}~~`,
                 code: text => `\`${text}\``,
                 blockquote: text => text.split('\n').map(line => `> ${line}\n`).join(''),
                 'unordered-list-item': text => text.split('\n').map(line => `- ${line}\n`).join(''),
@@ -590,6 +588,7 @@ export default class MessageComposerInput extends React.Component {
     }
 
     onFormatButtonClicked(name: "bold" | "italic" | "strike" | "code" | "underline" | "quote" | "bullet" | "numbullet", e) {
+        e.preventDefault(); // don't steal focus from the editor!
         const command = {
             code: 'code-block',
             quote: 'blockquote',
@@ -631,8 +630,9 @@ export default class MessageComposerInput extends React.Component {
         };
     }
 
-    onMarkdownToggleClicked() {
-        this.enableRichtext(!this.state.isRichtextEnabled);
+    onMarkdownToggleClicked(e) {
+        e.preventDefault(); // don't steal focus from the editor!
+        this.handleKeyCommand('toggle-mode');
     }
 
     render() {
@@ -654,10 +654,9 @@ export default class MessageComposerInput extends React.Component {
         });
 
         return (
-            <div className={className}
-                 onClick={ this.focus }>
+            <div className={className}>
                 <img className="mx_MessageComposer_input_markdownIndicator"
-                     onClick={this.onMarkdownToggleClicked}
+                     onMouseDown={this.onMarkdownToggleClicked}
                      title={`Markdown is ${this.state.isRichtextEnabled ? 'disabled' : 'enabled'}`}
                      src={`img/button-md-${!this.state.isRichtextEnabled}.png`} />
                 <Editor ref="editor"