The tool windows are hidden, by default, in Version 13 and later of IDEA. You can toggle them on and off using the button in the bottom-left corner of the screen:

Tool windows are those little "tabs" visible at the edges of the workspace. These edges are called tool window bars, as shown in the following screenshot:

Some of the tool windows are always available, such as Project or Structure, while some of them are available only when the corresponding plugins are enabled.

You can arrange the order of the tool windows by dragging them with your mouse. You can drag the tool window to other screen edges as well.

Tip

There's a fourth tool window bar available at the top of the screen, which is hidden. Just drag any tool window to the top of your workspace to use it, as shown in the following screenshot:

The tool windows have a context menu available when you right-click on them. The context menu contains items specific to a particular tool window and some possible view modes, as shown in the following screenshot:

Split Mode

The tool window will share the tool window bar with other tool windows when it has Split Mode enabled. This gives you the ability to see two tool windows at once. It's nice to see the project structure and file structure at the same time, as shown in the following screenshot:

When you use the Ctrl + left-click (PC) or cmd + left-click (Mac) keyboard shortcuts, the splitter between the two tool windows is displayed at once; IntelliJ IDEA will switch them to the wide screen mode and display them in a horizontal layout. It is priceless when you work on a fancy panoramic display and would like to use the screen space effectively, as shown in the following screenshot:

Tip

You can quickly go to the specific tool window by using the mnemonic shortcut displayed before its name, for example, Alt + 1 (PC) or cmd + 1 (MAC) will take you to the Project tool window. It works for hidden tool windows, too.

Some tool windows have more than one view available. For example, the Project tool window can show Project, Packages, or Problems, as shown in the following screenshot:

These views can be made visible as separate tabs by selecting Show views as tabs in the tool window context menu:

When you have your tool windows set up, it may be a good idea to back up your current layout. You can save the way the tool windows are currently arranged by navigating to Window | Store Current Layout as Default in the main menu. You can always load the saved workspace layout by navigating to Window | Restore Default Layout or pressing Shift + F12.

You can quickly open your last active tool window by using the F12 (PC) or Fn + F12 (Mac) keyboard shortcut. To make this shortcut work on Mac, you first need to adjust the F12 system shortcut behavior in the System Preferences window available in the Apple menu. To quickly hide/unhide all tool windows and focus on the editor, press Ctrl + Shift+ F12 (PC) or cmd + Fn + Shift + F12 (Mac).

When switched off, you can temporarily show the tool window bars by pressing the left Alt key (PC) twice or tapping and holding down the left cmd button (Mac). This way, you can switch tool windows swiftly and save screen space at the same time.

Navigating inside the tool window

If the tool window contains a list (and most of them do, actually) to navigate or search inside the tool window, focus on the tool window, and just start typing the search text. It doesn't matter if it is a project or another tool window: IntelliJ IDEA will search for the characters you typed on the fly, as shown in the following screenshot:

Tool windows set up for a specific project

There is a very useful plugin you can find in the IntelliJ IDEA plugin repository named ToolWindow manager. We will talk more about installing plugins later in this chapter.

This plugin makes tool window buttons available to be controlled on a per-project basis. It allows the creation of tool window profiles, that is, you can set specific tool windows to be hidden for one project and shown for another. This is the way to keep your IDE clean and tidy.

To access the settings, go to Window | Tool Window Management | Configure Preferred Availabilities from the main menu, as shown in the following screenshot:

Next, set up preferences for particular tool windows. Select Hide to switch off the specific tool window and Show to turn it on, as shown in the following screenshot:

An important part of the workspace is the editor tabs. They represent opened files and have a context menu with file-specific options, such as adding a file to a favorites list or using version control on the file.

Tabs are great to switch files, but there is a drawback here. They occupy some of the editor space when you have many files opened. The limit of the visible tab count can be set by navigating to Settings | Editor | General | Editor tabs (PC) or IntelliJ IDEA | Preferences | Editor | Editor tabs (Mac) dialog box. IntelliJ IDEA autocloses tabs if the tab count exceeds the defined limit. This is a very useful feature to reduce the tab clutter. IntelliJ IDEA will always close the least used tab.

Consider switching tabs off completely. It may sound a little weird at the beginning, but when you develop the habit of using keyboard shortcuts to navigate through opened files, you will not need tabs, and will regain some of the valuable editor space.

The settings dialog is available from the main menu by navigating to File | Settings (PC) or IntelliJ IDEA | Preferences (Mac). You can also use the wrench icon on the toolbar or Ctrl + Alt + S (PC) or cmd + , (Mac) keyboard shortcuts. All of the settings are divided into two groups: one for project-specific settings (such as code style, version control, and so on) and one for global, IDE settings (such as appearance or HTTP proxy, for example).

There are many options here. The good thing is you can use the search field to search for a specific option. Just start typing the option name and the dialog box will be searched from top to bottom to present you the result.

For example, if you introduce a "typo" in the search box, you will be presented with the Inspection project settings, where you can turn the Spelling/Typo inspection option off. In the Editor/Colors & Font/General section, you can change colors for misspelled words.

IntelliJ IDEA is a keyboard-centric IDE. Any action you can do by using your mouse, you can do by using the keyboard as well.

It's possible to completely redefine default IntelliJ IDEA keymaps to suit your needs. The keyboard shortcuts configuration is available in the Keymap section in the IDE settings.

There are some predefined keymaps available. Whether you come from using Eclipse or NetBeans, you can find your well-known keymap here and apply it. Please note that predefined keymaps are not editable. To modify the keymap, you must create and edit a copy.

When defining a new keyboard shortcut, the Second Stroke keyboard shortcut editor feature is very useful. You can use this to set up double strokes, easy to remember keyboard shortcuts, or even shortcut groups. You can define your base shortcut, such as Ctrl + Shift + O for example, and then numbers as second strokes, as shown in the following screenshot:

The Abbreviation option in the keyboard shortcut editor is used to quickly find the Search Everything (double Shift) dialog box. The Search Everything dialog box will be discussed in Chapter 3, The Editor.

In IntelliJ IDEA, you can change your preferable colors and font's layout for syntax and error highlighting in the editor, search results, debugger, and consoles.

To do this, open Editor and then Colors & Fonts in the IDE settings dialog box.

IntelliJ IDEA comes with some predefined color schemes. You can select one of them, or create your own, and configure its settings to your liking.

Note that you are not allowed to change any of the predefined schemes. If you decide to tweak the existing theme, you have to copy it first. To change the editor font, select Font from the Colors & Fonts section of the IDE settings page.

For example, if you use the Darcula IDE theme, the Obsidian color scheme looks good, as shown in the following screenshot:

The IntelliJ IDEA plugin repository is available on the Internet at http://plugins.jetbrains.com/?idea or from the IDE itself, by going to the Plugins section in the Settings page. Going to the Plugins section in the IDE is more convenient in comparison to the Internet repository. All you have to do is find your plugin, install, and restart the IDE.

To install JetBrains' plugin, click on the Install JetBrains plugin… button. To install a third-party plugin, choose Browse repositories. In the next dialog box, you can filter the available plugins by category, or find a specific plugin just by typing its name.

Tip

You can sort the list of plugins by the download count or rating to see the most popular (and probably the most useful) plugins at the top of the list:

To deactivate the installed plugin, uncheck the checkbox next to its name. To uninstall the plugin, use the context menu, but take note that bundled JetBrains plugins cannot be uninstalled from within the IDE, as shown here:

Some of the plugins add new languages to the IntelliJ IDEA arsenal. If you develop in a language other than Java, just filter the plugins list using the Custom Languages option. When you install the plugins, the on-the-fly analysis, hints, and refactoring will be available in your IDE. These plugins include, for example, Scala, Python, Ruby, PHP, and many others.

The next huge group of plugins is available when you filter using Framework Integration. There is a big chance you will find support for the framework you use in your project, such as AngularJS or Play, for example.

If you are new to IntelliJ IDEA, there is a plugin that is especially useful called Key promoter. It will show you a banner with the keyboard shortcut for the action you just performed using the mouse. It will help you memorize keyboard shortcuts and quickly become a keyboard ninja:

Feel free to browse JetBrains and the third-party plugins directory. It's a real gold mine to extend the IDE functionality. Select the plugin, read the description to the right, click on Install, restart the IDE, and you're all set.

If you have your IDE set the way you like, it may be a good idea to back up all settings. Sometimes, it's good to have common settings across all team members. IntelliJ IDEA gives you the ability to archive and export all or specific settings.

To export IDE settings to a JAR archive, do the following:

To import IDE settings from a JAR archive, do the following:

You should be really careful with importing settings. Importing a set of settings will overwrite all your settings with the imported set. For example, if you export some live templates and reimport them during a colleague's installation, the import will overwrite all their live templates with the imported ones.

Sometimes it's good to have the same configuration across all members of your team, organization, or the company. For this purpose, IntelliJ IDEA can use a server to store IDE settings and share them within your team.

To do this, first download the IntelliJ Configuration Server plugin, using the Plugins page of the Settings dialog box.

To connect to the IntelliJ Configuration Server, use your JetBrains account. If you don't have the account, you can create one on the JetBrains website using the link provided in the login dialog.

You can connect to IntelliJ Configuration Server in two ways: during the first startup or on demand.

During the first IntelliJ IDEA startup after installing the plugin, you can select the connection option for the next startup, such as Show login dialog, Login silently, or Do not login.

When the configuration server is connected, the green icon is displayed in the status bar, as shown in the following screenshot:

Otherwise, the red icon will be presented:

You can log in to the IntelliJ Configuration Server at any time using the button on the status bar.

The IntelliJ IDEA server stores almost all of the IDE and project settings except for those containing local paths. Your code style settings, keymaps, fonts, color schemes, and inspection profiles will be synced.

Take note that the IntelliJ IDEA server is a public, third-party server. It's secured by a username and password and uses SSL communication, but if you are very concerned about your privacy, you should share your settings using the export/import feature rather than the IntelliJ Configuration Server.

IDEA's Virtual Machine settings are usually very good out of the box. However, when you work on a specific huge project and decide that you want to tweak IntelliJ IDEA's own virtual machine settings, you can change that in the following locations, depending on your operating system.

On Windows, you can tweak IntelliJ IDEA's own virtual machine settings by executing the following code:

<IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea.exe.vmoptions

Alternatively, you can use the following code:

<IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea64.exe.vmoptions

On Linux and Unix systems, you can tweak IntelliJ IDEA's own virtual machine settings by executing the following code:

<IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea.vmoptions

Alternatively, you can use the following code:

<IntelliJ IDEA installation folder>/bin/idea64.vmoptions

On OS X, since Version 12, the file /Applications/IntelliJ IDEA.app/Contents/bin/idea.vmoptions should be copied to the following path:

~/Library/Preferences/IntelliJIdeaXX/idea.vmopti ons

In this file, you can find, or change, Java Virtual Machine settings that IntelliJ IDEA runs on. For example, to increase the IntelliJ IDEA heap size, modify the -Xmx setting. If you keep getting an OutOfMemoryError message in the PermGen space exceptions, try changing the -XX:MaxPermSize setting.