PyCharm 2017.1 Help

Part 5. Navigating to the UI Elements

In this section:

Introduction

In this tutorial, we'll explore the various types of navigation between the elements of PyCharm's UI.

Using the Switcher

The Switcher works same as Alt+Tab/ ⌘+Tab and is an extremely efficient pop-up.

/help/img/idea/2017.1/py_switcher.png

To show this pop-up, press Ctrl+Tab - and keep holding Ctrl. As soon as you release the Ctrl button, the Switcher disappears, leaving you with what you've just selected.

While the Switcher is visible, move around with the arrow keys, or Tab/ Shift+Tab to move forward/backwards through the Switcher columns.

Jumping between PyCharm's components

Suppose you've selected a class member in the editor, and would like to find it in the Project view. This is how it's done...

Place the caret at the method feeds of the class Mammalia.py, and press Alt+F1 (Navigate | Select In...). From the list of available components, choose Project View, and then Project.

/help/img/idea/2017.1/py_selectTarget.png

The caret resides at method feeds of the class Mammalia.py in the Project View:

/help/img/idea/2017.1/py_selectTarget_1.png

You only have to make sure that the option Show Members is selected:

/help/img/idea/2017.1/py_selectTarget_2.png

Naturally, if this option is not selected, only the class Mammalia.py will get the focus.

If you want to find the opened in the editor file in the File Explorer/Finder, you can also do it using Select In.... Just select the option Reveal in Finder (for macOS) or Show in Explorer (for Windows and *NIX):

/help/img/idea/2017.1/reveal_in_explorer_finder.png

Finally, suppose that a file opened in the editor has some changes that should be pushed to a Git repository. To jump to the Version Control tool window, again press Alt+F1 and choose Changes in the list of components:

/help/img/idea/2017.1/select_target_changes.png

Summary

This tutorial is over - congrats! Here you've learned how to:

  • Work with the Switcher.
  • Use Select In... functionality to find a file in the Project or Version control tool windows, or to find a file in the Explorer/Finder.

What's next?

Let's summarize everything we've learned in this series of tutorials:

You see that PyCharm has meny navigation facilities. Refer to navigation and search sections of PyCharm documentation.

However, PyCharm provides Django support as well. So if you are a Django developer, proceed with Part 6 and see how to navigate between Django components.

See Also

Last modified: 26 July 2017