CLion 2021.2 Help

Tool windows

Tool windows provide access to useful development tasks: viewing your project structure, running and debugging your application, integration with version control systems and other external tools, code analysis, search, and navigation, and so on. By default, tool windows are attached to the bottom and sides of the main window. However, you can rearrange and even detach them to use as separate windows, for example, on another monitor.

The following screenshot shows several common tool windows occupying space around the editor:

Tool windows examples
  1. Project tool window

  2. CMake tool window

  3. Git Commit tool window

  4. Structure tool window

Some tool windows are always available, some are activated when a specific plugin is enabled, and some appear only when you perform a certain action.

Open a tool window

To show or hide a tool window, do one of the following:

  • From the main menu, select a tool window under View | Tool Windows.

  • Use the corresponding shortcut, for example, Alt+1 to open the Project tool window. If there is no shortcut for a tool window, you can assign it as described in Keyboard shortcuts.

  • Click the corresponding tool window button on the tool window bar.

    Tool window bar

  • Hover the mouse pointer over the quick access button Icon for quick access to tool windows/ the Tool windows icon in the lower left corner of the main window and select a tool window.

    Quick access to tool windows

Hide the active tool window

  • Press Shift+Escape or select Window | Active Tool Window | Hide Active Tool Window from the main menu. Press Shift+Escape again to show the hidden tool window.

Hide all tool windows

This can help you focus on the editor.

  • Press Ctrl+Shift+F12 or select Window | Active Tool Window | Hide All Windows from the main menu. Press Ctrl+Shift+F12 again to show the hidden tool windows.

    Also, you can use the Maximize Editor action that expands area of the editor tab and shrinks areas of split tabs. And alternative action Normalize Splits that allocates equally the split tabs and the editor tab.

  • To change focus from a tool window to the editor, press Escape.

  • To change focus from the editor back to the last active tool window, press F12 or select Window | Active Tool Window | Jump to Last Tool Window from the main menu.

Tool window bars and buttons

Tool window bars on the edges of the main window contain buttons to show and hide tool windows. Right-click a tool window button to open its context menu, where you can change the viewing mode and move the tool window. You can also drag tool window buttons to rearrange tool windows on the bars.

Tool windows bar and buttons

Show or hide tool window bars

  • Click the quick access button Icon for quick access to tool windows in the lower left corner of the main window to hide the tool window bars. The button changes to Icon for quick access to tool windows and you can click it to show the tool window bars.

  • Alternatively, select or clear Tool Window Bars from the main menu under View | Appearance.

When the tool window bars are hidden, you can double-press and hold Alt to show hidden tool window bars.

Tool window components

Generally, all tool windows have a title bar, a toolbar, and a content pane.

Components of a tool window

Some tool windows are also separated using tabs or a dropdown selector in the title bar, based on the functionality that it covers. Select Window | Active Tool Window | Group Tabs to show tabs. Disable this option to show a dropdown menu.

The Project tool window with the Group Tabs option disabled
The Project tool window with the Group Tabs option enabled

The title bar contains the tool window options menu The tool window options menu for changing the viewing mode and the position of the tool window. You can also access these options by right-clicking the title bar or the tool window button. Some tool windows can have other options in this menu, depending on the functionality (for example, to sort, filter, and group items listed in a tool window).

Click the Hide button to hide the tool window and use other buttons that may be on the title bar, for example:

  • The Expand All button and The Collapse All button to expand and collapse the contents of the tool window

  • The Select Opened File button to locate and select the file from the editor in the tool window

Actions from the tool window toolbar are usually also available in the main menu and context menus. Some of them can also be executed with a default shortcut. You can assign shortcuts for actions as described in Keyboard shortcuts.

For all tool windows that display tree-like structures (for example, Project tool window) you can display vertical lines that mark indent levels in tree views and help you better understand the hierarchy of the components in your project. To display these lines, enable Show tree indent guides on the Appearance and Behavior | Appearance page of the IDE settings Ctrl+Alt+S.

You can use the following shortcuts to manage CLion's tool windows:

Hide Active Tool Window

Shift+Escape

Hide All Tool Windows

Ctrl+Shift+F12

Jump to Last Tool Window

F12

Show Project window

Alt+1

Show Favorites window

Alt+2

Show Find window

Alt+3

Show Run window

Alt+4

Show Debug window

Alt+5

Show Problems window

Alt+6

Show Structure window

Alt+7

Show Services window

Alt+8

Show Version Control window

Alt+9

Show Commit window

Alt+0

Show Terminal window

Alt+F12

Show Database window

Ctrl+Alt+3

Last modified: 16 November 2021