IntelliJ IDEA 2018.2 Help

Viewing Inline Documentation

Quick Documentation Lookup helps you get quick information for any symbol or just method signature information, provided that this symbol has been supplied with documentation comments in the applicable format.

IntelliJ IDEA recognizes inline documentation created in accordance with Javadoc markup.

In this case, such documentation is properly rendered in the Quick Documentation Lookup pop-up window:

quick docs example

For markup languages, IntelliJ IDEA retrieves reference from the language specification according to the Document Type setting.

The URLs and e-mail addresses specified in the documentation comments for methods are also properly rendered. Clicking a hyperlink opens the corresponding URL in an external browser; clicking an e-mail address opens the default mail client.

When you explicitly invoke code completion, then quick documentation for an entry selected in the suggestion list can be displayed automatically. The behavior of quick documentation lookup is configured in the Show documentation popup in field on the Code Completion page of the Settings/Preferences dialog.

View documentation for a symbol at caret

  • On the main menu, choose View | Quick Documentation Lookup.

  • Press Ctrl+Q.

  • Provided that the checkbox Show quick doc on mouse move in the editor settings is selected, just move your mouse pointer over the desired symbol.

Change the font size of quick documentation

  • Click Quick Documentation Settings in the upper-right corner of the quick documentation window, and move the slider.

  • Rotate the mouse wheel while keeping the Ctrl key pressed.

    Note that for this feature to work, you have to enable it in the General page of the editor settings.

    Refer to the section Editor settings for details.

Last modified: 20 November 2018

See Also