IntelliJ IDEA 2020.2 Help

Project settings

Project settings apply to the current project only. They are stored together with other project files in the .idea directory in the .xml format. For example, projects keep VCS settings, code style spellchecker settings, the list of language injections, and so on. These settings are placed under version control automatically together with your application code when you send it to your VCS.

To configure project settings, select IntelliJ IDEA | Preferences for macOS (Ctrl+Alt+S) or File | Settings for Windows and Linux.

In the Settings/Preferences dialog, settings that are marked with the Project configurable icon apply only to the current project. Other settings are global and apply to all existing projects.

the Settings/Preferences dialog

If you want to share project settings between already existing projects, you can use the Settings Repository or the Settings Sync plugin. You can also export the settings to a ZIP archive and import it later to other IDE instances.

Default settings for new projects

You can configure project settings not only for the current project, but for all projects that you will create later. This means that you can set the new default settings for your projects.

  • From the main menu, select File | New Projects Settings | Settings/Preferences for New Projects.

Last modified: 19 August 2020