IntelliJ IDEA 2023.3 Help

Advanced Settings

Besides standard settings that you frequently use, IntelliJ IDEA offers various advanced options that you can use to fine-tune the behavior of the specific product functionality.

Since the advanced settings consist of different sections, you can use the search field to quickly navigate to the section of interest or the needed option. You can also search for registry keys since some of the advanced options have associated registry keys.

Bookmarks

Item

Description

Show only line bookmarks in popup

By default, IntelliJ IDEA shows only line bookmarks in the bookmarks popup (Shift+F11 or Edit | Bookmarks | Show Line Bookmarks). Disable this option if you want to see other bookmarked items in the popup, for example, files or folders. For more information, refer to Bookmarks.

Build Tools. Gradle

Item

Description

Download sources

By default, IntelliJ IDEA doesn't download sources for the project dependencies on the intial project sync.

Select this option to change the project's behaviour and always download sources for dependencies during the importing process.

Compiler

Use this section to configure additional options when compiling a project.

Item

Description

Allow auto-make to start even if developed application is currently running

Select this option to automatically build your project even if the application you are working on is currently running. Note that some application classes might be deleted during the build.

Debugger

Item

Description

Maximum number of recent expressions

The number of expressions to be saved in the Evaluate expression history.

Dev Containers

Item

Description

Enable Creating Dev Containers from the Gateway (Remote Development) Welcome screen

Use this option to create dev containers from the JetBrains Gateway or from IntelliJ IDEA welcome screen.

For more information, refer to Dev Containers.

Docker

Item

Description

Connect to Docker automatically at restart

Select to connect to the configured Docker daemon after IntelliJ IDEA starts.

Image registry entities loading limit

For performance reasons, by default, IntelliJ IDEA shows only the first 100 images in a Docker registry. Increase this number if you need to list more. This will also increase the memory usage.

The log tab should be the first tab for the docker container

Show the Log tab as the first tab in the container overview pane.

Apply :z mount option to almost any bind volume for SELinux systems

Add :z configuration flags to Docker bind mounts in order to connect volumes to Docker containers on SELinux workstations.

Documentation Components

Enable highlighting for code elements in documentation components (Quick Documentation popup and tool window and rendered Javadocs).

Highlighting in documentation components enabled
Highlighting in documentation components disabled

Item

Description

Basic syntax highlighting of inline code

Highlight keywords, numbers, and strings in all inline code elements in documentation components.

Basic syntax highlighting of multiline code blocks

Highlight keywords, numbers, and strings in all multiline code blocks in documentation components.

Syntax highlighting of links on code elements

All links in code elements will be fully highlighted with the color corresponding to the color that is selected in the editor color scheme of this element (class, method, field, and so on).

Editor

Use this section to configure additional options for working in the editor.

Item

Description

Don't copy/cut the current line when invoking the Copy or Cut action with no selection

This option lets you override the default behavior of copying Ctrl+C or cutting Ctrl+X the whole current line when nothing is selected in the editor.

Don't select the copied line after invoking the Copy action with no selection

By default, when you use Ctrl+C without selecting anything, the whole line gets copied. With this action, you can avoid that selection.

When pasting a line copied with no selection

You can change the default Paste above the caret line behavior, and select either Paste at the caret line that restores the old Copy / Paste behavior or Trim if pasted middle line that will remove the unnecessary spaces before and after the copied line if it is pasted in the middle of the line.

Render special characters, such as control codes, using their Unicode name abbreviations

When this option is selected, you can use the Unicode name abbreviations for special characters, such as control codes.

Show zoom indicator

Use this option to see an indicator that shows the current font size and the option to revert it back to default while zooming your code in or out in the editor.

Tab character rendering

You can select one of the following options:

  • Horizontal line

  • > symbol

  • Long arrow

Left margin in distraction free mode

This option lets you adjust the left editor margin in the distraction-free and zen viewing modes.

By default, the editor text in these viewing modes is centered vertically and the text column width corresponds to the Hard wrap at option on the Editor | Code Style page of the IDE settings  Ctrl+Alt+S. This means that if your code will be centered when formatted properly, but if there are long unwrapped lines, the text might go beyond the viewport while there is a large margin on the left. In such cases, you may want to decrease the left margin using this option.

Force soft wrap in documents with lines longer than n characters

The default number is 100000. Increasing this number might negatively affect the editor performance.

Move caret down after Comment with Line Comment action

This option lets you configure whether to move the caret to the next line if you comment a line with a line comment Ctrl+/. Note that if there is a selection in the editor, the caret will not move regardless of this option.

Editor Tabs

Besides the standard editor tabs options that IntelliJ IDEA offers when you work with tabs in the editor, this section contains extra options that are also available as internal registry actions.

Item

Description

When navigating to a file, prefer selecting existing tab in inactive split pane

When you navigate to a file that is already opened in the inactive split, use this option to activate the existing file in that split pane instead of opening a new copy of the file in the active split.

Open declaration source in the same tab

When you navigate to a method, class or variable, the source file that contains their declaration will replace the current tab if there are no changes.

Open declaration source called from a detached window in the main IDE window

When you navigate to a method, class, or variable from a detached window, IntelliJ IDEA will open the source file containing the declaration in the main editor.

Perform 'Hide All Tool Windows' / 'Restore Windows' with double-click on editor tab

When this option is enabled, you can double-click editor tabs to hide and restore all tool windows. Alternatively, you can do that by pressing Ctrl+Shift+F12 or by choosing Window | Active Tool Window | Hide All Windows/Restore Windows from the main menu.

Perform 'Maximize Editor' / 'Normalize Splits' with double-click on editor tab

When this option is enabled, you can double-click tabs in split editor tab groups to change relative size of the tab group: the first double click will extend the tab and its group to the maximum and shrink all other groups to the minimum width/height; the second double click will allocate the same width and height for each tab group.

Alternatively, you can choose Window | Editor Tabs | Maximize Editor/Normalize Splits from the main menu or pick these actions from the Find Action popup Ctrl+Shift+A.

This option can work together with Perform 'Hide All Tool Windows' / 'Restore Windows' with double-click on editor tab, but be prepared to have multiple changes in the IDE layout every time you double-click a fie tab.

Equalize proportions in nested splits

Use this option to even the size of multiple horizontal or vertical splits in the editor.

Keep pinned tabs on the left

Always move pinned tabs to the left side of the editor tabs bar. Otherwise, the location of pinned tabs is not defined, and you can move them on the tab bar as necessary.

Find / Replace

Use this section to configure extra options when working with Search and replace a target within a project.

Item

Description

Enable similar usages clustering in Find Usages view

IntelliJ IDEA analyzes search results, detects the most common usage patterns, and categorizes all found usages into groups based on their structural similarity. These usage clusters appear in the Preview tab.

For more information, refer to Search for usages in a project.

Maximum number of results to show in Find in Files/Show Usages preview

The default maximum number of results is 100. Increasing this limit might significantly increase memory usage.

IDE

Use this section to configure extra options on storing different entities of your project.

Item

Description

Maximum number of recent projects

Use this option to change the default number of stored recent projects, which is 50.

Maximum number of recent files

Use this option to change the default number of stored recent files, which is 50.

Maximum number of recent locations

Use this option to change the default number of stored recent locations, which is 25.

Duration of storing changes in Local History

Use this option to specify the number of days for which you want to keep changes in the local history.

Kotlin

Item

Description

Compiler reference index

Enable this option to search for usages with the help of references from compiler indexes.

Markdown

Item

Description

Hide floating toolbar

When you select some text in a Markdown file, IntelliJ IDEA shows a floating toolbar with various formatting options. Select this checkbox if you don't want to see the floating toolbar, then reopen the tab to apply the changes.

Project View

Use this section to configure additional options for working in Project tool window.

Item

Description

Move focus to editor when Enter is pressed

When this option is selected, you can press Enter while in the Project view to switch focus to the editor.

When collapsing a node, also collapse all expanded nodes under it

When this option is selected, IntelliJ IDEA collapses subnodes as well as the parent node.

When navigating to a library class, do not select it in the project tree

Do not automatically navigate to library files in the Project tool window even if the Always Select Opened File option is enabled.

You can navigate to library files in the tool window manually: use the Select Opened File button on the Project tool window toolbar or press Alt+F1 to open the Select In popup.

Increase font size in Project view

Select this option if you want to change the size of font in the Project view. You need to restart IntelliJ IDEA.

Project-Wide analysis

Item

Description

Thread count used by Project-Wide analysis

If you specify -1, IntelliJ IDEA automatically sets the thread count. Restart IntelliJ IDEA to apply this setting.

Analysis delay after change

Use this option to set a delay before the code analysis. The default delay is 1000 milliseconds.

Run/debug

Item

Description

Temporary configurations limit

Use this option to change the default number of stored temporary run/debug configurations, which is 5.

Confirm rerun with process termination

When you call rerun for a running process, IntelliJ IDEA prompts you to confirm the action of terminating the existing process and launching a new one. You can change the default behavior by clearing this checkbox.

Make configurations pinned by default

Select this option to automatically pin tabs that open in the Run tool window after you run configurations.

Maximum number of recent run configurations in the new UI

Specify the number of recent run/debug configurations that will be displayed in the Run widget.

SSH

Item

Description

Configuration files parser

Select a parser:

  • Legacy: use the legacy parser for ~/.ssh/config.

  • OpenSSH: use the parser based on ssh -G. OpenSSH must be installed on your computer.

Custom path to an OpenSSH tool

Specify the path to OpenSSH if you have selected the OpenSSH parser.

Search Everywhere

Item

Description

Show text search results in Search Everywhere

Enable text search in Search Everywhere. Results will be displayed on the new Text tab and on the All tab at the bottom of the list.

Wait for all contributors to finish before showing results

Wait for all search contributors to finish their jobs before showing the final search results. This option fixes the position of an item in search results, preventing it from jumping in the list. In case there are slow search contributors, this option might slow down the operation of Search Everywhere.

In the Contributors waiting timeout (ms) field, specify how much time to wait for search contributors to finish their jobs.

Sort results in the Actions tab based on machine learning

By default, the search results on the Actions tab are sorted using machine learning instead of the standard ranking mechanism.

Sort results in the Files tab based on machine learning

By default, the search results on the Files tab are sorted using machine learning instead of the standard ranking mechanism.

Sort results in the Classes tab based on machine learning

By default, the search results on the Classes tab are sorted using machine learning instead of the standard ranking mechanism.

Sort results in the All tab based on machine learning

Sort search results on the All tab using machine learning instead of standard ranking mechanism.

Startup

Item

Description

Open README.md file if there are no open files on project startup

If you select this option, IntelliJ IDEA will open a README.md file if there aren't any opened files when you start your project.

Terminal

Configure advanced settings related to working with the embedded terminal emulator.

Item

Description

Terminal scrollback buffer size

Use this option to increase the buffer size in the terminal.

Move focus to the editor with Escape

When this option is selected, you can use Escape to switch focus from the terminal to the editor.

Typeahead

Enable typeahead in the terminal, which can be useful for remote connections when you expect the typing latency.

Typeahead latency threshold

Turn typeahead on when the terminal latency exceeds the specified value (in milliseconds).

Show application title

Name terminal tabs automatically based on the commands that you run.

Tool Windows

Item

Description

Always show tool window header icons in the new UI

By default, the icons in tool window headers (for example, Hide and Options) are displayed only when you hover over a tool window or when a tool window is in focus.

Disable the option to display tool window header icons all the time.

Allow dragging tool windows by header to move to another location

Move tool windows by dragging the title bar.

When the option is disabled, you can move tool windows by dragging tool window bars, using the Move to context menu option or the tool window settings located under the The tool window options menu/Options icon.

User Interface

Item

Description

Show file type icon in IDE frame header

On macOS, the icon can be used to drag a file to a different application.

Use words instead of symbols for macOS keyboard shortcuts

Select this option if you want to see shortcuts with words instead of symbols.

Cyclic scrolling in lists and trees

Select the last element when pressing Up on the first element, and vice versa.

Position mouse cursor on default button in dialogs

When this option is selected, the mouse pointer is placed on the default button (usually it is OK) in a dialog.

Disable double modifier key shortcuts

You can disable shortcuts where a double key is used. For example, Shift or Ctrl.

Version Control

Item

Description

Open Diff as Editor Tab

When this option is selected, the Diff Viewer is displayed as the editor tab.

Load file annotations from VCS when file is opened in editor

When this option is selected, IntelliJ IDEA loads annotations when you open a file in the editor.

Highlight ignored files

When this option is selected, IntelliJ IDEA shows the list of ignored files from VCS and displays their status in the editor.

Enable Commit tool window

When you select this option, IntelliJ IDEA displays the Local Changes and Shelf tabs in a separate tool window.

Toggle commit controls

When this option is selected, IntelliJ IDEA hides the commit panel and checkboxes after the commit is performed and lets you toggle them in the Commit Changes dialog.

Select all repositories with new commits for push

When this option is selected, IntelliJ IDEA selects all commits that will be pushed by default.

Version Control. Git

Item

Description

Recursively clone submodules in the project

When this option is selected, during the checkout from Git, git clone --recurse-submodules is used that clones the main repository with all available submodules.

Apply content transformation when reading from Git

When this option is selected, IntelliJ IDEA will use the --filters or --textconv flags for the git cat-file command when reading the file content from Git.

Use Safe Force Push

When this option is selected, IntelliJ IDEA uses --force-with-lease when force push is called from the IDE instead of just --force.

Check for incoming and outgoing commits

When this option is selected, IntelliJ IDEA updates the information on the branches that have incoming or outgoing commits in the Branches popup.

Use Windows certificate store

When this option is selected, it forces Git to use Windows certificate store to verify SSL connections. This works for Git 2.14 and later versions.

Last modified: 19 March 2024