PyCharm 2017.3 Help

Viewing Inline Documentation

Basics

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.

PyCharm recognizes inline documentation created in accordance with the docstring format.

Such documentation is rendered in the Documentation Tool Window according to the docstring format, selected in the Python Integrated Tools page.

For information on retrieving inline documentation in the JavaScript context, see JavaScript Documentation Look-Up.

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.

py quickDefinitionLookupURL

Viewing quick documentation

To view documentation for a symbol at caret, do one of the following

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 Code Completion page of the Settings/Preferences dialog.

  • 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.

To change the font size of quick documentation, do one of the following

  • Click show slider 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.

    ctrl mouse wheel

    Refer to the section Zooming in the Editor for details.

Documentation window

The Documentation pop-up window helps navigate to the related symbols via hyperlinks, and provides a toolbar for moving back and forth through the already navigated pages, changing font size, and viewing documentation in an external browser.

When pinned, the Documentation pop-up window turns into the Documentation tool window, with the corresponding sidebar icon, and more controls.

To switch between the Documentation pop-up window and the Documentation tool window, use Ctrl+Q.

IconShortcutDescription
arrowBack arrowForwardLeft or RightSwitch to the previous or next documentation page (e.g. after using hyperlinks).

On a macOS computer, you can also use the three-finger right-to-left and left-to-right swipe gestures.

arrowUp.png Shift+F1 View external documentation in the default browser.
edit F4 Switch to the item (e.g. source) that corresponds to the documentation page currently shown.
autoscrollFromSource Turn the Auto-update from source option on or off. When the option is on, the information in the tool window is synchronized with your navigation in the editor and other places in the UI.
show slider Click this icon to show the font size slider. Move the slider to increase or decrease the font size in the quick documentation window as required.
Last modified: 28 March 2018

See Also