PyCharm 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.

PyCharm recognizes inline documentation created in accordance with PEP-257.

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.

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.

The pop-up window appears.

Quick Documentation Window

Click links in the documentation topic to preview documentation for a top-level elements (in this example: math) or to the related types (in this example: float).

To switch between the Documentation pop-up window and the Documentation tool window, use Ctrl+Q. For the most common operations, use the following toolbar icons:

Icon

Shortcut

Description

icons actions back svg icons actions forward svg

Left or Right

Switch to the previous or next documentation page (e.g. after using hyperlinks).

icons actions edit svg

F4

Switch to the item (e.g. source) that corresponds to the documentation page currently shown.

Settings

Click this icon to perform the following settings:
  • Show the font size slider. Move the slider to increase or decrease the font size in the quick documentation window as required.

  • Enable or disable auto-update of documentation from its source.

  • Control the window's position.

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.

    Enable Zomming in the Editor

    Refer to the section Zooming in the Editor for details.

Last modified: 21 November 2018

See Also