PyCharm 2019.1 Help

Opening, Reopening, and Closing Projects

PyCharm lets you open several projects simultaneously in different windows. By default, each time you open a project while another one is opened, PyCharm prompts you to choose whether to open the project in the same window or in a new window.

If necessary, choose one of the options in the Project Opening section of the System Settings page to change this behavior:

  • Open project in new window to open a new PyCharm window each time a new project is opened.

  • Open project in the same window to stay in the same PyCharm window.

  • Confirm window to open project in to keep the default behavior and display a dialog to choose how to open each new project.

Opening projects

This operation refers both to the projects created in PyCharm, and the projects from existing sources.

Open a project

  1. Click Open on the Welcome screen or File | Open on the main menu.

  2. In the Select Path dialog, select the directory that contains the project to open.

  3. Specify whether you want to open the project in a new frame, close the current project and reuse the existing frame, or open the new project in the same frame with the current one. Refer to the Opening Multiple Projects section for details.

Open a project from the command line

Reopening recent projects

PyCharm keeps the history list of the recent projects, from which you can select the desired one.

When PyCharm starts, the most recent project reopens by default (unless this option is disabled on the System Settings page of the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S).

Reopen a recent project

  • Click Open Recent on the File menu and select the desired project from the list.

    Note that the list also contains the projects that share one window.

    Specify whether you want to open the project in a new frame, reuse the current frame, or attach it to the currently opened project.

    Open the project in the current window, new window, or attach it to the existing project

  • On the Welcome screen, click the project of interest in the left-hand pane where the list of your recent projects is shown. Start typing in the Welcome screen to filter the list of recent projects.

Remove a project from the list of recent projects

  • Click Open Recent on the File menu, then click Manage Projects at the very bottom of the recent project list.

  • Click the closing icon for the project to remove.

    Remove a recent project from the list of the recent projects
    The selected project will be removed from the list of the recent project in the Project window and on the Welcome screen.

To remove a project only from the list on the Welcome Screen, right-click the target project and select Remove Selected from Welcome Screen.

Remove a project from the list of the recent projects on the Welcome Screen

Closing projects

When the only open project is closed, the Welcome screen is displayed. In case of multiple projects, each one is closed with its frame.

To close a project

  • On the main menu, click Close Project on the File menu.

Last modified: 17 July 2019

See Also

Concepts: