Overview of the user interface
When you open a project in PyCharm, the default user interface looks as follows:

Depending on the set of plugins, PyCharm edition , and configuration settings, your IDE may look and behave differently.
Editor
Focus: Escape
Use the editor to read, write, and explore your source code .
Action indicators and action list
Open action list: Alt+Enter
Different icons that appear in the left editor gutter are action indicators that help you notice available quick fixes and other actions.
Quick fixes and other commands relevant for the current caret position are available in the action list that you can open with Alt+Enter or by cliking an action indicator.
Navigation bar
Status bar
Show/hide:
The left part of the status bar at the bottom of the main window shows the most recent event messages and descriptions of actions when you hover over them with the mouse pointer. Click a message in the status bar to open it in the Event Log. Right-click the message in the status bar and select Copy to paste the message text when you are searching for a solution to a problem or need to add it to a support ticket or to the PyCharm issue tracker.
Use the quick access button or
to switch between tool windows and hide the tool window bars.
The status bar also shows the progress of background tasks. You can click to show the Background Tasks manager.
The right part of the status bar contains widgets that indicate the overall project and IDE status and provide access to various settings. Depending on the set of plugins and configuration settings, the set of widgets can change. Right-click the status bar to select the widgets that you want to show or hide.
Widget | Description |
---|---|
52:11 | Shows the line and column number of the current caret position in the editor. Click the numbers to move the caret to a specific line and column. If you select a code fragment in the editor, PyCharm also shows the number of characters and line breaks in the selected fragment. |
![]() | Shows the line endings used to break lines in the current file. Click this widget to change the line separators. |
![]() | Shows the encoding used to view the current file. Click the widget to use another encoding. |
Click to lock the file from editing (set it to read-only) or unlock it if you want to edit the file. | |
The Python Interpreter selector. It shows the Python interpreter that currently is in use. Click it to add a new Python interpreter, select an existing interpreter, or open the list of the interpreter settings. | |
![]() | If version control integration is enabled, this widget shows the current VCS branch. Click it to manage VCS branches. |
![]() | Shows the indent style used in the current file. Click to configure the tab and indent settings for the current file type or disable indent detection in the current project. |
![]() | Shows the amount of memory that PyCharm consumes out of the total amount of heap memory. For more information, see Increase the memory heap of the IDE. |
Tool windows
Show/hide:
Tool windows provide functionality that supplements editing code. For example, the Project tool window shows you the structure of your project, and the Run tool window displays the output of your application when you run it.
By default, tool windows are docked to the sides and bottom of the main window. You can arrange them as necessary, undock, resize, hide, and so on. Right-click the title of the tool window or click in the title for its arrangement options.
You can assign shortcuts to quickly access the tool windows that you frequently use. Some of them have shortcuts by default. For example, to open the Project tool window, press Alt+1, and to open the Terminal tool window, press Alt+F12. To jump from the editor to the last active tool window, press F12.
Context menus
Popup menus
Main window
The main window contains all the information for a single PyCharm project. You can open multiple projects in multiple windows . By default, the window header contains the name of the project andthe name of the currently open file. If there are multiple modules, it will also show the name of the relevant module.
Show full paths in the header
In the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S, open Appearance & Behavior | Appearance and select the Always show full paths in window header checkbox.
This will show the path to the project and to the current file.