JetBrains Rider 2018.2 Help

Accessibility features

JetBrains Rider lets you enable various accessibility features to accommodate your needs. You can use a screen reader or adjust font size, colors, and the behavior of certain UI elements to make the process of working with JetBrains Rider easier.

Set up a screen reader

Currently, we fully support screen readers for JetBrains Rider on Windows. You can use screen readers for JetBrains Rider on macOS to some extent. Yet, to get a full advantage of the screen readers' support, we recommend Windows.

  1. Download and enable your preferred screen reader.

    Check the following recommended screen readers:

    • NVDA - use the NVDA 2015 or later. If you use the 32-bit version of NVDA, you must install the 32-bit JRE on your machine, as this version of NVDA requires C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsAccessBridge-32.DLL to work with JetBrains Rider. If NVDA cannot locate this file, the NVDA Event Log window displays the appropriate message.

    • JAWS - download the version you need and restart your computer to enable the JAWS screen reader.

  2. Ensure you have installed the proper Java version for your screen reader, as follows:
    • If your screen reader is 32-bit, install the 32-bit JRE version 1.7 or later. If your screen reader is 64-bit, install the 64-bit JRE version 1.7 or later.

    • To enable the Java Access Bridge, open the command prompt and type [JRE_HOME]\bin\jabswitch -enable, where [JRE_HOME] is the directory of the JRE on your machine. For Java version 1.8, the Java Access Bridge is part of JDK and you don't need to download or enable it separately.

    Your computer may have multiple versions of some important components of the Java Access Bridge and they may not be compatible across versions. You need to verify that your Java Access Bridge configuration is correct.

    If your screen reader is 32-bit, ensure that C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsAccessBridge-32.DLL is present and has a version number of 7.x.x.x or higher. The file's description should read "Java(TM) Platform SE 7".

  3. To enable the support of the screen reader before the initial launch of JetBrains Rider, do the following:
    • Open the configuration directory that contains files with personal settings, such as, keymaps, color schemes, and so on.

      Syntax
      %HOMEPATH%\.<product><version>\config
      Example
      C:\Users\JohnS\.Rider2018.2\config
      Syntax
      ~/Library/Preferences/<product><version>
      Example
      ~/Library/Preferences/Rider2018.2
      Syntax
      ~/.<product><version>/config
      Example
      ~/.Rider2018.2/config

    • Create a file called idea.properties.

    • Add the ide.support.screenreaders.enabled=true property to the file you have created.

  4. Launch JetBrains Rider. The Support screen readers option that is located in Settings / Preferences | Appearance & Behavior | System settings will be enabled.

Customize the IDE

You can customize IDE depending on your accessibility needs.

Configure colors for code elements, editor, hyperlinks, etc.

You can adjust colors for code elements, errors, elements of the editor, and tool windows.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the Settings/Preferences dialog and then go to Editor | Color Scheme | General.

  2. From the options list on the right, select what you want to adjust the color for. For example, you can select Code and adjust colors for injected language fragments or matched braces, etc. Click OK to save changes.

You can also adjust colors for debugger, consoles and other parts of IDE: simply select the appropriate node in the list of options located in Settings / Preferences | Editor | Color Scheme.

Override the default UI fonts

You can override the default fonts of the UI elements.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the Settings/Preferences dialog and then go to Appearance & Behavior | Appearance.

  2. From the options on the right, in the UI options section, select Override default fonts by (not recommended) and specify the font name and its size. Click OK to save changes.

Resize tool windows

You can resize the actual tool windows vertically or horizontally using shortcuts.

  1. To resize vertically up or down, press Ctrl+Shift+Up or Ctrl+Shift+Down.

  2. To resize horizontally left or right, press Ctrl+Shift+Left or Ctrl+Shift+Right.

Adjust text size in the editor

You can change font and a size of the text in the editor.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the Settings/Preferences dialog and then go to Editor | General.

  2. From the options on the right, select the Change font size (Zoom) with Ctrl+Mouse Wheel option to quickly change the text size (turning the mouse wheel) while you are working in the editor.

  3. If you need to specify the exact font size, select Editor | Font.

  4. From the options on the right, specify the font, its size, line spacing, and other available options. Click OK to save changes.

Customize shortcuts

You can configure custom shortcuts to actions that you frequently use.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the Settings/Preferences dialog and then go to Keymap.

  2. From the list of options on the right such as menus, actions, and tools, select the action you need.

  3. Right-click the selected item and from the context menu, select an action you want to perform such as Add keyboard shortcut, Add mouse shortcut, or Add abbreviation.

  4. In the dialog that opens, specify a shortcut. If you need, select the Second stroke option and specify an additional key for the shortcut. Click OK to save changes.

Please note that you can ignore a conflict and assign a shortcut to several actions. However, it is strongly recommended that you avoid binding two actions with the same shortcut, because the priority of these actions is not defined.

Manage mouse pointer focus mode

You can configure how the mouse pointer behaves when opening dialogs.

  1. Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open the Settings/Preferences dialog and then go to Appearance & Behavior | Appearance.

  2. From the options on the right, select the Automatically position mouse cursor on default button checkbox. Select this checkbox to have the mouse pointer placed at the default button when a dialog opens. If the checkbox is not selected, the pointer location does not change.

  3. Click OK to save changes.

Last modified: 21 December 2018