JetBrains Rider 2019.3 Help

Look and Feel

When you first run JetBrains Rider or have no project open, JetBrains Rider displays the Welcome screen. When you open a project, JetBrains Rider displays the main window.

JetBrains Rider main window

This is the default (out-of-the-box) IDE interface layout. Depending on the set of plugins that you install and enable, the way your IDE looks and behaves may be different.

  1. Main menu and toolbar : contain commands that affect the entire project or parts of the project, such as opening, creating a project, refactoring the code, running and debugging applications, managing files under version control and so on.

    The main toolbar duplicates the main menu's essential commands for quicker access. By default, the main toolbar is hidden. To show it, select View | Appearance | Toolbar from the main menu.

  2. Navigation bar : a quick alternative to the Project Tool Window. Use it to navigate your project and open files for editing.

    Use View | Appearance | Navigation Bar to hide or show the navigation bar. Press Ctrl+F2 to change the focus to the navigation bar.

  3. Status bar : indicates the status of your project, the entire IDE, and shows various warning and information messages.

  4. Editor : read, create, and modify your code.

  5. Tool windows : secondary windows that provide access to project management, search, running and debugging, integration with version control systems, and other tasks.

User interface themes

The interface theme defines the appearance of windows, dialogs, and controls.

Change the UI theme

  1. In the Settings/Preferences dialog Ctrl+Alt+S, select Appearance & Behavior | Appearance.

  2. Select the UI theme from the Theme list:

    • Darcula: Default dark theme

    • Light: More traditional light theme

    • High contrast: Theme designed for users with color vision deficiency

It is also possible to create your own UI themes for JetBrains Rider and customize the built-in themes. For more information, see IntelliJ Platform SDK Documentation.

Last modified: 16 April 2020