JetBrains Rider 2019.3 Help

Navigate Current Context

JetBrains Rider provides a number of features that help you navigate your code based on the current context, that is according to the opened document and your caret position inside it.

With JetBrains Rider, you can navigate the structure of the current document using the Structure window, which greatly simplifies navigation in large files. The window is synchronized with the editor: as you switch to another editor tab, the window displays the structure of the corresponding file.

  1. Press N/A or choose View | Tools Windows | Structure.

  2. Contents of the current document appear in a tree structure, that you can explore and navigate through the document. You can double-click any symbol to make the caret in the editor switch to the corresponding position.

  3. If some parts of the code are surrounded by #region blocks, the regions appear in the file structure too.

  4. To synchronize the way you change caret position in the editor with the symbol highlighted in the File Structure window, click Always Select Opened Element Always Select Opened Element on the toolbar.

  5. To synchronize symbols that you select in the File Structure window with the caret position in the editor, click Navigate with Single Click Navigate with Single Click on the toolbar.

Right from the Structure window, you can access even more actions. To check the available commands, you can right-click any symbol.

JetBrains Rider: File Structure view

Use editor breadcrumbs

Editor breadcrumbs help you quickly understand where your caret is with regard to the structure of the current document as well as navigate that structure. With editor breadcrumbs enabled, you will always see the path from the root code element to the current caret position right in the editor.

JetBrains Rider: Editor breadcrumbs

To jump to a parent element in the source code, click the breadcrumb with its name. If you click the namespace element in a C#/VB.NET file, you will be able to navigate to all the files where this namespace is used.

By default breadcrumbs are shown at the bottom of the editor. To display them at the top or hide them altogether, right-click the breadcrumb bar and choose Breadcrumbs | Top or Breadcrumbs | Don't show.

You can also do that as well as configure in which languages and with which colors editor breadcrumbs should be displayed on the Editor | General | Breadcrumbs page of JetBrains Rider settings Ctrl+Alt+S.

View code outside of the editor frame

You can hover the mouse over the scrollbar to view source code above or below the currently visible area:

JetBrains Rider: Viewing code outside of the editor frame

You can disable this behavior by clearing the Show code lens on scrollbar hover checkbox on the Editor | General | Appearance page of JetBrains Rider settings Ctrl+Alt+S.

With a single shortcut, you can jump in the editor to the declaration of a type or a function from any position within its body.

  1. Set the caret into any position within the body of a type or a function.

  2. Press Ctrl+[.

  3. JetBrains Rider will set the caret to the declaration of the type or function.

  4. If the type or function is declared within another type, you can repeat step two to navigate to the declaration of the containing type.

With the Next/Previous Member commands, you can quickly navigate between members and nested types in code files or between tags in markup files.

  1. When your focus is in the editor, press Alt+Down/Alt+Up or choose Navigate | Next/Previous Member in the main menu.

  2. The caret will move to the declaration of the next/previous member/tag. If there are inner types, the caret will also stop at each inner type's member.

You can switch between files opened in the editor, split editor tabs, and tool windows (docked or floating) similarly to your OS application switcher. The switcher brings up a popup consisting of two columns: the left one displays tool windows, the right one editor tabs. If no files are currently opened, or there is just one tab, the switcher shows recently opened files:

JetBrains Rider: Switcher popup
  1. Press Ctrl+Tab and then keeping the first key pressed (Ctrl on Windows/Linux or on macOS), use the following keys:

    • Left and Right to switch between the lists of tool windows and files.

    • Up and Down arrow keys, Tab or Shift+Tab to go up and down the list in both panes.

    • Delete or Backspace to close the editor tab where the selected file is opened and remove the selected file from the list.

  2. Release the Ctrl/ key. The corresponding file or tool window gets the focus, and the switcher popup disappears.

Locate current item in other views

When you select a file, type, member, or other code item in the editor or one of the tool windows, you can quickly locate it in another IDE component.

  1. Press Alt+F1 or select Navigate | Select In from the main menu. The Select Target popup shows up.

  2. Use the arrow keys or the mouse pointer to select the desired component. If your target is the Solution window, you can select the desired view:

    JetBrains Rider: Select Target popup

Locate current document in Solution/Assembly Explorer

This handy navigation feature lets you expand the tree in the Solution Explorer, auto-scroll and highlight the item corresponding to the current document. It is especially useful when you have a massive solution, or a limited screen area that forces you to shrink the Solution Explorer window to the limit.

  1. Press Shift+Alt+L.

  2. JetBrains Rider will bring up the Solution Explorer window to focus and show you the item there.


The Go to Line command lets you quickly jump to any line of code in the current document.

To go to a specific line in any other file, use the Go To File command (Ctrl+Shift+T), type : (colon) after the target file name, and specify the line number after that.

  1. Press Ctrl+G or choose Navigate | Line/Column from the menu.

  2. Type the target line number and optionally, a column number after a colon :, and then click OK.

Last modified: 16 April 2020