WebStorm 2019.1 Help

Opening, Reopening, and Closing Projects

Opening projects

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 window, or close the current project and reuse the existing window. See Opening multiple projects for details.

Open a project from the command line

Reopening recent projects

When WebStorm 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.

    Specify whether you want to open the project in a new window or reuse the current window.

  • 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. 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.

Opening multiple projects

In WebStorm, you can work with several projects simultaneously, each one in a separate window. These projects are independent, and cannot share information, except for the Clipboard operations. All the projects run in the same instance of WebStorm and use the same memory space.

  1. In the Settings/Preferences dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S), click System Settings under Appearance and Behavior. The System Settings page opens.

  2. In the Project opening area, select the preferable option:
    • Open project in new window
    • Open project in the same window
    • Confirm window to open project in

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 window.

To close a project

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

Last modified: 16 May 2019