Opening and Creating Tasks

In this section:

Basics

IntelliJ IDEA distinguishes among tracker tasks and local tasks.

A tracker task is an issue in your tracker system until it is opened in IntelliJ IDEA whereupon it becomes a local task.

In addition to this, any activity in IntelliJ IDEA can be configured as a local task. This action is referred to as task creation.

When you open a tracker task (an issue in your tracking system) for the first time, a corresponding local task is created.

To open tracker tasks and create local tasks, follow these steps

Do one of the following:
- On the main menu, choose Tools | Tasks&Contexts | Open Task.
- Press ⌥⇧N or ⌥⇧N⌥⇧N or ⌥⇧N⌥⌘F12 or ⌥⌘F12⇧ ⌥ N, ⌥⇧N or ⌥⇧N⇧ ⌥ N, ⌥⇧N or ⌥⇧N
- Click the tasks combo on the main toolbar.
- In the Time Tracking Tool Window, click .
To have the possibility to open already closed tasks, select the Include closed tasks check box. A closed task is one of the following:
- A tracker task with the status closed in the issue tracker.
- A local task that is not associated with a changelist provided that the entire project or the affected directory is under version control (see Associating a Project Root with a Version Control System and Associating a Directory with a Specific Version Control System).
In the Enter task name pop-up window, choose Create New Task, or just type the task name.
- If you choose Create new task <description>, a new local task with the specified description will be created. In this case, the IDE will switch to this new task.
- If you select a task from an issue tracker, then the Open Task dialog box opens.
  
  In this dialog, you can specify whether you want IntelliJ IDEA to clear the current context, create a changelist for the new task, change the issue status in the tracking system. Refer to the dialog description for details.

To show task description right in the suggestion list, press F1, ⌃J, ⌃Button2 Click, F1, ⌃J or ⌃Button2 Click⌃J, ⌃Button2 Click, ⌃J or ⌃Button2 Click⌥Button2 Click, F2, ⌥Button2 Click or F2^ Q, ⌃Q or ⌃Q^ Q, ⌥ Button2 Click, ⌃Q, ⌥Button2 Click, ⌃Q or ⌥Button2 Click.
To configure access to your issue tracking system, click , and specify your account settings in the Servers dialog box that opens.
To include closed tasks in the suggestion list, press ⌥⇧N or ⌥⇧N⌥⇧N or ⌥⇧N⌥⌘F12 or ⌥⌘F12⇧ ⌥ N, ⌥⇧N or ⌥⇧N⇧ ⌥ N, ⌥⇧N or ⌥⇧N once more, or select the corresponding check box.