= Hints and Tips

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== Keyboard Cheat Sheets

You can download 1-page PDFs cheat sheets for IntelliJ's keyboard shortcuts:

* for link:https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/docs/IntelliJIDEA_ReferenceCard.pdf[Windows]
* for link:https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/docs/IntelliJIDEA_ReferenceCard_Mac.pdf[MacOS]

Probably the most important shortcut on them is for `Find Action`:
- `ctrl-shift-A` on Windows
- `cmd-shift-A` on MacOS.

This will let you search for any action just by typing its name.

== Switch between Tools & Editors

The Tool Windows are the views around the editor (to left, bottom and right).
It's possible to move these around to your preferred locations.

* Use `alt-1` through `alt-9` (or `cmd-1` through `alt-9`) to select the tool windows
** Press it twice and the tool window will hide itself; so can use to toggle
* If in the _Project Window_ (say) and hit enter on a file, then it will be shown in the editor, but (conveniently) the focus remains in the tool window.
To switch to the editor, just press `Esc`.
** If in the _Terminal Window_, you'll need to press `Shift-Esc`.
* If on the editor and want to locate the file in (say) the _Project Window_, use `alt-F1`.
* To change the size of any tool window, use `ctrl-shift-arrow`

Using these shortcuts you can easily toggle between the tool windows and the editor, without using the mouse.
Peachy!

== Navigating Around

For all of the following, you don't need to type every letter, typing "ab" will actually search for ".*a.*b.*".

* to open classes or files or methods that you know the name of:
** `ctrl-N` to open class
** `ctrl-shift-N` to open a file
** (bit fiddly this) `ctrl-shift-alt-N` to search for any symbol.
* open up dialog of recent files: `ctrl-E`
* search for any file: `shift-shift`

Navigating around:

* find callers of a method (the call hierarchy): `ctrl-alt-H`
* find subclasses or overrides: `ctrl-alt-B`
* find superclasses/interface/declaration: `ctrl-B`

Viewing the structure (ie outline) of a class
* `ctrl-F12` will pop-up a dialog showing all members
** hit `ctrl-F12` again to also see inherited members

== Editing

* Extend selection using `ctrl-W`
** and contract it down again using `ctrl-shift-W`
* to duplicate a line, it's `ctrl-D`
** if you have some text selected (or even some lines), it'll actually duplicate the entire selection
* to delete a line, it's `ctrl-X`
* to move a line up or down: `shift-alt-up` and `shift-alt-down`
** if you have selected several lines, it'll move them all together
* `ctrl-shift-J` can be handy for joining lines together
** just hit enter to split them apart (even in string quotes; IntelliJ will "do the right thing")

== Intentions and Code Completion

Massively useful is the "Intentions" popup; IntelliJ tries to guess what you might want to do.
You can activate this using`alt-enter`, whenever you see a lightbulb/tooltip in the margin of the current line.

Code completion usually happens whenever you type '.'.
You can also use `ctrl-space` to bring these up.

In certain circumstances (eg in methods0) you can also type `ctrl-shift-space` to get a smart list of methods etc that you might want to call.
Can be useful.

Last, when invoking a method, use `ctrl-P` to see the parameter types.

== Refactoring

Loads of good stuff on the `Refactor` menu; most used are:

* Rename (`shift-F6`)
* Extract
** method: `ctrl-alt-M`
** variable: `ctrl-alt-V`
* Inline method/variable: `ctrl-alt-N`
* Change signature

If you can't remember all those shortcuts, just use `ctrl-shift-alt-T` (might want to rebind that to something else!) and get a context-sensitive list of refactorings available for the currently selected object

== Troubleshooting

When a Maven module is imported, IntelliJ generates its own project files, and the application is actually built from that.

Occasionally these don't keep in sync (even if auto-import of Maven modules has been enabled).

To fix the issue, try:

* go into PowerSafe mode, rebuild all from mvn command line, back into regular mode
* reimport all modules
* restart, invalidating caches

One thing worth knowing; IntelliJ actively scans the filesystem all the time.
It's therefore (almost always) fine to build the app from the Maven command line; IntelliJ will detect the changes and keep in sync.
If you want to force that, use `File > Synchronize`, `ctrl-alt-Y`.


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