IntelliJ IDEA Tips and Tricks for Efficient Development

Recently invited by the department to train new hires on IntelliJ IDEA, the author discovered many useful features are underutilized and shares a collection of tips to help developers make the most of this powerful IDE.

High‑Efficiency Configuration

Enable case‑insensitive code completion via Settings → Editor → General → Code Completion .

Activate auto‑import and related optimizations via Settings → Editor → General → Auto Import .

Adjust editor font size quickly with Ctrl + Mouse Wheel (Settings → Editor → General → Change font size (Zoom) with Ctrl+Mouse wheel).

Show tabs on multiple lines by disabling Show Tabs In Single Row (Window → Editor Tabs → Tabs Placement).

Display line numbers (Settings → Editor → General → Appearance → Show Line Numbers).

Essential Daily Shortcuts (★★)

Search and navigation shortcuts include:

Shortcut

Description

Ctrl + F

Find text in the current file

Ctrl + R

Replace text in the current file

Shift + Ctrl + F

Find text across the project

Shift + Ctrl + R

Replace text across the project

Shift + Shift

Search everywhere

Ctrl + N

Find a class

Ctrl + Shift + N

Find a file

Ctrl + Shift + Alt + N

Find a symbol (method, field, etc.)

Navigation shortcuts include recent files (Ctrl + E), file switching (Ctrl + Tab), history navigation (Ctrl + Alt + ←/→), and go‑to line (Ctrl + G).

Editing shortcuts cover quick selection (Ctrl + W), multi‑line selection (Tab / Shift + Tab), line deletion (Ctrl + Y), surrounding code (Ctrl + Alt + T), and code generation (Alt + Insert).

Coding Efficiency (★★)

File and code templates can be managed via Settings → Editor → File and Code Template , allowing custom file headers and built‑in templates for new files.

Live templates provide instant snippets such as System.out.println(); (triggered by sout) and public static void main(String[] args) {} (triggered by psvm). These are configured under Settings → Editor → Live Templates .

Custom live templates can be created in a personal group (e.g., MyGroup ) to suit individual coding habits.

Debugging and Source Reading (★★★)

Conditional breakpoints to stop execution only when a condition is met.

Force return to specify a return value at a breakpoint.

Throw exception at a breakpoint to test error handling.

Evaluate Expression to modify variable values on the fly.

IDEA also offers two special view modes: Presentation Mode for code reviews and Distraction‑Free Mode for focused coding.

Plugin Recommendations

Useful plugins include:

Alibaba Java Coding Guidelines – enforces Alibaba’s Java standards.

FindBugs, PMD – static code analysis for defect detection.

InnerBuilder – quick generation of builder pattern code.

Lombok – reduces boilerplate with annotations.

Maven Helper – visualizes Maven dependencies and conflicts.

Rainbow Brackets – color‑codes matching brackets.

String Manipulation – assists with string operations.

Translation – in‑IDE translation for reading source code.

GenerateAllSetter, Key Promoter X, GenerateSerialVersionUID – shortcut utilities for common tasks.

GsonFormat – converts JSON to Java POJOs.

RestfulToolkit – quick navigation to REST APIs and simple HTTP requests.

Material Theme UI – a popular UI theme.

MyBatis Log Plugin – restores full SQL from MyBatis logs.

Plugins can be installed via File → Settings → Plugins or by downloading the zip and using install from disk for offline environments.

For more details, refer to the original GitHub repository: https://github.com/judasn/IntelliJ-IDEA-Tutorial .