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Comment by asdojasdosadsa | Hacker News Reader

A year using IntelliJ for React/Node and still trying to find my way around the IDE (IntelliJ). It seems powerful as is, but I feel like I'm not using it to the full extent

Any tips?

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I can't find it right now, but there's a video from a conference where one of the IntelliJ developers show how to work with it productively... it really changed how I use it and made me much better at it.

One of the things that struck me the most was that you shouldn't use tabs... They are very inefficient at navigating between files... Use the file switcher (Cmd+E on Mac) to switch between recent files, or type search (Cmd+O on Mac, followed by initial letters of the words, e.g. to find FooBarClass type 'fbc') for anything else... and disable tabs in preferences.

Another good one is to use `Cmd+Shift+A` to search by action (e.g. Cmd+shift+A > "show bytecode")... with time you either start remembering the shortcut which is shown when you select the action, or you just get used to searching it this way which takes just a second anyway. One more hint: navigate between implementation/definition using Cmd+B on Mac (don't remember the Windows/Linux shortcut) which alternates between the two things, so you can go back and forward using just that! Talking about moving back/forwards, on Mac, use Cmd+[ to go back to previous lines you were editing, and Cmd+] to go forwards again (very handy to look back at what you had been doing before then moving back where you stopped).... oh, there's so much more... just watch some videos on YouTube and practice the hints you like the most.

That sounds really interesting. If anybody finds it, i would happy to learn better how to use their products.

oh, found it! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8wRC7Qkcb8

It's old , but it should still help a lot.

Try some of the refactoring options. It’s the only IDE I know that automatically takes care of all the references if I move files, but especially functions and classes around.

We had a huge file with tons of functions inside, and using Intellij it was a simple matter to move them all to their own files (and not have to update any imports anywhere).

One thing that helped me in the beginning was the plugin "Key Promoter X" which suggests keyboard shortcuts on every action.

My personal way of learning about any IDE/etc is when i see something interesting in the options/settings/shortcuts or if i accidentally do something odd i think "huh, what is that?" - i try it, and if i like what it does, i try to remember it for next time.

one at a time you build up an insane amount of muscle memory. you can't memorize all the things. it's also one of the reasons i use eclipse shortcuts in pycharms (don't want to rewire muscle memory)

edit: this is ~5 years in to pycharms and i still occasionally learn new things.

I'd say, don't disable the tips that show at startup and try to incorporate them into your workflow. Maybe make some notes of the ones that seem most useful and try to refer back to them, before long you'll find your fingers remember the shortcuts.

I feel this way about just about every IDE and editor I've ever used.

Try opening the included "learn webstorm" interactive project.

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